Oskanohana

"Snake-oil oyakata, former sekiwake Aminishiki"(thanks for that, Clancy), didn't even have to get to those 10.

Are you telling me that the kyokai recognized a mistake they made and corrected it? Another sign of the apocalypse, might as well pop the champagne to celebrate the Takayusho then.

Just to throw a bone to mah boy Akua after the excellent mathematical analysis by @Asashosakari. Hokutofuji wins (bear with me here) eliminating Daiamami from contention and goes immediately intai to retire as a sekitori........Who am I kidding, in that case, he'd wait a couple of days before announcing and pick up the last paycheck anyways.

For completeness' sake, these highlighted fellas also made it to juryo in 2 tournaments starting from lower half of makushita AND lower (yeah, Hokutokuni was helped by the yaocho scandal, but it's still impressive). I'm talking "current" sizes here, as 1967.05 date is when division sizes were reduced to 40 (MU), 26(J) and 120(Ms). Makuuchi and juryo were added two extra spots each in 2004, Daimanazuru and that guy promoted from Ms9 with a 6-1 record surely remember. Edit: I just saw the initial query was only from 2004-now. Might this query show also the rest of the discriminated rikishi, even when they're not highlighted, you size purist

Funnily enough, Ms6w Akua can end up 3rd in the promotion queue if the 3 top 3-3's from Ms lose their bouts, and he would do it even with a loss on his last match (against Asahakuryu?). With Kiryuko toast and Otsuji esentially done also unless he turns the switch around and gets that fringe 6-9 record to have a chance to stay, it may depend on their decision about Kitanowaka. If he must go down as punishment for not fighting with an injury, that's 3 slots and the Ms5 wall would have to be torn down to make room for him as a sekitori. Come on, we need to see him the full 15 days. He has to extend the kakenage win record if he doesn't want the old man with the bow to catch him. Those jonidan fellas fall way too easily...

Akchyually, he has been blessed by the utter draught of dominant rikishi and introduced into a category in which, according to statistical analysis, he'll reach sanyaku in about 3 years and has a 50-50 chance of winning a yusho (either he does or he doesn't) and he's guaranteed to be part of a kettei-sen at least. So, yeah, it was pretty much on the cards. Now, if only Kotonowakazakura , the pioneer, had collaborated a little bit, we could have gone further into the rabbithole, but these top guys, they can't even suck properly.

Just as a note in case @Randomitsuki doesn't notice when giving the final results, the Oshoryu-Toseiryu result from day 4 is wrong in the sumodb (as reported in the thread about its bugs), and is wrong in the standings for this game. If it doesn't get fixed in time, the real results should have 0.5 points less for Torafujii (who is the only maverick who picked Toseiryu) and 0.5 points more for the 8 who picked Oshoryu, that includes current leader @Ganzohnesushi

So Takayasu has been given a soft ball tomorrow.... Don't listen to false prophets. Believe in the Takayusho.

Tamawashi is looking to reach oyakata retirement age while still on the dohyo. Are they finally going to recognize him with a sansho? This basho there are too many maegashira with a shot at those, so unless he keeps kicking ass this last weekend, it doesn't look likely. He might have to face Aonishiki, who wasn't born when Tamawashi first appeared on the banzuke (and he wasn't even as young, he started at 19) Kusano's run to me looks kind of flukish. He has done very solid sumo, but he didn't face anybody with makuuchi experience until day 10 (and that was Shimanoumi, for Homer's sake), then half-legged Tsurugisho and Roga, which would be his first win against "somebody" and Roga had it but was sloppy, but props to Kusano either way. He has even avoided the more promising youngsters in the division (Wakaikari, Kotoeiho, Oshoumi, Nabatame...., sorry, had to have that laugh). I love me some yotsu guys and he's looking to have a very solid career, but I wouldn't start the future ozeki alerts until some more proof. Next up is Kayo, whom you may remember from his roles on Raiders of the lost Ark and Hook. Mercy.

Ye of little faith! Hear the good news, the Takayusho is finally here. All signs point to it. It's five seconds to midnight on the doomsday clock. The apocalypse is coming. The second coming of the prophets from old Tagonoura-beya is here. Yissusnosato showed him the way and Takayissus will follow his steps. Bathe in the sunlight of the Takayusho!!!

So business as usual for him. Terunofuji best mongolian yokozuna ever, ergo bestest yokozuna of them all. Very poor first performance by the Khans, didn't quite remember that.

Hear, hear! I propose a non-binding resolution for a day 13 kyujo because of a nondescript nagging injury.

Against the flying, monkey, big deal. I think that Hoshoyu thought for a while about lifting the monkey up for a tsuridashi or tsuriotoshi, and in the end decided to go for the prosaic finish, cause it gets him the same points. To kind of reuse an old internet meme, Uncle is disappoint.

Wouldn't you know, you might be correct (surprised pikachu face.jpg) After a harsh session of nested conditionals, stupid filters and some nonsense, apart from Takekaze, only Tamanofuji, Ryogoku and Tochinoshin emerged with needing more than 20 tries to get a kinboshi form the start of the 6-basho era(1958, sorry @Asashosakari, but 1930 seemed too much work for me once I had started). I didn't even bother to include the previous basho, so if a rikishi got more tries before that 1958 cutline, tough luck. List might be incorrect because fuck shikona changes and guys with same shikona, but these are my rough findings. First, I'll start with the guys that didn't even get a kinboshi after 20+ tries, number in brackets indicates the valid attempts at a kinboshi (fusen don't count): Kaisei (30) Toki (29) Sadanoumi (28) (not the current one, but Sadanoumi Sr.) Mitoizumi (22) Daiju (20) Tokitenku (20) Then we have the list of the succesful ones, number in brackets indicates the try they were succesful in (as in Takekaze lost 25 times to a Yokozuna as a maegashira before getting his kinboshi on the 26th try): Takekaze (26) Tamanofuji (22) Ryogoku (21) Tochinoshin (21) So, there you go, there's my answer to my own question that nobody really cares about. If somebody is interested in the full list; I have it in a spreadsheet, but results need to be carefully watched so no Sadanoumi or other bullshit happened.

Yeah, I tried that but too much of a hassle between that, taking out fusen bouts and specially draws from pre WWII bouts, which, whithout any kimarite, are awful to track. If I'm awfully bored, I might try later, maybe culling from WWII on or something like that. Plus, the db was kicking me out regularly for making it work too much :P