Sue

I thought it was 1. Steal mawashis 2. ??? 3. Profit!

Yokozuna who win 10+ yushos in Makuuchi are commonly referred to as "dai-Yokozuna." If Terunofuji wins five more yushos, which would put him at a total of 10, does that make him a dai-Yokozuna? Or does he need to get to 14?

...or is done with a Ouija board.

I've never once played, and don't plan to. I had some thoughts of trying to train some sumo-related ML models once, but that was out of curiosity for how well I could predict things, and not to try to play online sumo games.

Building a machine learning model for A) the banzuke, and B) predicting career trajectory for rikishi was on my "to do" list when I was the VP of Engineering at an AI company, but since I left, I haven't had time.

Interesting what we remember. My memories are Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron, and James Bond (and "the Queen") parachuting in. (Which technically makes HM the Q a Bond Girl.)

I'm still heartbroken that Ura didn't get a match against Omote during his trip to the lower ranks.

No mass kyujo this time around due to some heya being knocked out due to COVID exposure? That's an improvement.

Asanoyama yusho!

The Return of the Pink Panther!

TnoF Y and TK JY is the obvious thing to happen. Ozumo is full of surprises, especially in a transitional period like this one, so I'd be surprised if the unsurprising thing were to happen. I predict that at least one of the pair is going to finish with neither a Y nor a JY, possibly both. (I think Terunofuji is queued up for his moment of destiny, but he could still easily get hurt.)

I predict that Asanoyama will not save himself from being kadoban.

How is Ryuden not #1 on either of these lists, from Jk17W?

One might argue that a suspension-worthy offence on the part of a Yokozuna damages their hinkaku to the point where they should have an intai recommendation, more so than merely going makekoshi would.

It's definitely the arena where they compete in July. Is it actually better or worse than other venues, or is it just that the basho happens in the hottest month of the Japanese year?

If you're going to move it off the final weekend, why not go all the way, and open the tournament with a straight-up east versus west matchup at every rank, plus or minus adjustments for kyujo, intai, and odd numbers at sanyaku ranks and bottoms of divisions? Shonichi is kind of boring as it is, since no storylines have developed and you don't get any kind of picture of how the basho is developing going out of the day; why not add interest with some premium matchups? And it'd add interest to banzuke day, since you'd be effectively getting the torikumi for day 1 then. That would get one good matchup out of a disappearing Yokozuna, at least.

What actually happens to the clay and tawara that make up the dohyo after the basho is over? It's all been ritually blessed, so just dumping it in a landfill seems disrespectful.

Does it matter whether a jun-yusho was a solo jun-yusho, or shared? Does it matter enough to be a factor in a run?

Why do you want to jinx poor Takakeisho?

A shame for Atamifuji. Three yusho to start a career would have been an amazing start.

Tobizaru stayed on the dohyo! Is he allowed to do that?

Much as I've been a supporter of his, this isn't the only basho where he's been shaky.

The Asanoyama scandal (sob) means that Takayasu picks up a fusensho tomorrow, putting him on 8 wins with 3 remaining, and he's already faced the other three Ozeki. He went 10-5 last basho; this could set him up well for making this basho leg 2 of a hypothetical Ozeki (re)run. But he'd have to win two, or better yet all, of those remaining three matches. ...and then go 12-3 or better in July, which is a taller order.

Is it too early to get on the Next Ozeki Shodai bandwagon?

Juryo is intensely fratricidal, anyway, with a lot of parity. I wouldn't trust a lead in that division until someone opens up two or more wins late in the basho.