ScreechingOwl

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Posts posted by ScreechingOwl

  1. Posted

    5 hours ago, Ganzohnesushi said:

    GTB was a low scoring affair due to some weird decisions by the Banzuke makers. Now I'm really curious what we can expect from Sekitori-Quadrumvirate as we are already down to only 63 Rikishi. Days 14 and 15 will be hell with only a couple of poor performing Rikishi left. Thus a 9-6 Yusho would not surprise me...

    The second week is sure to be horrendous, and I'd bet some players won't even have 4 unused rikishi left on senshuraku.

     

  2. Posted

    8 hours ago, Jejima said:

    For this basho, I guess we are all going to have to battle with 9 rikishi.

    But this is not a change in the official rules. When the automation can handle it, the game will use the official rules of allowing an extra Maegashira pick, for future bashos.

    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.)

  4. Posted

    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. 

  5. Posted

    12 hours ago, Pandaazuma said:

    Scott is included here but I'm not sure if he will be playing. There seems to be some kind of problem as he has been demoted into Juryo despite his going 7-8 kyujo last time. See what happens.

    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).

  7. Posted

    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.

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  8. Posted

    51 minutes ago, Unkonoyama said:

    No congrats for my lucky odd sumo yusho 

    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.

  9. Posted

    28 minutes ago, ryafuji said:

    I think he would not hand them in unless he had been told he had no other option. The article says they will not be acted upon until the JSA meeting on the 6th, but clearly he had a good idea as to what the likely outcome of that meeting was.

    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. 

  10. Posted

    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.

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    Hmmm. An oyakata repeatedly beats rikishi and is demoted. I take Covid-19 very seriously - I wear a mask, socially distance, don't eat out, and minimize outside contact - I don't visit anyone inside or have anyone inside my house other than immediate family. Still, expulsion seems too great. He's already been pulled out of more than half this basho. A one basho suspension will drop him to lower Juryo. A two basho suspension will drop him to what - high single digits makushita? A suspension seems more appropriate to me, especially as I view an oyakata who beats rikishi (which is a criminal assault) as more harmful to sumo (who is going to let their son join an organization that tolerates this behavior) as more damaging to sumo. 

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    1 hour ago, Gospodin said:

    Terunofuji‘s upper body strength is absolutely incredible. In 20 and some years watching I haven‘t seen anything close. Shodai should be no match, if he manages his nimble footwork like he did against Asanoyama.

    Baruto And Asashoryu were both extremely strong too. I'm not sure who the strongest rikishi in the 21st century has been - it would be interesting to find out what each of them could life. In any case, there is no doubt Terunofuji is very powerful. Still, he has to get ahold of the mawashi, and Takayasu did a great job of keeping him off of it.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    2 hours ago, Dapeng said:

    As Rabid just said, Chyunofuji retired when he saw a youngster coming up to replace him, however, he was already unable to yusho. Otherwise he would have kept going on for 1 more yusho.

    Asanoyama will be the next yokozuna (probably before the Tokyo Olympic) for sure. After one or two years, he may reach the strength of the current day Hakuho and the latter will hang up his mawashi.

    Let's be cautious about saying "for sure" regarding yokozuna promotion, because he has to stay healthy, and that requires some luck. Terunofuji strung together four basho at sekiwake and ozeki which were at (or near) yokozuna strength and his promotion seemed imminent - and then he was injured. It's great that he's back and doing well, but he'll never be the same. 

    Nothing is for sure in sports, and sumo puts more of a strain on the body that most other sports do. So fingers crossed for a continually healthy Asanoyama. 

    • Like 11

  20. Posted

    21 hours ago, Eikokurai said:

    One positive, re: Takayasu. As he falls down the ranks he may yet manage to secure that elusive yusho. In 2018 he finished runner-up three times while fighting the best opposition available. From a lower rank, against technically less able opponents, he might be able to take that final step, especially with all the other chaos. If Tokushoryu can do it, no reason he can’t other than serious injury. 

    As long as Takayasu continues to be injured it's not going to matter where he is on the banzuke: he'll be lucky to get a kk, nevermind more. If he regains his health Takayasu should again be good enough to have more chances to win a yusho from anywhere on the banzuke. Time will tell.

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    2 hours ago, Nantonoyama said:

    I hope he can find a kabu in the 3-year period offered by the kyokai. He has been a very decent ozeki, and his zensho was an unexpected surprise

    The bout I will remember from him is the okuritsuriotoshi loss he had to then-Ama. A must-see for all sumo fans that were not around in 2007 :

     

    The newcomers might also enjoy this masterpiece from @Randomitsuki

     

    Great thanks to Nantonoyama for these two wonderful clips. The first makes me recall just how much I miss Ama. (Yes, yes, and Hamarufuji too). Watching Ama climb first to ozeki, which I doubted he'd ever be able to do, then to yokozuna. (Which I almost didn't want him to do, because I was worried they'd force him to retire too early. Well, they did - but not for the reason I feared.)

    And then that crazy laugh and those wonderful captions by Randomitsuki, making merry with Goeido's highly improbable zensho yusho (coming after two years as ozeki with just one prior double digit wins and four MKs). I'd rate Goeido's zensho yusho the third most unpredictable yusho I've seen in 15 years, following only Tokushoryu's and Kyokutenho's. It's super how Rando pokes fun at Goeido, SumoTalk, and sumo in general.

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  22. Posted

    14 minutes ago, Pandaazuma said:

    Just realized @Pandaazuma did the same as Screech in SG, congrats to him too. But he's a Yokozuna so that is expected of him. Plus he gave up 4 kinboshi. I expect him to retire after the Olympics.

    I'm sure Pandaazuma will retire after some Olympics, just not the Tokyo ones. Plus, he's not a rikishi but an oyakata, so he can stick around until he's 65, at least.

    I hadn't even remembered I was 4-4 at one point in SG - have to win those ties! On my selection sheet today I checked off Endo but in the game I put in Enho (who I also thought would win, but who I did not mean to choose in SG), so I was very lucky to overcome that mistake.I had a good senshuraku overall, but this was a tough basho to pick in, and I expect that is a trend that will increase until the new guard is firmly in place, which could take a few years.

  23. Posted

    Regarding the two ozeki situation:

    1. Goeido is almost certainly going to finish mk, and thus be demoted;

    2. Asanoyama will quite likely be promoted to ozeki; any 12-3 will clinch it, and I believe even 11-4 will be enough;

    3. Even if Goeido is demoted and Asanoyama isn't promoted it's all good - Kakuryu will be listed as yokozuna-ozeki.