Behold, it's a Sekitori-* games banzuke update

[Asashosakari 20,252]

Here we go with the long-awaited updates to all three Sekitori banzuke. A couple of notes, now that I've taken over as the full-time banzuke maker:

Since I don't have administrative access to most of the game data, I'm giving kosho to all first-time absences, not just those who registered their absence on the respective games websites. As a small manner of compensation, I tend to be pretty strict about that whole "kosho may count as 7-8 equivalent" rule. What you won't see from me is something like this:

M6e 7-8 -> M7e

M6w kosho -> M6w

Both players would drop half a rank instead. So, please, no complaints if you find yourself a few ranks lower than expected...if e.g. a 7-8 player needed to drop three full ranks, so will kosho players in the same banzuke area.

With the demise of hakkeyoi.net's hosting for SO and S4, all updated game banzukes can now be found on Zenjimoto's anasuya.com site, and they're helpfully standardized in their look as well, mostly because I couldn't be bothered to customize my HTML code for each game. :-)

Not much to note in the updated Sekitori-Toto banzuke...all missing banzukes from Kyushu 2006 through Haru 2007 are now online. Scoring was quite high in Makuuchi as always, so the promotions were relatively small, and scores even had to be adjusted downward by one win for the Hatsu banzuke (sorry to the handful of 8-7 players from Kyushu).

Hatsu basho saw an unexpected clearing of the lower sanyaku ranks, as only 2 of the 10 sanyaku reached kachi-koshi (three of the four Ozeki will be kadoban for Haru), but in turn the average score among the Maegashira was rather high at about 8.2 wins so most promotions turned out very small once again.

Golynohana has a shot at Ozeki promotion in Haru basho, based on this impressive run:

2006.05 M12e 10-5

2006.07 M9e 12-3

2006.09 M2e 12-3

2006.11 Sw 12-3

2007.01 Se kosho

2007.03 Sw

However, since neither Kitanoumi nor ex-Oshiogawa are sitting on the Seki-Toto banzuke council, we're not gonna say how many wins are expected of Golynohana. ;-) (Nor whether a successful re-animation of SO and S4 by him might work as a bribe.)

Next up, Seki-Quad, where a Kyushu/Hatsu/Haru banzuke was created based on the semi-manually calculated Aki results. If I may toot my own horn for a moment, yours truly just became the first player to go from a Makushita debut to sanyaku; ironic that the game fell over and died right at that point. (Spooky TV program...) Sanyaku was cleared out here as well, with six make-koshi in Aki basho. Unfortunately most of those six players (along with a couple of Maegashira) were vying for the same spots on the new banzuke, so there had to be some rather harsh demotions. Sorry 'bout that.

Lastly, Seki-Oracle, where a few more substantial changes took place. For one, demoted Ozeki Flohru achieved 10 wins in Hatsu basho but was accidentally overlooked for his deserved re-repromotion, which led to some minor fixes in the sanyaku portion of the Haru and Natsu banzukes:

Haru 2006 old:										|  Haru 2006 new:
												  |
Gachinco (Yw, 10-5)	  Y   ---					  |  Gachinco (Yw, 10-5)	  Y   ---
Ekigozan (Oe, 8-7)	   O							|  Ekigozan (Oe, 8-7)	   O   Flohru (S2w, 10-5)
Flohru (S2w, 10-5)	   S1  Andoreasu (Sw, 8-7)	  |  Andoreasu (Sw, 8-7)	  S   Norizo (K2e, 11-4)
---					  S2  Norizo (K2e, 11-4)	   |
Wasarabiyama (Ke, 8-7)   K1  Choshu-yuki (M1e, 10-5)  |  Wasarabiyama (Ke, 8-7)   K1  Choshu-yuki (M1e, 10-5)
Tochitanpo (M3e, 11-4)   K2  Ulsimitsuki (M3w, 11-4)  |  Tochitanpo (M3e, 11-4)   K2  Ulsimitsuki (M3w, 11-4)
Azumaryu (M4e, 11-4)	 K3  Susanoo (M11e, 14-1)	 |  Azumaryu (M4e, 11-4)	 K3  Susanoo (M11e, 14-1)
---					  K4  Zenjimoto (M8e, 12-3)	|  ---					  K4  Zenjimoto (M8e, 12-3)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Natsu 2006 old:									   |  Natsu 2006 new:
												  |
---					  Y   Gachinco (Ye, 8-7)	   |  ---					  Y   Gachinco (Ye, 8-7)
Ekigozan (Oe, 10-5)	  O   ---					  |  Ekigozan (Oe, 10-5)	  O   Flohru (Ow, kosho)
Norizo (S2w, 9-6)		S   Flohru (Se, kosho)	   |  Norizo (Sw, 9-6)		 S1  Choshu-yuki (Kw, 10-5)
												  |  Azumaryu (K3e, 10-5)	 S2  ---
Choshu-yuki (Kw, 10-5)   K1  Azumaryu (K3e, 10-5)	 |  Doitsuyama (M1e, 11-4)   K1  Tochitanpo (K2e, 8-7)
Doitsuyama (M1e, 11-4)   K2  Tochitanpo (K2e, 8-7)	|  Charliki (M6w, 12-3)	 K2  Dimitri (M3e, 9-6)
Charliki (M6w, 12-3)	 K3  Dimitri (M3e, 9-6)	   |  ---					  K3  Wasarabiyama (Ke, kosho)
---					  K4  Wasarabiyama (Ke, kosho) |

The Nagoya banzuke underwent a more major revision since besides Flohru there were also a couple of other issues (some tech-related with hakkeyoi.net falling apart), including the fact that three Makuuchi players had been awarded kosho twice in a row. In the end, Makuuchi had to be redone entirely, so if you're keeping track of your own gaming progress please check with the updated banzuke. All in all, it was decided to make the following major changes:

- promote Azumaryu to Ozeki, based on 33 wins in three basho, albeit with a M4e start. Working in his favour was the fact that he had only two make-koshi ever and had spent more than half of the game's existence as Sekiwake, despite debuting in Makushita. Of course, with Azumaryu's unfortunate recent intai his Ozeki stint has turned out to last just two basho, but "post-humous" congrats all the same to one of the most constant SO players ever. :-)

- promote Randomitsuki and Kitahayate to Makuuchi in exchange for two of the now-demoted non-kosho players (Ookihito and Boltono). This led to a rescoring of the divisional Nagoya results, but luckily nobody else's win-loss record was affected by the change. Due to the higher competition level Randomitsuki's Juryo 8-7 turned into a Makuuchi 6-9, and Kitahayate now has a 5-10 instead of 7-8, but I hope the retroactive Makuuchi promotion makes up for that. :-)

The Juryo part of the banzuke remained essentially unchanged, except that most players are now one or two half-ranks higher than before, in order to accommodate the two non-kosho players falling down from Makuuchi.

Also, Seki Haruaki was put back into the banzuke after the unfortunate mix-up with sekihiryu.

Not much to say about the Aki banzuke, other than that Flohru was on a tsunatori run for Aki basho after winning the overall SO yusho in Nagoya. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well, as he fell to make-koshi when I was finally able to work out the divisional records (people with an impeccable long-term memory may recall the overall results being posted eons months ago). We do have some happy news for the Kyushu/Hatsu/Haru banzuke, as Norizo was promoted to Ozeki based on the following long-term run:

2005.07 M10e 11-4

2005.09 M5w 10-5

2005.11 M1w 11-4

2006.01 K2e 11-4

2006.03 Sw 9-6

2006.05 S1e 12-3Y

2006.07 Se 9-6

2006.09 Se 10-5

Yes, he never cleared the 33-win mark, but his near .700 winning percentage over this stretch put him miles ahead of any other SO player (including Yokozuna Gachinco and the Ozekis) and his consistency in staying at 30+ wins per three basho in the highly competitive Makuuchi division had to be rewarded at this point.

Anyway, that's all I think. Now, let's hope for S4 and SO to return to action soon. If you have any comments/complaints/threats of physical harm about the banzuke updates, please let me know. :-)

Edited February 14, 2007 by Asashosakari

[Kintamayama 47,236]

I admit I never believed these games would be revived, so let me be the first to congratulate you on this evidently time-consuming and nerve wracking effort.

Well done indeed.

[Asashosakari 20,252]

I admit I never believed these games would be revived, so let me be the first to congratulate you on this evidently time-consuming and nerve wracking effort.

Well done indeed.

Well, we'll see if the games themselves can be revived (SO and S4 anyway)...I'm just humbly laying the groundwork here.

[Fujisan 535]

Nice work Asashosakari! (Spooky TV program...)

[Zenjimoto 40]

Many many thanks to Asashosakari, who much like Randomitsuki with the Superbanzuke, expended much of his time and effort for the love of the games to build and rebuild these banzuke! Great work, indeed, and here's hoping for things returning to normal in the near future!

Cheers!

Zenjimoto

[Igiski 2]

I guess I'm an escalator rikishi in Seki-Toto. Vew the following:

Hatsu 06 Rank: M12W Record: 5-10

Haru 06 Rank: J1E Record: 9-6

Natsu 06 Rank: M16E Record: 7-8

Nagoya 06 Rank: J1E Record: 9-6

Aki 06 Rank: M16W Record: 7-8

Kyushu 06 Rank: J1W Record: 9-6

Hatsu 07 Rank: M16E Record: 6-9

Haru 07 Rank: J3E

[Doitsuyama 1,259]

I guess I'm an escalator rikishi in Seki-Toto. Vew the following:

Hatsu 06 Rank: M12W Record: 5-10

Haru 06 Rank: J1E Record: 9-6

Natsu 06 Rank: M16E Record: 7-8

Nagoya 06 Rank: J1E Record: 9-6

Aki 06 Rank: M16W Record: 7-8

Kyushu 06 Rank: J1W Record: 9-6

Hatsu 07 Rank: M16E Record: 6-9

Haru 07 Rank: J3E

There's an easy solution for you. Skip all Tokyo bashos.

(Sign of approval...)

[kaiguma 0]

I guess I'm an escalator rikishi in Seki-Toto.

There's an easy solution for you. Skip all Tokyo bashos.

(Sign of approval...)

Correct answer: more keiko!

Isn't there a limit on career kosho for these games, or even annually? I certainly hope people are at least sending in slips from the doctor! We wouldn't want anyone gaming the system (I am not worthy...)