Kaito

Congrats to Daiamami! Coming off of a 4-11 and a year straight of MK, he opened this basho with an 0-3 record, wisely securing himself the worst strength of schedule possible, then proudly beat 3 lower-ranked struggling rikishi before being scheduled a promotion-deciding match against a 3-11 opponent who was always unlikely to show up for the match. Brilliant tactics by this man, who so clearly deserves another shot at Juryo.

In to play my best game.

I didn't check the Tipspiel rankings today, but I'm very far from the leaders. Probably so far that nothing I do matters. So I took the wrestlers I thought others wouldn't want so I can score 15 while everyone else gets 0. I thought Takerufuji would win though.

You're not the first person I've heard say it's an obvious concussion. Not saying you're wrong, but it's not obvious to me. I've just thought it looked like he had immense back pain trying to stand up the last 4 days. I don't get this comparison. Hakuho was significantly younger when he passed through makushita and he also didn't suddenly go 15-0 when he got to Juryo.

I noticed in my first makushita tournaments that the schedule would change towards the end so I had to face the chasers, allowing them to catch up. I would assume your match against Kitakachiyama is just being withheld until a later day.

Day 5 bug again.

Finally, some news! I'd been wondering if nobody was planning on training for this basho.

Been a while since the Archives were updated. Any chance we can get them up to date again?

Had I not missed the poll, I would have done the same.

I'd point out though, that these rikishi are being grouped for their strong 1st legs of a potential run, whereas the committee wants to see an upward trajectory with a strong final leg, ideally. So it makes sense that the rikishi who made ozeki ended up well past the 33 expected, and it's easy to imagine why Takanosato didn't make the grade ending on a 9. Maybe if his results were reversed, he had a chance? But then I look at Kotomitsuki and have no idea why that wasn't good enough, so...

The confirmation emails are broken. If you're on the entry list, you're fine.

The talk of Hatsu's edition of ISP being a difficult one prompted me to dig into the stats of this game a bit. I've long been impressed by how well Kintamayama picks the matches. For a short time, I'd even go back to my Toto picks and reverse my pick if I'd picked the obvious choice. Frankly, I don't know why I stopped because I think the strategy worked well for me. The man must see something I don't. I only went back and looked at results from Hatsu 2020-Present, mostly because that's when I started playing the games, but I think it's a nice enough starting point if I'm not gonna go back to the 1990's. Since Hatsu 2020, players' picks have been correct only 51.29% of the time. To be clear, that's counting up every pick that's been made, not a representation of how often the majority pick was correct. The majority pick has been correct almost 55% in that time, so I suppose when the people get fooled, they get fooled big. Hatsu 2025 saw players get only 43.53% of their picks right. It hasn't been uncommon at all for players to miss on the majority of their picks, but this basho was still the 2nd toughest. The most difficult basho was Hatsu 2022, with only 35.58% correct picks! The easiest days since I've started playing were Day 15 of Hatsu 2023 (Tobizaru 146 vs Kotoeko 16 - 90.12%) and Day 10 of Aki 2024 (Hiradoumi 137 vs Tobizaru 15 - 90.13%). The most difficult pick was Day 8 of Hatsu 2020 (Enho 12 vs Endo 165 - 6.78%). 75 different wrestlers have been featured in ISP matches in this time frame. The wrestler who's been featured the most is Shodai with a 17-21 record in 38 matches. The wrestler who's appeared in the most basho without being selected for a match is Churanoumi, who's been in the top division for the last 8 basho. Attesting to Kintamayama's ability to pick even matches, 17 of the 75 have even win rates in their ISP matches, including Mitakeumi and Daieisho, both at 18-18. Including wrestlers with an odd number of matches, more than half of the 75 are within 1 win or loss of an even record. Wrestlers underrated by Kintamayama include Kotoshoho (10-3), Onosho (18-8), Takakeisho (18-9), Midorifuji (12-6), Tobizaru (18-10), and Kirishima (22-14). Those overrated tend to have fewer matches, as they usually disappear one way or another, but we have Sadanoumi (1-6), Tochinoshin (1-5), Okinoumi (2-8), Terutsuyoshi (2-7), Chiyotairyu (7-13), and Hokutofuji (8-13).

Yes, for all games I can think of, tiebreakers are only used for determining the yusho. Otherwise, tied players split the points.

Sure, I'll play.

I didn't even think it was a matta.