Kaito

Well, I initially had Chiyoshoma and Myogiryu in a tier with the 3 guys above, so Onosho going under that pair wouldn't be too surprising. I could kind of tell that's what other players were doing. My thinking was, the treatment Ishiura got recently with 2 wins was unusually harsh and not even in alignment with Meisei's treatment in the same banzuke. It seems to me like the committee, aware of wrestlers' natural levels, will show respect where it's been earned and try to put wrestlers closer to where they belong. If Onosho gets the Meisei treatment, it's 13E by my math. Nobody I've placed below him has any argument for needing to go higher than they are. Far from it. Also, the only recent precedent for 2 wins from M5E was Chiyotairyu in Sept. 2019 who only fell to M11W somehow. But yeah, I already regret not sliding him down 1 spot, if not 3. I did have it at one point. *shrug*

I had some desire to move Ichiyamamoto up a slot or two, and I played around with the ordering of the last 5 names a lot before convincing myself of this new ordering, which I still have no faith in, but overall, there were very few decisions to make this time. The banzuke just fell into place like a dream. What worries me about the bottom 5 is that there are essentially 3 elements within (Oho-Yutakayama, Daiamami-Nishikifuji, Chiyomaru), of which any ordering seemed feasible, and unless you hedge your bets, the scoring of that group will be extremely unforgiving. I'm hoping I won't have big regrets about abandoning the more common orderings that I started with.

I'd argue the opposite. They could have forced him to retire, but didn't. They suspended him because their hand was forced, not because they wanted to. They would love if he could make it all the way back and press for Yokozuna. Realistically, I think he gets the same treatment as anyone from this point.

Huzzah! It actually seems weird that this is the basho where I get the Green Mawashi, given that I was a loser in Bench and Sumo Game, and really had nothing going for me anywhere after the first few days. Even last basho I felt like I did a better job, but I had little to show for it. I owe a lot of my points to my lack of faith in Kotokuzan (UDH, Non-Active in Norizo, 5 in Oracle). He couldn't help enough in Juryo Game, since my actual Juryo picks were poor. I threw away some ISP points over the last 4 days picking underdogs I had zero belief in, trying to move from 2nd to 1st. The leader kept picking them too, blocking me, so I could've just picked the winners and not bothered with beating him on tiebreaker. Somehow I've been close to winning ISP in 4 of the last 7 basho, and still been pretty high up in the others. I think if I had an ISP yusho to my name already, I would've protected my points on the final day. Similar story in Tippspiel. I gained the lead after day 13, then scored a 0. I went risky on day 15, trying to give myself a chance for the yusho, and it looked like a disaster until Kiribayama bailed me out to hold me in place. Definitely can't complain about racking up nearly 60 points though! Pretty happy with that!

A real example of the dead body rule was Hokutofuji vs Takarafuji today. Takarafuji pulled Hokutofuji down and caused him to touch first, but he leaped backwards out of the dohyo before Hokutofuji landed. If you can't keep a foot in, you don't get credit. Once you lose your presence in the dohyo, you become dead.

I also just noticed a problem with Maegashira 9 or above only East vs Oho. The points should be going to Oho for defeating M7e Takarafuji.

And Takakeisho lost to M6 Ura!

I've been fading week 2 Tamawashi longer than that. His previous year was even worse. Or to put a positive spin on it, he's pretty great in week 1!

No confirmation e-mails today from Toto, TTT, Bench, ISP. Also, no Salary Cap standings yet and Oracle's live standings are a bit inaccurate due to Ichinojo and Ishiura not being stricken from the scoring page yet.

He's still losing rank for each basho missed. Sandanme is correct.

I dunno, I like your chances.

59. Not expecting top 10, but pretty good, considering. Little unhappy about having Hokutofuji/Endo swapped after I had it right on the first draft. And If I'd left myself enough time to make a new entry at the deadline, I think I would've nailed the Okinoumi/Nishikigi line, bumping Aoiyama. But I'd say I got pretty lucky to have some things falling into place in sections that were wrong, so all right. I was worried I was gonna fall on my face this time.

I've been pathetic at this game since I first played it and I doubt it ends here.

It's not the first time I've seen a basho like Shodai is having, but I won't pretend to understand it. Quite a miraculous, and weird, turnaround.

Potential evidence for the plane of the dohyo tonight in Kiribayama/Wakamotoharu? I didn't hear what the mono-ii explanation was, but Kiribayama kept his feet in while executing a defensive throw and getting Wakamotoharu to touch down first. However, Kiribayama's arm was hanging off the dohyo, breaking the plane, and he lost.