Oimeru

Hrm, no Shukun-sho for Myogiryu after defeating a Yokozuna and two Ozeki?

Yotsuguruma is a bit of an odd shikona. "Four wheels"? Anyone know the reason behind this? (sorry, no sumodb link, as it seems to be down for me right now...)

Hi people, I'll be in Fukuoka for the November basho and am looking for anybody who's interested in sharing a masu box on the first or second weekend. Buying arena seats when I get there is fine, but I'd like to make use of the rare opportunity for attending a basho by also having a nice seat for at least one day. If anybody's interested, shoot me a PM please, maybe be can figure something out :)

Hi Rannohana, I was able to visit twice this time, which was great (thanks, Ajisen!). I won't be there for the last weekend, so I guess that'll be all this time around. Thank you for your offer anyway!

Yup, full house today. And Kakuryu demostrated how to completely silence the numerous Kotoshogiku fans within a second... zero applause for him.

As of now, http://sumodb.sumogames.de/ is working.

There are actually two guys who did this before... I didn't expect that: Haguroyama and Tochiazuma.

A small error report: The day 11 juryo match Kyokunankai vs. Sagatsukasa is missing the kimarite. According to the Kyokai website it should be Yoritaoshi.

Okay, I shelled out the 10 bucks and gave it a try. It's quite amusing for a while, but I fear it might get old quick, as the sumo bouts are basically button mashing. One button is for tsuppari and the other one for grips. You then twist the controller to try various throws. Which kimarite comes up seems to depend on so many factors that it basically feels random. There are at least around two dozen kimarite, I think, and some silly non-kimarite too. A german Yokozuna named "Sausage" managed to defeat me by "vertical suplex". Need to bulk up before I can take on that guy.... (Holiday feeling...) Interestingly enough, the banzuke committee promotes you even for a 5-10 record -- fortunately, they're not doing that in real sumo, or we'd have an Ozeki 5 West. :-D

Might be amusing, but boy, what a stupid name. I'll probably give it a whirl soon.

I was bored an did a bit of research. Since there always seems to be a lot of discussion on the performance of the Ozeki, I've compiled a little table with the help of SumoDB. It lists win-loss records of different rikishi vs. opponents in the joi-jin or higher (minimum 20 bouts). The dominance of the two Yokozuna is eminently visible. Harumafuji's 38% is the highest winning percentage against Ozeki. One can really see how Chiyotaikai fell off a cliff -- based on his 2009 performance, he is lower joi-jin material at best. The other ozeki are grouped at the top, with the exception of Baruto, who did a little better than Kaio. Interstingly enough, Harumafuji managed to dominate the other Ozeki, but didn't fare nearly as well against lower ranks. Kotooshu, on the other hand, has troubles against his fellow Ozeki. Kakuryu did well against the lower ranks, and also managed to hold his own against the Ozeki. Kisenosato, on the other hand, is the only low ranker with a positive record against the Ozeki. Shikona vs. Y-M3 Pct. vs. Y Pct. vs. O Pct. vs. S-M3 Pct. Kotooshu 55-27 67% 4-8 33% 8-8 50% 43-11 80% Harumafuji 57-31 65% 5-8 38% 18-4 82% 34-19 64% Kotomitsuki 45-36 56% 3-9 25% 8-8 50% 34-19 64% Baruto 43-36 54% 0-10 0% 13-14 48% 30-12 71% Kaio 48-41 54% 1-11 8% 10-13 43% 37-17 69% Kakuryu 35-32 52% 0-9 0% 10-14 42% 25-9 74% Kisenosato 36-40 47% 1-9 10% 13-12 52% 22-19 54% Kotoshogiku 31-36 46% 0-10 0% 5-9 36% 26-17 60% Goeido 31-38 45% 0-8 0% 12-13 48% 19-17 53% Kyokutenho 30-41 42% 0-10 0% 6-18 25% 24-13 65% Aminishiki 23-37 38% 1-7 13% 8-9 47% 14-21 40% Chiyotaikai 30-52 37% 1-10 9% 4-15 21% 25-27 48% Tokitenku 8-15 35% 0-2 0% 3-5 38% 5-8 38% Toyonoshima 9-17 35% 0-2 0% 2-8 20% 7-7 50% Takekaze 16-32 33% 0-6 0% 5-11 31% 11-15 42% Aran 7-14 33% 0-2 0% 1-4 20% 6-8 43% Tochiozan 18-38 32% 0-8 0% 7-13 35% 11-17 39% Tamanoshima 7-20 26% 0-4 0% 2-8 20% 5-8 38% Miyabiyama 10-33 23% 0-6 0% 6-10 38% 4-17 19% Hokutoriki 4-17 19% 0-2 0% 0-7 0% 4-8 33%

I don't care that this phrasing has somehow become a staple of much sports writing, it's grammatically stupid and ought to be banished from the face of the earth. It's either "win-loss" or "won-lost". Gahhh... Typo.. and not the only one (Sigh...)

I wonder, do we need a "Road to 100 kachi koshi" thread now? (Showing respect...) Let's see if he really gets another shikona.

Moriurara (ex-Morikawa) is 3-2 after 10 days and he will meet Fujinoumi tomorrow, one of the Saito twins. A difficult opponent, but even with a loss there will be another chance to finally secure the first kachi koshi. Maybe the name change really helped, who knows? (Holiday feeling...)

However, all sekitori are now listed with one absence for day 13...

Sakabe it is. This is going to be hard, but I hope he comes through.

Just for the heck of it, some more numbers: this is the winning percentage of rikishi while in the joi-jin (Sekiwake to M3E) ranks. I only included bouts against rikishi that are ranked M3E and higher. Data is for 2009 and pulled from the SumoDB. Interestingly enough it's Kakuryu who's doing best in the upper ranks. Wouldn't have thought that... Kakuryu 55.2% Baruto 47.7% Kisenosato 47.3% Kyokutenho 43.1% Goeido 42.1% Kotoshogiku 38.9% Aminishiki 34.8% Tochiozan 34.2% Iwakiyama 33.3% Tamanoshima 25% Toyonoshima 25% Miyabiyama 22.7% Takekaze 22.7% Aran 18.2% Yoshikaze 18.2% Toyohibiki 12.5% Hokutoriki 0% Homasho 0%

I'll echo this. Frankly, I'm quite fed up with some of the current ozeki (althouhg Mickey is a nice surprise right now) and would love to see some fresh blood up there. It's always more interesting to see rikishi that still have some ambition. I know for a fact that my personal interest in sumo (which seemingly decreased over the last year or two) will certainly get a boost from that.

The newest precedent is Hatsu 2004: Shimotori at M7e with 11-4 ended up at Kw, Kyokushuzan at M2w with 8-7 ended up at M1w. Before and after.

Looking at the promotion/demotion picture there: Three spots open up because of the Ossetians, and two more because of Kirinowaka and Asofuji. So, unless the Kyokai do funky stuff, one should expect five promotions. The worst case scenario for a 4-3 Wakakoyu would have been fourth place behing Yotsuguruma, Sakaizawa and Tamaasuka. If they wanted the eighth bout to be a decider, why wasn't it given to Shotenro instead, who would likely be #5 in the order? This is very interesting, could it mean that the Kyokai temporarily want to reduce the number of sekitori?

I've just looked at the full bout video, and have to soften my statement a bit. I first thought the delay of the penalty call was the problem (as the CAS ruling seemed to indicate that). This would have been a serious refereeing error. The call was delayed by something like 10-15 seconds which were spent in a ground position, but I don't think it had much effect, as neither wrestler would have had a chance to react anyway. The call itself was still very borderline, as most people who know wrestling better than me seem to confirm. In fact no one even seems to know 100% sure what was penalized. The best theory appears to be that Abrahamian touched/grabbed the legs of his opponent, which is hard to see on video. Protests of any sort are explicitly excluded (!) in the FILA rulebook.

They have exact tie-breaking rules there, and followed them: http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/...shtml#GAW007101 The problem with the wrestling match was that the FILA referees did not implement their own rules properly and that there was no way of logging a protest. I'm certainly not sure it was a case of corruption, though (although wrestling has been dogged with allegations in the past). There's no indication of bribery or the likes -- could as well have been lack of competence. The case of the Cuban Taekwondo fighter was clear cut, on the other hand. He lost the bout according to the rules, before he "exploded".

For what it's worth, his last post here is also about a month old.

Only 10 this time! I find the yearly outrage over crappy pop music very entertaining. Whiny headlines ("Why does Europe hate us?") in the tabloids included. Well, Germany had a 100% yaocho ratio this time and still finished joint last ;-)

Norwegians have true surnames now (some of them originated as patronymics, but they aren't any more). In Iceland it's still like that, but this is the only European country, I think. Icelanders don't have family names, just like (most?) Mongolians. Sorry for going (Jumping in ecstasy...)