krindel

All the best to him in his fight, and hope he manages to have a long and successful oyakata career.

Not unexpected, yet a terribly sad day for sumo :-(

Welcome to the forum! (Welcome...)

I will admit to having zero knowledge of japanese... But how can you possibly expect support when you start the title of your thread "In defense of Kintamayama"?

A very happy birthday to you! (Birthday!)

Welcome to the forum! (Welcome...)

Welcome to the forum! (Welcome...)

A very happy birthday! (Birthday!)

I have a great respect for people who have given so much of themselves to sumo without the perks of ever being a sekitori or an oyakata. Many of those are really what the cliché calls "unsung heroes", and I am really sad to hear that one of them has passed before his time. May he rest in peace. (Bow...)

Late to the party, as usual, but I would be amiss if I didn't offer my belated wishes for your birthday. (Birthday!)

i don't think it is difficult- setting up straw men to accuse of imaginary conspiracy theories doesn't hide that yaocho and mukiryoku are meaningful topics, this practice hurts the community; we are all better served to stay on topic and refrain from personal attacks i don't know how to make it more simple, and wonder if your asserted confusion is not pretended putting words in others' mouths is not a friendly exercise the words you've just attempted to attribute to me have nothing to do with me; please take responsibility for your own ideas and speak for yourself Despite what you may believe, this thread is not about your views but about Mike Wesseman's. Sumo Talk has repeatedly supported those theories (including in the podcast that is the original topic of this thread), hence they are far from imaginary. That means that people are not "inventing straw men", but arguing against a twisted view of sumo that has been repeatedly supported and maintained through countless years and endless failed predictions on the part of its supporters. As far as your views are concerned, since you claim that you are being misunderstood, I would appreciate it if you actually say exactly what you believe. You have mentioned in another thread that ST is "everything you need to know about sumo", and in this thread that the podcast in question is "open coverage of how contemporary sumo really works, especially the changing role of yaocho in recent years", and that the last basho was "not a basho, and Kotoshogiku 'won'". Should I not infer by those comments that you subscribe to Mike's theories? However, so as to avoid people "putting words in your mouth", feel free to let us know what exactly is your take on Mike's theories. Unless you do, and provide a concise summary of what your take on the matter is, I don't think there's any point of maintaining a discussion when all you are willing to contribute is an endless list of pseudo-intellectual cryptic comments.

Well, there are three possibilities. On the first, he fails to win the Yusho, proving that there is a conspiracy that gifted him his Yusho. On the second, he wins the Yusho, gets promoted to Yokozuna, proving that there is a conspiracy to produce a Japanese Yokozuna. On the third, he doesn't compete or withdraws from the tournament, proving that there is a conspiracy to cover up the conspiracy that gifted him the Yusho. Simple, isn't it? However, for people here who are interested in facts, here is an attempt to predict what Kotoshogiku is likely to do next basho, based on statistics alone: Since the 15-day basho era begun, I found 56 Ozeki who won a Yusho without having won the one before (i.e I didn't count the second of back-to-back Yusho). Out of those: 1) The average number of wins for the next basho was a little under 10 (9.98 to be exact). That even includes the people who actually won the next basho. 2) The average number of wins for the next basho for the 20 Ozeki who hadn't won a yusho before is much lower, at 9.2 3) More than 50% of the Ozeki had 10 or less wins at the next basho. 4) There were 12 cases of Ozeki that won a Yusho after having 8 or less wins on the basho before. Seven of them won 10 or less at the next basho. For two of them it was their first. Those two went 9-6 and 10-5 at the next basho. 5) The back-to-back Yusho was won by 10 Ozeki. So, basically, that would suggest (purely on a rough evaluation of statistics), that one could predict that there is a chance of about 82% for Kotoshogiku NOT to win the yusho, and in fact he is statistically expected to manage 9 or 10 wins.

Of course. It goes without saying that whenever a Japanese rikishi has a really hot start and is on the verge of winning the yusho, the other elite rikishi will not stop him. Oh wait... Well, I guess that the NSK or the Mongolian High Council just doesn't like Kisenosato and was waiting for rising star Kotoshogiku to manage the hot start. Or, the other favorite explanation (Tochiozan losing the playoff after Kisenosato lost a Yusho that was almost impossible to lose), "there was a plan but someone messed it up"... Then again, I guess if its a matter of faith, like it was mentioned before, arguing facts is rather pointless, isn't it?

Or even Kae Vs. Hakuhou Haven't heard it, of course, but I am afraid there's a good possibility that it should be "Kae despite Hakuho"...

Hello Adam, and welcome to the forum! (Welcome...)