March madness time

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

So I took a month off but March Madness is back, just in time for the actual March Madness. I privately maintained a bracket for the top 32 in January which worked pretty well since Ochiai came out on top. Here's the top 32 heading into March (notice that Ochiai will probably play spoiler this time if he picks off Tsukahara and forces everyone to move up one slot).

 

Matches in Yellow will be present on day 1 - gray matches are not official but the most likely to happen on day 2. Thanks to ChatGPT for compiling the rankings with the Heyas so I didn't have to script or do it by hand.

 

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

I'm excited to have Tokisakae and Chiyosakae back on a level playing field against each other.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Hoshotakamoto

[Reonito 1,470]

Some great names in the top 32, and a few just outside.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

I'd have the next 32 up already but gpt was steadfastly holding onto an off-by-1 in setting the matchups, to the point that I lost my cool.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

(it was also trying to set up an S-curve, and that horse left the barn centuries ago)

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

The next 32 (among others) have finished their day 1 action - it looks something like this, with the caveat that Ochiai again will probably wreak havoc on this alignment by defeating Tsukahara ten minutes from now.

[Chartorenji 237]

Will this finally be the big one for Kazuto? 2 playoff losses if I remember right. 

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

I'm going to toy with various formats for presenting the bracket since historically my 128-slot bracket has been unreadable around the edges. On days 3-4 I watched the lower half of Makushita and filled this out without bothering to show the leftmost column of who they beat on days 1-2. Entirely possible this may present the wrong matchups for days 5-6.

 

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

After watching all of days 3-4 here's the top group (including the ones they beat on days 1-2). It looks like my Fujinoyama/Kazuto matchup from the last post ^ got blown up to avoid an all-Nishonoseki matchup, but other than that the rest of the stuff might be properly aligned. I have an experimental format in mind that I want to try out after days 5-6 to present everyone with 0 or 1 loss in a way that makes it intuitive where the matchups will fall out pending match outcomes.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

On 12/03/2023 at 01:22, Chartorenji said:

Will this finally be the big one for Kazuto? 2 playoff losses if I remember right. 

Yeah I rode the banzuke wave with him in the 6-1 tournament where he wasn't in the yusho picture. I think all his rivals are pretty close to the same rank right now. Hitoshi and Takahashi?

[Sakura 1,489]

Kawazoe is up in Juryo today.

[Reonito 1,470]

8 hours ago, Sakura said:

Kawazoe is up in Juryo today.

Total lack of respect for the Makushita yusho race 

(I don't know what's wrong with Tochimusashi, but he's gotten progressively worse since his yusho in his Juryo debut at Aki)

Edited March 16, 2023 by Reonito

[Chartorenji 237]

11 hours ago, Reonito said:

Total lack of respect for the Makushita yusho race 

(I don't know what's wrong with Tochimusashi, but he's gotten progressively worse since his yusho in his Juryo debut at Aki)

He's never been the most spectacular Rikishi. Think he just went on a host streak in his first Juryo tournament and pressure/lack in fire has gotten to him a bit. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Chartorenji

[Reonito 1,470]

8 hours ago, Chartorenji said:

He's never been the most spectacular Rikishi. Think he just went on a host streak in his first Juryo tournament and pressure/lack in fire has gotten to him a bit. 

True but he used to look competitive and now he looks helpless.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

22 hours ago, Reonito said:

Total lack of respect for the Makushita yusho race 

(I don't know what's wrong with Tochimusashi, but he's gotten progressively worse since his yusho in his Juryo debut at Aki)

I know this is going back into the archives a few days but I watched Kawazoe vs Chiyosakae and thought Kawazoe had lost badly, then remarked on him nodding at Ochiai on his way out of arena. It was 1.5 days of watching later when I realized that Chiyosakae had a 1-1 record and Kawazoe was still in the race.

[Reonito 1,470]

1 hour ago, Hoshotakamoto said:

I know this is going back into the archives a few days but I watched Kawazoe vs Chiyosakae and thought Kawazoe had lost badly, then remarked on him nodding at Ochiai on his way out of arena. It was 1.5 days of watching later when I realized that Chiyosakae had a 1-1 record and Kawazoe was still in the race.

They blew that call pretty clearly. No monoii.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

Finishing out my lower makushita sub-bracket for days 5 and 6. I suspect these matchups are wrong (but I haven't looked) due to Kawazoe disrupting the alignment. Also we have to avoid Ryuo vs Kayo for a second consecutive round as they both advanced.

 

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

Oh, right, so Kawazoe didn't actually screw up the bracket at all. Those matchups are probably right, because this is what I have after he beat Tochimusashi.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

the delightful absurdity of this bracket

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

I hate being this far behind - with Day 11 battles picking up here's the rest of the bracket from the end of day 8. I'll try to get the final 4 posted before they hit the Dohyo... I'm also going to trim it down to just a 5-round bracket and trim days 1-4 off of the left side.

 

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

Ok well now I've seen the day 9 matches which is enough to get the championship bracket current.

Of course if Ryuo and Kayo win their respective matches then they'll have to fight someone else with 5-1 records on day 13 and it'll be chaos.

[Reonito 1,470]

26 minutes ago, Hoshotakamoto said:

Of course if Ryuo and Kayo win their respective matches then they'll have to fight someone else with 5-1 records on day 13 and it'll be chaos.

If we did end up with this and both 6-0 guys lost, we'd have something like an 8 or 9 way playoff, like two years ago!

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

Which was won by Nishikifuji?

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

This is actually the contingency that largely motivates me to maintain a 1-loss bracket ... but it's so tedious.

[Hoshotakamoto 259]

I see 23 mathematically possible candidates for yusho. This is only relevant if Shiden and Kaizen both lose so I placed those matchups roughly in sequence for where those 2 would land. Obviously lots of stuff like a Chiyosakae/Kawazoe rematch won't happen, so there are a bunch of weird permutations of how the matchups could fall out. Fun to see Fukai, Oshoumi, Takahashi, Yoshii, and others still in the running!