Gurowake

North Pole is where all the cool, er, cold, people belong. Being from the often frozen wasteland of Michigan made me feel like it was the right choice for me.

Tochitaikai - J9w

Something's not right with Tamawashi here. 83 looks to be the correct number of basho, being wrong in the active rikishi list, but also it's not bolded in the top 10 list. Plus, Tamawashi is on the top 10 list twice.

I suppose one question might be whether other forums using the same software have the same bug, but I'm not active in any other forums, so I wouldn't know where to check.

Strange that they're not switching kabu then to keep the name of the heya the same. I guess it's strange either way, but I thought it was pretty much always the case when someone took over from a shisho becoming a sanyo that they switched kabu to maintain the name of the heya. I suppose it might be related to the rest of the strangeness of the urakata moving due to the past ichimon lines being crossed, and so they want to emphasize that this isn't exactly the same heya as it was.

I found a video on YouTube from a random Ukrainian who talked about Aonishiki's yusho. It didn't have anything to say about his promotion, but this thread is probably the best place to put what I'm about to say. In the comments, there was discussion about his promotion to Ozeki, and some guy stated that he thought he might be promoted to Yokozuna with a 15-0 next basho. I told him that Yokozuna promotion required two basho at Ozeki, and he repeated what he said that there would be at least a consideration to promote him immediately. I said that it didn't happen with Futabayama, but he replied that those zenshos weren't 15-0s, so they weren't the same, and even claimed I was "misleading" by bringing up that. I did admit to him that with all the 6-9s they've kept at their rank recently that had no prior precedent (two rikishi at the bottom of the division, plus Takayasu, who at least got a slot demotion) that you never really know with the Kyokai and they can definitely decide to change how things work if they feel like it, but felt it wasn't worth responding to when he called my mention of Futabayama misleading. I know, a random guy in YouTube comments, who cares? I suppose I don't really read much in the way of comments on YouTube, so maybe it's filled with such people who are so confident in things they have no reason to be, but this really irked me. Almost anywhere if you ask "Can an Ozeki be promoted to Yokozuna in just on basho" you'll be told no. So where in the world is this guy getting the idea that it's possible? Wishful thinking? I admit that it doesn't explicitly say that on (English) Wikipedia, so perhaps he just thinks that a zensho after a Sekiwake Yusho shows the necessary strength as an Ozeki going by what the requirements are stated to be on Wikipedia.

If they can't get a kabu from an oyakata who is retiring, then they don't get to become an oyakata. Ozeki have 3 years and Yokozuna 5 to get kabu after retiring, but everyone else needs one the instant they retire. There generally aren't enough kabu to go around for those who qualify to hold one. We've seen plenty of perennial Makuuchi rikishi (Chiyotairyu and Shohozan come to mind) fail to secure one. Despite the fact that they shouldn't be sold, if you want to get an oyakata to recommend you as their successor, it helps to pay them "consulting fees", so it's more about who has the most generous koenkai than who was best on the dohyo. Oyakata cannot actively form their own stable unless they were at least Ozeki or had 60 Makuuchi basho (or 25 sanyaku basho, but no one has ever qualified that way and not one of the other ways by the end of their career). Any oyakata can inherit a stable though.

Hakuyozan has been a pretty safe bet for this game the last few years - I think I picked him the last two years. I think the time has come for me to switch to someone else though; I'm not feeling him being able to hold on in Juryo by the end of 2026. He should be demoted this basho, but there really isn't anyone to replace him.

While I admit it would be a bit harder to do if you don't get two basho in Juryo such that your second basho is from the top of the division, Ichinojo managed to get to Sekiwake in 1 basho in Makuuchi. You don't need to be Sekiwake though - a 15-0 from anywhere in Makuuchi will certainly get you in the joi (see how they overpromoted Tokushoryu and Terunofuji after their M17 yushos), and from there 3 solid basho would be plenty; 2 more 15-0s might even do it. But certainly he's not getting Ozeki in 2026, which makes him irrelevant for this particular poll. It's simply not possible.

If it was a draw, the kimarite would be hikiwake. You can search for bouts with that kimarite in the bout query. The bout you mention shows yorikiri as the kimarite, so something is just a little messed up in the database there in terms of what icon to show.

This happened during one particular Covid basho on a number of occasions. In this case, they both get fusenpai.

Draws are still *possible*. There hasn't been one since the 1970s, but they theoretically can still happen. They are extremely unlikely to happen because of water breaks, but I think if they have two breaks and would need to call a third, they would call a draw. Don't hold me to that specifically, but it's something like that. Every match recently that has had a water break has been resolved on the restart. The rest of those results are still possible. What's not possible any more is an "azukari", which is an inconclusive result. Now a torinaoshi is called instead of just declaring no winner.

Is there a reason there are two 2027 choices? Is one supposed to be 2028?

At least Daiseizan lost his match. If he had won, there would have been some terrible decisions to make about how to order the guys with promotable records that would be staying in Juryo, which might have led them to promote Daiseizan in favor of Oshoumi. Unless they would have done that in such a situation, they'd have to either 1) demote Fujiseiun, 2) not promote Kotoeiho even a single slot with a 9-6, or 3) have Daiseizan's win mean absolutely nothing, ranking him behind both of them. It's good that they can just go with the third option there and not worry about it too much.

I also just noticed that Hiradoumi also has a 4-11 only 3 slots above Oshoma, and the gap between them could also expand, depending on how nicely they treat each of them relative to the guys I pointed out that are likely to get big promotions.