Kaito

Quite a lot of Juryo picking this time. Asashosakari is in line to finish 4th of 5 on tiebreaker and he never picked anyone ranked higher than Daishoho.

There's a lot of complaining online today about a fairly routine bit of judging in the Ura/Kotonowaka match. I wanted Ura to win too, but if it helps anybody, you CANNOT win a match by jumping out of the dohyo before the match is over and trying to land last. If you think you see it happen all the time, you're mistaken. Pay close attention to such attempts in the future and you'll see the pullers are always attempting to keep a foot on the ground in the dohyo until the opponent is down. If Kotonowaka's falling body/hands had touched dirt before Ura leaped back, Ura wins. If Ura's leap was nearly simultaneous with Kotonowaka touching down, rematch. In this case, Ura clearly leaped back way too early and had no chance of even earning a rematch. If a wrestler's feet leave the dohyo and never come down in bounds again, they are dead from the time their feet last touched inside the dohyo.

My thoughts exactly. In thrusting battles, he looks amazing, outreaching opponents and moving them back easily without overcommitting. Against competent belt fighters, he too often steps into their grip and then shows little ability to compete.

I don't feel bad for Kawazoe, since he was unambiguously beaten by Chiyosakae early on and benefitted from a blown call. He produced 3-4 sumo and didn't look ready to me. In the end, Shiden was the only one who did beat Chiyosakae, and they both looked by far the most worthy of moving up. I don't hate Tsushimanada getting another chance, but honestly, I wish they wouldn't hesitate to demote people out of juryo when the results warrant it. Shimanoumi's worn out his welcome.

I think the top and bottom of the maegashira ranks look straightforward, but you quickly have to start placing extremely lenient falls from the joi or extremely generous promotions from the bottom of the division, and once you start interweaving them, it seems hard to avoid giving wildly different treatment to different people from the same groups, made worse by putting Ichinojo and Asanoyama anywhere in the middle of it.

Sign me up, boss.

Ishiura went up with a 6-1 from Ms6W, chosen over a 4-3 from Ms5e. From previous research, it was hard to even say 4-3s from Ms4 were favored over 6-1s from Ms6. There are just so few situations where both records happen simultaneously AND the right number of juryo slots are available for them to be tested against one another. I'm pretty confident Shiden's going up. GTB looks quite tough to me atm. I feel like you can try Ichinojo/Asanoyama anywhere from M5W/M6E to M13W/M14E, and nothing works out quite right.

Don't call it a comeback!

If I had been following yesterday's results on a handwritten page, I'd perform an exorcism on it and toss it into an active volcano.

I'm too lazy to be handwriting all that every day. I usually just keep 3 tabs open, one each for Sumo Game and Bench, and one with my e-mails, so I can follow along with Toto and check TTT/Quad/Odd as needed. In the Sumo Game and Bench tabs, I write the unique wrestlers each side has into the address bar (with how many points they're worth in Bench) then score or delete them as they happen. On the rare occasion I'm not doing horribly in Tipspiel, I may keep a tab open for it. And then day 15, I'm usually high enough in Oracle that I'll keep a notepad window open tracking the matches that affect the relative scores of the contenders.

Yeahhh, gg. I recall I wasn't very modest last time, and I would've been happy to continue playing the heel, but it was tough to feel confident in my victory when I wasn't confident in much of what I'd picked. Good luck the rest of the way!

I didn't like it either, and not only because it cost me 30 points in Odd Sumo.

Seemed respectful enough to me.

When will the sumogames.de games be available for registration? Everything's still stuck on Hatsu basho.

I was pretty confident Takayasu would be M7W when I was scrolling down to check my results. I wish I'd known it before entering though.

Presumably, he has Myogiryu at M10E. The "M10 duo" are Aoiyama and Hiradoumi, coming up from M10 with matching records.

There are a couple tricky sections, but after last time, filling this one out felt like a breeze. At least I feel like I know how many sanyaku to expect.

Heck yeah I'll stay in!

I'm not concerned with the raw point total, just how my points stack up against others. So Wakatakakage for example. I had him predicted for 9 while the leader (Kishikaisei) had him down for 8. He got his 9th win today so I gained a point and he lost a point. Kishikaisei was up 8 points on me going into the final day, but I had 7 wrestlers that would create a 2-point swing in my favor with a win (Wakatakakage, Midorifuji, Hokutofuji, Kagayaki, Kotoeko, Tsurugisho, Hokuseiho). He had only 1 (Mitakeumi). If all the matches were coin flips, he'd still be favored to top me by 2 points on average, but he was the only one who was. Knowing the matchups on the final day, I had a hunch I'd probably fall a little short of my projections, but I didn't expect to have only 1 result of those 8 go in my favor. My matchups with others were similarly one-sided, with me having long lists of potential earners vs 1 or 2 rikishi on the other side. But it was only the rikishi on the other sides that were winning.

It was pretty hard for me to finish worse than 5th or so, even with a bad schedule. If not for Wakatakakage at the end, I would've been entirely shut out on like...the 10-15 most important matches.

I mean, I said the torikumi was unfavorable for my Oracle entry, but this is absurd. My boys are getting swept off the dohyo.

Without knowing how anyone else is doing, I think I should be in contention for the Green Mawashi, so that's cool. Norizo Cup - I'll either hit the Special Question or get a 2nd Kotoshoho sansho in Norizo Cup, and the remaining questions are good for me. There are ways for me to not win, but I'm bound to be close. Salary Cap - I'll get yusho/jun-yusho bonuses for Takakeisho and Kotoshoho. To win, I'll probably either need Onosho to get jun-yusho too, or Kiribayama not to, if not both. Oracle - Projected in a 2nd way tie with a few people, with winning chances. I actually have a ton of guys I can gain points with on the last day, and very few I can lose on, but I don't think the torikumi is very favorable. I have some definite regrets here (aside from predicting 4 for Ichiyamamoto) because my initial entry was much better, but I made nothing but harmful edits trying to trim the excess wins I was giving out. Off the top of my head, I remember having a 9th win for Onosho, a 10th for Kotoshoho, and 8ths for Chiyonokuni and Daishoho. It was hard to not give all MKs in Juryo with Asanoyama, Kinbozan, and Hokuseiho gobbling up so many wins. Bench - Facing the leader on day 15. To yusho I'd have to win a big multiway tiebreaker, but just winning the match would make a big difference in points. Also pretty good points from Chain Gang, Quad, and TTT, with some point chances in POG and Hoshitori. If Kotoshoho wins the yusho, I could finish 2nd or something in Hoshitori. If not, probably nothing. The most annoying thing was throwing the Odd yusho, I picked a trio I liked that would have put me in 1st, then I checked the rankings and decided my bet would be winning more than I needed, so I swapped out one of them for an "easier" pick that was still enough for 1st. If the leader had had a few more points at the time, I would've stuck with the original. Obviously nobody to blame but myself. Still happy for what I have and looking forward to the final day!

Some updates if it helps at all, 2)At least one Komusubi will have at least 6wins against Maegashira Rikishi.小結誰かが平幕から６勝以上する。 NO. Kiribayama, Meisei, and Wakamotoharu all lead with 3. They can only reach 5. 12)At least one Sekitori [Makunouchi or Juryo Rikishi] will have at least 4 matches against the Rikishi from Mongolia.モンゴル出身力士４人と対戦する関取。 YES. Ichiyamamoto (vs. Mitoryu, Chiyoshoma, Oshoma, Azumaryu). Endo[M9w] vs M14[Ichiyamamoto, Azumaryu]遠藤(西前９)－前頭１４枚目（一山本、東龍） ENDO. Defeated his opponents days 11 and 12. That's all for finished questions. Some others are nearly finished. 5)In comparison of the number of wins against the Rikishi ranked in M4 or above Banzuke ranking Rikishi, both Rikishi ranked in M5 will be the top 2 Rikishi in the Rikishi ranked in M5-8. [Both each is not necessary alone.]前頭５～８枚目で前頭４枚目以上からの勝ち星が最も多い上位２人は前頭５枚目の両者。 M5e Ryuden leads with 4. M5w Nishikigi has 3 and a low-ranking opponent for day 14. The only contenders with a chance to reach 4 are Onosho and Ura. Both are on 2 wins with a chance for their 3rd on day 14. 11)At least 2 Makunouchi Rikishi will update their own records of wins in a Basho in their Makunouchi carrier.過去幕内での自己最高成績を上回る勝ち星を上げる幕内力士が２人以上。 Azumaryu has done it, already with 9, his previous best being 7. Ichiyamamoto needs 1 to beat his best of 8. Kotoshoho also needs 1 to beat his best of 10. Onosho would need 2 to beat his best of 11. 13)At least 2 Makunouchi Rikishi will win against the Rikishi whom they are defeated in at least 5 Basho in the last year.昨年度５敗以上を喫した相手に勝つ幕内力士２人以上。 There were 6 qualifying pairs. In 4 cases, the usual winner won again (Hoshoryu vs Kotonowaka, Daieisho vs Shodai, Tamawashi vs Daieisho, Kagayaki vs Azumaryu). In 1 case, the 2022 loser prevailed (Mitakeumi vs Kotonowaka). The last pair is Wakatakakage vs Ura. The matchup would need to be scheduled for day 15 and then Ura would have to win, otherwise this is a NO.

I've been missing this topic all basho. I've had plenty to whine about but nowhere to post it. Today went pretty well though.

Guess it's another basho wasted for me. I think I had Takayasu for 3 points before resubmitting and talking myself into sliding him down over and over until he was an alternate. I had Okinoumi for 5 or 6 points last basho and I thought he looked pretty bad, but he clawed his way to 8 wins on technique alone against the low-level competition he was facing, so I gave him a pass this time and only put him on 1. And now he leaves without a win. And of course Big Dan is having his yearly good tournament early this year. My timing's just a little off.