Randomitsuki

McBugger phrased it so much better than I ever could! So, happy birthday to the Chuck Norris of sumo lore!

Don't worry, I will recompute the results in case that Golynohana's results will differ. I did, however, do a sanity check on the ginboshi points for fusen, supporting your theory that fusensho get 3 points, and not 6.

Updated standings after Aki 2017.

Hiya! The Aki Masters results are now online and available (the super-official Salarycap Sumo results aren't in yet, but I trust in Gurowake's craftsmanship to have distilled the correct results from Golynohana's data). Aki Basho brought the first ever Green Mawashi for Gonzaburow. The long-time Japanese player won the UDH yusho, and also received jun-yusho in RotoSumo and Salarycap Sumo. Takanorappa gets his first ever shukun-sho for winning yusho in Sekitori-Toto and Turn the Tide. Finally, overall runner-up Ganzohnesushi nets the gino-sho (1st) with excellent pre-basho results (GTB jun-yusho) and daily results (Toto jun-yusho), and also the kanto-sho (2nd) with nine scores among the top 10. Congratulations to all the winners! Also updated: the World Championship standings. Pandaazuma still has a very strong lead over Susanoo. Ganzohnesushi moves into 3rd place.

Thanks for asking - for the first time in 12 years I could take a brief holiday in an odd month without much thought and planning. And it was great following all this from the sidelines. As for kabu and stuff: first things first! I will have my danpatsu-shiki on next Wednesday! The location is Hair Studio Riedel in Tübingen, if someone wants to take part in the event.

What can I say? The rules were written by Hoshifransu in 2002 and apparently reworded in early 2006 after the Baruto case. I have never changed or rewritten the rules, as nobody has ever complained about them in almost 12 years. Now, if I had re-worded the rules, it would have been as follows: ======================================================================== Kyujo rulings: In all categories except "Weak Maegashira", the points for a rikishi are determined by the number of wins that the rikishi gets during the basho. In other words, if a rikishi enters late into a basho, the wins will count. In the "Weak Maegashira" category, a rikishi who is not listed on the Day 1 torikumi will get zero points in total (even if the rikishi enters late into the basho). In all other cases (.e.g, a rikishi goes kyujo during the basho), the points for the rikishi are determined by the number of losses/absences that the rikishi gets during the basho. ======================================================================== These are the rules that I have been using. Nantonoyama might change them.

1) Juryo Game is activated long before the kyujo announcement, so that players who have little time on first weekend have time to do their picks in advance. We would probably have many more complaints if Nantonoyama would wait until 48 hrs before the basho to initialize the game. 2) Deactivating a player after kyujo announcements could be done. But this would require that Doitsuyama does the deactivation in time. It is quite difficult to reach Doitsuyama in time, and it cannot be expected from him to be available at all times. 3) Even if Doitsuyama did have the time to deactivate a riksihi, many players might have made their picks beforehand already, so that's also no solution. You also said: "Extensive study of the rulebook just to participate is definitely not fun". What's your suggestion, then? Not having rules at all? I don't get your point. I would also like to point out that Nantonoyama commits a lot of time and effort to ensure a fair procedure. You should also consider how frustrating it might be for him to get so many complaints. Especially, as I do not see any grave mistakes. Picking a kyujo rikishi in "Weak Maegashira" has always resulted in zero points. The rules state this, and the rationale behind such a decision should be evident. Those who still pick a kyujo rikishi in this category are either trying to cheat to easy points, or they are not very attentive about the kyujo situation, I'd say.

Sorry for all the frustration about the Juryo Game scoring. Dear Profo, first of all let me state that we are talking about the "Weak Maegashira" category here. In that category, you get points when your pick loses. In other words, it is not that you lost 2 points for Sadanoumi's two wins, but that you lost up to 13 points for his losses. But that's exactly the problem: how many "losses" did Sadanoumi have? 13, because he had only 2 wins? Or 8, for the losses he actually received on the dohyo? I think that the rules are sufficiently clear. Maybe not perfectly phrased, but clear enough. For all intents and purposes, Sadanoumi was kyujo before the basho, and he therefore did not appear on Day 1. The rules clearly state that "kyujo wrestlers...won't give any points". Otherwise, players could wait for the kyujo announcements and pick a kyujo rikishi of the "Weak Maegashira" category to score easy 15 points for the 15 "losses". I don't think that this would be a good idea. I don't understand why the inclusion of the words "forbidden" or "not allowed" in the rules would change anything about it. Such picks are not forbidden, but they score 0 points, as the rules say. Again, I am sorry for this unfortunate and rare occurrence. The only similar case that I found in the history of the game might have been Natsu 2006 where Tokitsuumi was in the bottom 8 Maegashira, missed on Day 1, and later joined the basho. I don't know if Tokitsuumi was an eligible pick in Juryo Game back then. Nantonoyama has just taken over banzuke making duties for this basho (which I appreciate very much). As he said, he might make some rule changes (or not), and it is up to him to also look whether the wording on the rule page could be clarified. In any case, I hope that you all will support him in whatever he does!

Takarafuji. The phenomenon. For years, I have been wondering how he manages to survive in such lofty regions of the banzuke. He seems to be slower than most other rikishi in Makuuchi, and he also doesn't look like a real powerhouse. I cannot recall a single bout that he won with so much aplomb that I just went "wow". Feel free to provide me with evidence to the contrary. But of course, there must be a reason why he is up there for quite some time. I guess the answer is that he is among the most economical rikishi out there. He does not do much, but what he does is usually extremely well-timed and extremely clever. Therefore, it does not surprise me much that he would be the one to pull a Houdini out of this situation against Ishirua - of course, in pure Takarafuji slo-mo style. Gotta love this guy! With so much economy in his moves, I also wouldn't be surprised if he still had a very long career ahead of him.