Gurowake

I think this is a much better name for the game.

I was wondering how this was possible, but obviously it's because the ones ranked below them didn't compete. Well, at least this time, and so I assume it's true for the rest.

The workaround seems obvious to me: scalpers provide fake IDs to the purchasers. They seem to be very permissible about the kinds of ID that will work.

How much of this might be due to the fact that Sumo was basically the only sport available to follow in March 2020, which caused a lot of people to actually watch it and noticed it was more interesting than pop culture would have led them to believe?

In my thinking about this situation, I've wondered if the "fake" Ozeki would actually get any rank protection. Like, they have to put someone on the banzuke with that rank, but perhaps they can demote him quickly if there's a "real" replacement and the "fake" one goes MK before earning a "real" Ozeki promotion. Maybe there would be lighter requirements than a "real" promotion before the rank protection kicked in, but it doesn't seem fair to the Ozeki that earned "real" promotions that someone who was just in the right place at the right time gets the ability to go MK every other tournament without being demoted before showing that they really deserve that protection. At the same time though, rikishi get promoted to sanyaku positions all the time without really earning them in the by-the-numbers sense, and they're treated just the same as any other sanyaku when they're demoted.

March kosho as usual.

My boss wanted to order from a sushi place for lunch today (as he does every Friday during the busy season), and I at first was not particularly interested, but I looked at their full menu and they had a dish that sounded exactly like tonkatsu, though it was called Don Katsu for some reason. This was the first time I've had it, despite having thought about it whenever I see Onokatsu's name, and I was rather happy with it, particularly the sauce. It was not quite the same as any sauce I had before, but I found it quite delicious, living up to the claims the restaurant made on their menu that I was skeptical about. The only problem with the sauce is that it seemed a bit too strong; I was kinda getting sick of it by the time I finished what I wanted for lunch (saving much of it for dinner).

Most likely this would only be the solution in the scenario where an Ozeki was demoted. If it was a Yokozuna retiring* or someone passing away, they'd probably just stay on the banzuke until there was a replacement. The requirement for 1 Ozeki on each side of the banzuke is really just a formality; it absolutely has to be done, but that doesn't mean it can't be someone who no one might expect to compete, and I don't think they're going to go back to Kanban Ozeki. *They wouldn't be able to be listed as Oyakata yet if this happened, so they'd probably not actually officially retire.

So if your ranking score is 4.5 (assuming you have 6 basho under your belt and no absences recently longer than 1 basho in a row), that means you're doing as well as the average player. The way it works also means that it doesn't matter one bit what place you get, only what your score is and what the average (mean) score is. Put another way, the number of people that do terribly has no effect on what place you get as long as you didn't do terribly yourself, but the more of them there are for a particular basho, the more important it is to score well that basho, since the mean score will be lower.

I meant more along the lines of having the graphics and whatever else English. The utility of commentators is going to vary depending on the viewer; certainly very experienced viewers aren't going to care at all about it, but less experienced viewers would prefer knowing more about what's going on.

The point is that foreign fans don't have many good options to watch sumo and only sumo, and the rightsholders seem very keen on not giving them any options. If there's an option to pay for that includes only sumo and it's in English, that will make people not want to try to get around the rightsholders. The best way to prevent most piracy is to simply make an accessible and affordable option.

And yet you thought (correctly) Mitakeumi would be behind Kotoshoho, when it's like the exact same situation. I guess it's just the idea that there should be a minimum demotion for a 5-10, and Kotoshoho met that easily, while Daiseizan didn't? This also makes the only half rank demotions of Ura and Tokihayate even stranger, as if they feel now that they can't leave a 7-8 at their rank if there's at all someone else close enough to take their spot, but that's the only time they'll ignore the numbers.

That's exactly why they went with the middle. It happens not infrequently, as already discussed.

I normally think "a 7-8 should only hold their position if there's no reasonable candidate to put there", but slowly over time what counts as a "reasonable candidate" I've made harder and harder, to the point where it was simply "does someone have the numbers to go ahead of them?", which is clearly wrong on both Ura and Tokihayate this banzuke.

Mitakeumi behind Kotoshoho invalidates one of the things that I had taken for granted - that terrible records (3 wins or less) were always shown more leniency than the numbers would suggest. I seem to recall there may have been another of these (if not more than one) recently, but now it's absolutely clear and I need to change my thinking.

Is there no more pro-incumbent bias for promotions? Or is the difference between Komusubi and Sekiwake simply not one that matters to them, seeing as there's no difference in pay?

The trick is just being better on average than anyone else. If you really suck at it, but everyone else sucks more, you'll be high ranked.

They're the same name, but they aren't from the same ichimon, so while I don't know for sure, I don't expect that to have been a consideration. edit: Guess I was wrong.

Or anywhere it's cold a good part of the year.

Back when rikishi never switched sides of the dohyo during the basho and always fought from the side they were on the banzuke, an odd maegashira out would have to be on the opposite side from the odd sanyaku. Now, not so much.

Just because something is "normal" doesn't mean it should be tolerated. Slavery was "normal" throughout most of human history. Now it's not.

Exactly. I'm just doing the same random speculation that everyone else is.

And yet this was the one he selected. Maybe that's part of the deal here somehow.

I think I have those same differences, plus swapping Meisei and Takarafuji, Mitakeumi and Kotoshoho, and putting Takerufuji ahead of Shodai and Atamifuji, a choice that I feel is likely wrong but I'm too much of a slave to the numbers.

I have similar confidence (or lack thereof) in my choices, as I went perhaps a bit too strongly by numbers alone. I feel like if I make adjustments for joi rikishi in anything but breaking ties, it'll be the one time where they decide to ignore that factor, because I have a memory of that happening to me before. Hoshoryu(12-3 Ow) Y Onosato(10-5 Ow) O Kotozakura(5-10 Oe) Daieisho(11-4 Sw) S Kirishima(11-4 M1w) Oho(12-3 M3w) K Abi(7-8 Ke) Wakatakakage(7-8 Kw) M1 Wakamotoharu(6-9 Se) Gonoyama(8-7 M3e) M2 Chiyoshoma(9-6 M5w) Tobizaru(7-8 M2e) M3 Takanosho(6-9 M1e) Takayasu(8-7 M6e) M4 Ura(7-8 M4w) Kinbozan(12-3 M14w) M5 Ichiyamamoto(8-7 M6w) Hiradoumi(7-8 M5e) M6 Takerufuji(10-5 M11w) Shodai(6-9 M4e) M7 Atamifuji(5-10 M2w) Tamawashi(9-6 M10e) M8 Oshoma(8-7 M9w) Hakuoho(10-5 M15e) M9 Endo(6-9 M7e) Nishikigi(8-7 M12e) M10 Shonannoumi(8-7 M13e) Midorifuji(7-8 M11e) M11 Takarafuji(5-10 M8w) Meisei(6-9 M10w) M12 Onokatsu(7-8 M12w) Nishikifuji(9-6 M17e) M13 Shishi(13-2 J4w) Ryuden(11-4 J3e) M14 Aonishiki(12-3 J5w) Churanoumi(4-11 M9e) M15 Sadanoumi(9-6 J1e) Asakoryu(9-6 J2w) M16 Mitakeumi(2-13 M7w) Kotoshoho(5-10 M13w) M17 Tokihayate(7-8 M17w) Shirokuma(9-6 J4e) M18