Kajiyanosho

Thank you! An exciting basho overall. Congrats to Kitakachiyama! A disappointing SB performance for me. Too much faith in the ozeki in the pre-basho games and too many uninspired decision in the daily ones. Now I'll have to do everything I can to avoid slipping off the famous Kyushu line chart...

Wow, the alarm is serious commitment! Understandable, though - I see a different impact even in Kyushu/Hatsu/Haru when the time difference between the UK and Japan is an extra hour. It's annoying, but on the other hand my time zone allows me to watch at least Makunouchi matches live pretty much every day, so it's not too bad overall! I'd like to think that while seeing kyujo announcements is a clear advantage, it's probably not decisive for SB masters / SBWC. Hope so anyway!

This is a very interesting conversation. Different games have different rules, and it's true that some are more punishing than others in case of absence (or have no droning options). I think I've only missed a Tipspiel day and it happened (obviously) in a basho when I was doing quite well. It's annoying when I see rikishi absences affecting UDH or Hoshitori Or Paper in ways that aren't convenient to my placement at that time, but I accept it in the spirit of unpredictability and 'unfairness' that is sumo. Odd Sumo is the last game I play every day - I find it easier this way and it's also not too bad if I miss a day (sometimes I just can't decide). I play Tipspiel, Sumo Game and Bench first - they require the longest 'thinking' (and fun) and the decisions I make determine my choices in other games too. This makes it less likely for me to miss a day. I wouldn't play if my circumstances wouldn't allow me to almost never miss a day. If unforeseeable circumstances make me miss one, they preoccupy me more than my (most time unimpressive) Tipspiel ranking. Here's a possible personal solution though: one could write a script that automatically selects and orders Tipspiel rikishi based on e.g. Odd Sumo, and automatically posts it in the forum!

Thank you! Again - I didn't mean to criticise or moan about the site at all, I'm thankful for it! I thought about the Superbanzuke site because it's the gateway to all games and intuitively it could be easier to redesign, as it's just a collector of information and has no user input. I'm not a designer but I worked with UX I'd be happy to help in any other way.

I'd like to play too, thank you! First time!

Returning to this nerdiest nerds' conversation with a couple of points I forgot to make. I agree that e.g. Kachi Clash as a game is not particularly interesting, which is why I'm not playing it. But again, people don't start games just based on their rules, but on community, ease of play, habits. That's why I wish for a SB 2.0 that could become popular among new fans. The Masters Series and World Championship make the Superbanzuke quite unique. A mega-ranking that crowns the ultimate fantasy sumo nerd can be quite appealing, and it's what ultimately prompted me to go from a couple of games to almost all of them (I'm always too last minute to give a Oracle proper shot...). Even just an updated Superbanzuke site would make it easier to recruit players for the games included in it. With international sumo fans growing in numbers, there's no shortage of potential players. I don't necessarily think there's anything 'bad' in Superbanzuke games being relatively small and niche. It's arguably better to have a smaller core of dedicated players than a bigger pool of people e.g. failing to play consistently daily games and making the experience less enjoyable. But many people who are engaged enough to discuss sumo on Discord, YouTube or Telegram would be excellent Superbanzuke players. [One recent example is Joputosu, who I 'recruited' from the Italianozeki Telegram channel].

Agree - I meant crowdfunding a professional programmer (and designer) etc.

Love this discussion. I assume the popularity of Kachi Clash comes from it being discussed in Discord Channels and social media, and also because the site is newer, mobile friendly, etc. I haven't tried it yet. I found out about SuperBanzuke games from a John Gunning article on The Japan Times. I've first heard about Kachi Clash on the Italianozeki Telegram channel - a relatively small but very engaged group of Italian sumo fans. Almost no one in the channel had heard about SuperBanzuke games before, while Kachi Clash was popular among many of them. Anecdotal evidence of course, but my guess is that there's a bit of a generational divide, with newer fans unlikely to know about SuperBanzuke games (a part from possibly GTB). SuperBanzuke games are excellent, and I love the additional challenge of the Master Series etc. The community around them is great, but also much harder to find. I played games for a couple of years before even joining this forum, as my work browser deemed this (and other sumo game pages) unsafe to visit. Some of the pages are obsolete or inaccessible, and some information is hidden in old sites. When I won the Green Mawashi last Hatsu I sent the 99998271 dot com link to many friends and most of them told me they couldn't even open it. Of course I'm NOT at all "complaining" with anyone about this. I'm thankful for all the time and passion people put into this to allow me and many others to play (for free!) and enjoy sumo much more as a result. I tend to say that SuperBanzuke games are a bit like sumo: they have a long history, they never change and that's part of the appeal. However, I wish there could be a way of creating new sites for the games and for the SuperBanzuke. I don't know if this was discussed before, but could crowdfunding be an option? I appreciate that there are all sorts of logistical things to consider. I don't even know if most of the regular players would want to change anything. Also, I don't think the 'target audience' of fantasy sumo games is people who are just starting to follow sumo or 'light users'. Quite the opposite - there are many (old and especially new) sumo fans who don't know about these games and would likely be interested. I wish SuperBanzuke games could be the go place for them! Kajiyanosho

Haha apology accepted! Had another disappointing basho after the stars aligned for Hatsu. I'll try my best to stop falling and have my own line in the Kyushu daily Top 10 chart!

I can relate! I think I somehow scrambled a few points from Quad and Norizo Cup, but I did terribly everywhere else (Bench excluded). Assuming correctly whether Terunofuji would compete for the whole tournament or not has been crucial for the pre-basho games this year. I bet on it heavily in January and even won the green mawashi, then got it wrong since! And I can't find any consistency in the daily ones, for some reason. I don't think ever had any points from ISP or TTT, so maybe I shouldn't blame the Yokozuna for my poor showing...

Congrats to all the winners! Happy I managed to only drop to second place in the Championship, even with a 40+ points gap. By Natsu I'll hopefully come to terms with missing out on 5 JuryoGame points on the 5th tie breaker...

Congrats to all the winners! A more unpredictable besho that needed extra skills! I've defended my January title as well as Terunofuji did, but... Losing two basho on tie breaks ARGHHHH? I think I've lost JuryoGame to kuroimori on the 5th tie breaker (highest rank).

30 points from the joi and.. 9 from the rest

Thank you! I guess scores were high across many games because almost all of the favourites ended up with strong records. Things might be a bit less obvious in Makuuchi in March, but we'll have two 'easy' picks in Juryo (in theory). Looking forward to it!

AMAZING! Very happy about this. The stars have aligned - I didn't think I could beat all the veterans! I trusted Terunofuji to bring it home and that really paid off, I guess (especially in the Norizo Cup). And Takerufuji helped me out in Chain Gang. Thank you Isegahama! The basho started off with a huge facepalm when I realised I mistakenly chose Onosato as Weak Maegashira in Juryo Game. Thankfully it didn't count! Let's hope I won't crash down too quickly...