ScreechingOwl

Well, the senshuraku smoke has cleared, and things look a little better for a number of the centipedes. Omedeto to Ama who overcame a final day loss to finish 12-3 and claim the Makushita yusho on tie-breakers. Congratulations also to Dustin, QB and Jejima for gaining kachi kochi. In Juryo, kudos go to Unkonoyama for finishing 10-5 and gaining a jun-yusho and promotion to Makuuchi. In the top division, Miyako (10-5!), Rupert, and yours truly got their kk. It was tougher sledding for everyone else: losing a tie on the final day makes Simon a soft kadoban. Sagi will likely drop to komusubi while Gary will join the rest of us in the rank-and-file. Another shout out goes to Alexander, who played better than any of us, gaining 104 points, but had the misfortune to have his aite play even stronger, with an unreal 110. For those of us in the states, enjoy Thanksgiving. And for everyone, best wishes for a relaxing end of the year and a healthy and joyful holiday season. I hope to see you all again at Aki. SG Shikona Real Name Rank Record Points Ties Ties Won Pandaazuma Simon Yokozuna E 7-8 97-97 10 5 Sagi Stefan Sekiwake E 7-8 103-103 4 2 Chocshoporyu Gary Sekiwake W 5-10 99-103 8 3 ScreechingOwl Douglas Maegashira 4E 9-6 94-93 4 3 Rupantengu Rupert Maegashira 8E 9-6 99-100 6 5 Chankoyama Miyako Maegashira W10 10-5 102-102 3 3 Chishafuwaka Sergio Maegashira E11 5-10 92-101 3 2 Gonzohnesushi Alexander Maegashira W11 7-8 104-110 9 3 Fujiyama Mark Maegashira W16 4-11 91-98 2 0 Unkonoyama Unkown Juryo W2 10-5 96-89 3 1 Gawasukotto Juryo E13 7-8 97-94 4 1 Chelseayama Steve Juryo W13 7-8 94-95 5 2 Domichi Dustin Makushita W18 9-6 92-89 6 3 Kaito QB Makushita W26 10-5 100-94 4 3 Jejima Jejima Makushita E33 8-7 93-91 5 3 Amakaze Ama Makushita E40 12-3 99-93 3 1

Inspired by Dustin’s pre-nakabi post and in recognition of all the efforts over the years that Simon has put into this, I’ve updated the marks for my fellow centipedes through day 12. Several items are noteworthy: first of all, no 10s. Not just from us, but from anyone. Maybe someday we’ll properly appreciate all tsunami-like effect that Hakuho has had on not only sumo but also sumo gaming. Maybe. Although the centipedians have 18 human legs in the top division, no one as of yet has a leg up on kachi koshi and three of us are make koshi. Ouch! Fujiyama will be visiting the second division in January and Sagi and Chocshoporyu need two and three wins, respectively, to remain in the sanyaku. On a happier note, Unkonoyama will be promoted to the top division in January, and is a co-leader for the Juryo yusho, and Amakaze is a co-leader to grab the yusho in Makushita. Bring home the certificates, lads! One of the many things which fascinates me about sumo is how it isn’t fair. Maybe most sports aren’t, but sumo seems to be so to an even greater degree. Is there any other sports where owner/managers act as judges, even on their own players? (That’s a rhetorical question – I certainly hope there aren't.) Well, nowhere is gaming is this unfairness better reflected than in the two head-to-head games, SG and Bench. Alexander and Stephan are scoring at blistering rates, 85 and 84 points, respectively (far more, it should be noted, than any top division gamer with 9 or 8 wins) and yet to date neither has a winning record. Both have faced tough competition, and Alexander has had the misfortune of losing six of his eight ties. I haven’t played impressively but have benefited from softer competition. Ah well, the shoe has been on the other foot. Okay, we are down to the last three days, crunch time. Let’s start piling up those kk’s or at least softening our falls. Good luck to everyone over the remaining days. Gambare! SG Shikona Real Name Rank Record Points Ties Ties Won Pandaazuma Simon Yokozuna E 6-6 78-78 7 4 Sagi Stefan Sekiwake E 5-7 84-84 3 1 Chocshoporyu Gary Sekiwake W 4-8 81-84 6 2 ScreechingOwl Douglas Maegashira 4E 7-5 75-75 4 3 Rupantengu Rupert Maegashira 8E 7-5 79-82 5 4 Chankoyama Miyako Maegashira W10 7-5 83-84 1 1 Chishafuwaka Sergio Maegashira E11 2-10 72-85 2 1 Gonzohnesushi Alexander Maegashira W11 6-6 85-81 8 2 Fujiyama Mark Maegashira W16 3-9 75-79 1 0 Unkonoyama Unkown Juryo W2 9-3 80-71 3 1 Gawasukotto Juryo E13 7-5 81-75 3 1 Chelseayama Steve Juryo W13 6-6 75-75 4 2 Domichi Dustin Makushita W18 8-4 76-69 4 2 Kaito QB Makushita W26 8-4 80-76 4 3 Jejima Jejima Makushita E33 6-6 78-80 4 3 Amakaze Ama Makushita E40 10-2 81-68 2 0

I'm looking forward to using this next time, which based on past history will be 2057! (Although it certainly has to be rather freakish this hasn't happened in 37 years, and I can easily imagine having only one yokozuna in the near future and not being as fortunate as the two previous times we've only had one.)

1. X2. B3. A4. A5. A6. A7. A8. B9. B10. B11. B12. A13. A14. B15. B16. B17. A18. B19. A20. A21. X

I'm not sure its staged but if you think about the momentum of charging from that distance, its pretty easy relative to an normal match for the Yokozuna to throw them with that pulling-motion sort of throw (which is how he won all 5). Based on my viewing of the Hakutoumi performance of the gonin-nuki-sen as well as the one Harumafuji did in 2017, it's pretty evident that these exhibitions are staged: the respective yokozuna is expected to win all 5 bouts, and he does.

Looking at Scott's record history, last basho was his second kyujo in a row, and I believe most of the games treat a second consecutive kyujo as 0-15, not 0-0-15 (as the first is treated).

Sumo Game is now open for registration!

Calling Hakuho a "part-time" yokozuna is way off the mark. Hakuho competed in - and finished - his first 48 basho as yokozuna. He really has been the iron man of sumo. After being promoted to yokozuna he entered and completed his first 48 basho in a row before missing basho 49. To put that in perspective, that's more at the start of a yokozuna career than Taiho (17), Chiyonofuji (0), Asashoryu (2), Takanohana (11), Kitanofuji (11), and Musashimaru (3) combined! Time and injuries catch up to all athletes. Over his last 18 basho Hakuho has completed half of them. That's still a much better than most yokozuna at the end of their career. Moreover, of the 9 basho he's finished over the last three (plus one basho) years, Hakuho has won the yusho 7 times. I'd say any rikishi who manages to win 7 yusho in 18 basho isn't wasting anyone's time. Kakuryu, on the other hand, has a significant problem staying healthy. He's only managed to finish 8 of the last 18 basho and he was having trouble even before that. He has won the yusho in three of his eight finishes. He's already been given a compete and complete instruction once in his career and it wouldn't be surprising to see another one soon. The end is near for him. So it's highly unlikely either yokozuna will be competing in 2022. And we will never see Hakuho's like again in our lifetime. Not even close. So I'm fine with him calling the shots as to when he wants to hang up his mawashi.

There's almost always some luck in winning any of the games, of course, but Odd Sumo may be the one where luck plays the greatest part. It was an unlucky jun-yusho for Panda, who lead (by a lot) most of the way to be nosed out on the final day. It was a nice job, however, by Unkonoyama on getting a mountain of points on senshuraku: well played.

I think ryafuji is spot on: the intai papers are almost certainly going to be accepted. It's an unfortunate outcome for a rikishi whose style both on and off the dohyo was a bit different.

On the plus side, I won the Tipspiel yusho rather handily. It's the third time I've had the lead after day 14 in that game. The first time I played unnecessarily boldly on senshuraku and was overtaken. The second time I was much more strategic and won. It was the same this time: Tochinoshin and Onosho seemed the most likely to win (and had the most points bet on them), but I managed to pick the winners in the more difficult to read final two bouts anyway. Still, no sense in taking that chance. I regained my ozeke status in Toto with a rather frustrating 10-4-1. Frustrating because I was locked out of picking on day 9, and even thought I e-mailed a winning pick to the organizers, it wasn't counted. (I believe Taka had the same experience.) And more frustration in SG, where I believe I had the third highest number of correct picks in the top division but barely managed a kk, losing almost all my ties. In Bench I had the best team to get an MK and played reasonably well (I think I had the 11th best MP score): slight mistakes a few days all cost me and I also had the misfortune of facing teams I would have beaten on most days but had worse match ups on the days we actually met. Of course in head to head contests these things are not unusual, and I've often been a beneficiary in past basho. Lastly, I finished 4th in the Underdog game, but really only because I rode the Terunofuji train early enough, so not special merit in that. More frustration in Odd, where 9 days I had just one loser, including senshuraku, when I had five winners. I was 6-6-3 in TTT (one day locked out, two days negligent); 7-8 in ISP; a dreadful 5-10 in Quad and out on day 2 in Chain. All around miserable in the pre-basho games.