Itachi

The top bracket in Makushita looks like a real meat grinder this tournament. Some good rikishi are bound to have sub-par records due to the extra strong competition. The next two brackets are less exciting - lots of middle aged rikishi who can no longer be seen as rising hopes. Some former sekitori here as usual. I think it will hard for any of these guys to get more than 4 wins unless one of the former maegashira is feeling like his old self again. What is Yoshio doing so far up the banzuke? Sure, 7-0 at Sd 7 is great but all the way to Ms11? Does it always happen like this? Maybe I just never noticied before. Unless Yoshio has used a different shikona, I'm guessing he's never been ranked this high. Do we have a drone? The drone would have to take him and I doubt anyone else would. Well, my motive for posting these observations is partly to keep the Makushita Game topic current. Since we don't post our selections here, there isn't a steady stream of messages helping to remind potential players. I recommend www.scgroup.com for recent records for lower division rikishi. Other sources would be the full banzuke post on this forum (Doitsuyama's I think) which includes birthdates, height and weight which can help with decision making. Now all we need is a good injury report - anyone know about injuries to Makushita rikishi? Itachi

Sd 30e Wakanoho sounds good without looking at the banzuke. I can't pick anyone above Sd 19 so I doubt there is anyone more exciting available to me near that rank. Itachi

Of course, Kintama-zeki and Dotsuyama are not the only contributors. I appreciate the efforts and generosity of all of you who report on the lower divisions.

Congratulations Kintamayama, You deserve this for all your efforts over the years to share information about this division. It is fitting that you and Doitsuyama finish at the top! Thanks for all your help in following the non-sekitori. Itachi

Welcome back Oshirokita! I'm sure you have more important things to fix but is your web site for this game going to be running this tournament? Many divisions are heavily weighted towards the most popular pick so I worry that there will be a lot of identical teams out there.

Oshirokita's excuses for lateness are well known to most of us who play these games. I don't think anyone will object to his entry. Also, clearly no advantage was gained apart from seing the injury update which was available before the dealine anyway.

Thanks for you unheralded effort Kinta-zeki! With the graphics you can see what motivated the kyokai to abolish the Kosho rule. A big swell in absences starting at the turn of the century and falling abruptly after the rule change.

My brother is Frobro. I'd like to see Katayama up again too.

At this time, I'm not planning on playing again. I just couldn't find the time to compete the way I want to. My brother really got into it and I think he may play again. Apparantly now you don't need a Gold membership to have a bank. That would've made a big difference (I think). My brother and I are pretty stubborn about not buying the Gold to play. I've clicked on Brewdude since he called mmy name and anyway he asked first. I wish the best of luck to both you and Jezz in the new round. Try not to pick on my brother who will probably let himself be recruited by another clan if he plays. I'll try clicking for Jezz from my office - though clicks aren't everything - my brother did quite well without Gold or even a single click. Nowhere near the top ten mind you but he had to constantly dump stuff to keep out of the top 100. Now back to my GTYW picks...

Sd45w Hidenofuji

Yoshikaze sustained a bit of a foot injury that caused him to drop out of the yusho race last tourney. How bad is it? Will he be participating this tournament? Will he be able to compete effectively? I got the impression from an earlier injury message that Yoshikaze was badly injured and unlikely to compete but I haven't heard enough to be certain. He has had a fine start to his career as a sekitori - barring serious injury I would expect him to push forward and take a serious run at Makuuchi by the new year. Anyone know about his status?

Good luck getting your system running. I look forward to competing next time you are able to run the game. I'd offer to run it myself if I had the time and knowhow - but I don't! This notice will save me the time I would've spent researching the two Lowest divisions to extract potential yusho winners there. I still nned to look at Sandanme for the Banzuke surfing game and Makushita for ... you know. Thanks for the early notice. Jason (Itachi)

I tried to keep track for a while. I printed out the entire banzuke each tournament and copied over the names of all those I was aware of who had claimed an adoptee. After about a year or two I got too busy and dropped it. I have completely lost track of anyone's adoption claim unless they regulary report on their rikishi. Even then, I've stopped taking records. We all know that the big up and comers are followed by one or more of us (Baruto anyone?) and there are a few like Ichinoya who are well served by their adoptive 'parents' but those silent neglected children will remain so until someone takes up (and actually reports on) the work I attempted to start. For the record, I have claimed two adoptees. Nishikikaze (for about 6 years) and Sasaki (for at least 2 - probably 3 - since he made Sandanme - never to escape). I haven't posted many messages about them but from time to time I mention them - and not always when they do well. I never fail to check their results though - and I've resisted the temptation to abandon them for more promising rikishi once I noticed that they won't likely advance beyond the division I found them in. It's been a few years since I adopted a rikishi. Now that I have a few lower division games to play, I'm watching a lot more non-sekitori anyway - though rarely unsung ones. The idea of selecting a lower division rikishi to follow is no longer restricted to the adoption idea so I feel less inclined to adopt the next riksihi that captures my attention. Last tournament I turned down the chance to select Nishikikaze in the Makushita Game (Alpha Test?). He ended up being a better choice (tied for 1st?) then the more heralded rikishi I selected in his bracket. (I don't remember which one I picked but given Nishikaze's pattern of performance I did not expect him to be the bracket leader). It seems that the attachment I feel for the adoptees I select is different than the enthusiasm I feel for the rikishi I select in games. I continue to root for Sasaki even when I expect him to get his butt kicked by the riksihi he will face in a tournament. I enjoy being pleasantly surprised when he occaisionally wins 5 or 6. I'd like to hear from others who have long stood behind adoptees who never get anywhere on the banzuke. We have all heard about the amazing Ichinoya but there must be others who find fans despite having found the limts of their upward potential.

Star Wars? (Being unsure...) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yup! That's the one. (sorry for the slow response)

Now that my son is born and home I went to end vacation mode in this game but I seem to have been deleted. I'll check with by brother to see if Iexist in the game at all but my user id and password don't work and I can't even get the user id email match to have a new password sent to me. I heard I was demoted to Private from Captain (AWOL for a month - I desrved it) but I was surprised to be locked out altogether. If I can't get back in as Itachi with all the buildings I built and upgraded then I may just have to retire - it was fun to play but it took more time than I could afford on a daily basis. To my fellow clan members, my brother Frobro is doing better than I ever was (found the secret to low ranking and easy $ in the game) and I may just enjoy the game through him from now. I'll try later to get back in but if Itachi has been terminated then I won't bother to rejoin. On the other hand, if I can get back in, I now know a killer strategy to allow me to build all the expensive stuff without getting Gold membership. Itachi

My brother confirmed it. I've been deleted from the game due to being on vacation mode for longer than the limit of 1 month. I may play again, but not just right away. Frobro will do the slaughtering for me until then. Anyone else left the game? Jejima, Brewdude, still playing?

Thanks Susanoo and Asashosakari, 17.5-18.5 isn't so much more than 15 and the likelyhood (sp?) of any of us doing so well is not high. Even if someone did it, I doubt there would be anyone else with 15 or better but the difference could be used to settle a playoff. Imagine losing when scoring 15 or more! I'm sure it will never happen but if it does, you can bore your grandchildren with the story. I think the scoring system looks good. I hope I can do as well in the fall.

I am happy with the proposed solution. One thing that interests me is this. I wonder what the best possible score would look like for tournaments past. By this I don't mean simply 15 times 2 points since there has never been (I presume) 15 7-0 rikishi evenly spaced through the division. I don't have the hoshitori in front of me but what score could we have got this past tournament - if we had correctly picked every bracket winner? Would we have scored more or less that 15 points overall? Does it happen sometimes that the best score possible in a tournament is less than 15? If so, the scoring system is flawed. I expect that many times the best score is more than 15. How much more? How often?

I guess I'm out voted. I still like my simple solution better. It aheres to the original concept of winners in the 15 brackets being the most important and merely gives bonuses to those whose picks finish 2nd or 3rd. The conversion to a score out of 15 is not difficult and many other games use scoring systems that must be converted to scores out of 15. I think the scores I posted are a reasonable measure of everyones relative success at this game. That having been said, I'll be happy to participate in the Makushita game even without the brackets and with a different scoring system. It will be a little more difficult for me to make selections when I have to consider all 120 rikishi at once and not just 8 at a time though. Oh, and it was a boy. Born yesterday. We just got home. The little fellow was good enough to wait until the tournament ended.

My best effort was in the Juryo game- second best overall but only a jun-yusho in makuuchi since the best was in my division. This is my best game and I feel I justified my Ozeki rank in it this time. I seem to be number 5 or so in the new Makushita game though the scoring and ranking system is still under discussion. Near the top but losing ground to the leader in Banzuke surfing - I had Kageyama this time and he lost his last bout to Jonidan winner Nakanishi to finish 6-1. Oshirokita's Sawai has launched him even further ahead of me - that was my ride last time so I couldn't have matched that pick. *sigh* 12 wins in Guess the Yusho Winners (Oshirokita's own game and he took control of it this time!) not far from the top but not jun-yusho territory either. Salarycap Sumo - 3rd straight makekoshi - I am hopeless at this one! It's kind of fun to play but the fans are getting sick of watching me stink up the dohyo! Benchsumo - only 9 wins but I was in yusho contention up until the last day. The winner got his 11th win as I lost - reverse that and there would have been a playoff between us. And finally Sekitoto - 10 wins despite a 1-5 run in the middle of the tournament. I think I'm ranked komusubi in this one and 10 may not be enough to make any move upwards since there is a bit of a logjam in sanyaku in this game. No new baby yet but it can't be long. Time to settle on some names...

OH, I feel bad for not taking my long time adoptee Nishikikaze. The problem is I've been following him long enough to know he doesn't tend to do well at that level. Well, congratulations to him and to those who supported him. Also, who did I take in the Hoshihikari bracket? I thought I was going to go for him... maybe it's just 20/20 hindsight kicking in... is that the Nakanokuni bracket?

Makushita Game: Standings Nagoya 2005 Position Sum Top 3 Shikona Top 3 wins Top 2 wins Top 1 wins Sum 1 1 Susanoo 11 9 5 25 2 2 Doitsuyama 11 7 5 23 3 10 Yubiquitoyama 8 7 6 21 4 5 Hamanoyama 9 8 4 21 5 4 Itachi 10 7 4 21 6 9 Kaihayaiha 9 6 5 20 7 12 sashimaru 8 6 5 19 8 8 Zenjimoto 9 7 3 19 9 7 Torideyama 9 6 3 18 10 3 sekihiryu 11 6 1 18 11 15 Asashosakari 7 5 4 16 12 6 Oshirokita 9 4 3 16 13 16 Kintamayama 7 5 3 15 14 18 Gusoyama 7 5 3 15 15 20 Feginowaka 7 5 3 15 16 21 Takamueda 6 4 4 14 17 19 Flohru 7 4 3 14 18 13 Senpai 7 5 1 13 19 11 Randomitsuki 8 4 1 13 20 23 Holleshoryu 6 3 3 12 21 17 Sakana 7 4 1 12 22 14 Tamanaogijima 7 5 0 12 23 22 Hakanonami 6 4 1 11 24 24 Gernobono 5 3 1 9 Here is my attempt at posting an excel file. The columns aren't lining up regardless of how I arrange them on my own speadsheet in excel so I'd appreciate tips on how to fix it up. Anyway, the columns after the shikona are the number of wins under top 3, 2, and 1. The last column is the sum as I suggested. The first column is obvious, the second is the rankings under top 3 as presented by Randomitsuki. Though I lost a spot under this, I think it better reflects the original stated object of the game which was to pick the winners of each bracket. We all get consolation points for picking top 2 and 3 but the biggest reward goes to top 1 picks. Oshirokita sits just above the median and so he would be the last 8-7 when the scores are translated to records of 15. What do you think? I'm sure Yubi-zeki likes it better. Itachi

My suggestion is that we take the sum of our top 1, top 2, and top3 records. This would give Yubi-zeki 3 points for each of his game best 6 correct picls and reduce the punishment he takes for only finding 2 other top 3 finishers. I believe Susanoo would still be the winner but those who failed to find many Top 1 picks would not be disproportionately rewarded. With only 8 rikishi per bracket, finding the top 3 is only one away from a 50/50 guess. No wonder the mk/kk line is right at 50/50 when done this way. What would the standings look like with the sum method?

Happy Birthday Manekineko! It's still July 21st here in Vancouver so I'm not too late? On the day you were born I went to see a memorable movie with my father. Can you guess which one? (I was 8)