Sekitori-Toto-Banzuke Natsu-Basho 2008

[Heikotoriki]

http://www.anasuya.com/toto/banzuke.html

Starting at the top, ozeki Dimitri will be kadoban next month. Two of our three sekiwake also went make-koshi so the highest-ranked komusubi Pastanoyama lucked into his sekiwake debut despite only achieving a 9-6 record. Overall, sanyaku has been expanded by one spot resulting in no less than eight komusubi-ranked players. Ulsimitsuki's 11-4 at M5e earned him his sanyaku debut after playing since the very first basho in Haru 2002 and collecting 25 maegashira tournaments in the meantime.

Things were a bit crowded from M1 to M7 even with the sanyaku expansion, but I think this banzuke offers a fairly sensible solution. As always in these cases, scoring a make-koshi wasn't a good idea as it resulted in demotions around two ranks larger than "normal" (e.g. three ranks for 7-8, etc.) to make space for everybody. Takanorappa and Sherlockiama return to makuuchi while Kaiowaka makes his debut after 21 basho in the lower divisions.

Juryo was a pretty straight-forward affair, even with a little bit of banzuke luck for most KK players. Three promotions here as well, all of them debuts - congrats to Hashira (after 31 basho, including a one-year absence), Vikanohara (8 basho) and Yotsich (9 basho).

A while ago I was lamenting that the games are attracting relatively few new players these days all the while the number of retiring players remains fairly high, and that's true this past basho as well with the banzuke shrinking from Ms57 to Ms49 as a result. Still, I want to highlight a few relative newcomers who are currently knocking on the door to juryo:

Ms2e Tatarohana (active since Hatsu 2007)
Ms2w Chisaiyama (Natsu 2006)
Ms4e Arikomitsu (Natsu 2007)
Ms6e Kodji (Kyushu 2006)
Ms6w Hokuromitsu (Kyushu 2006)
Ms7w Marimo (Haru 2006)
Ms8e Rayden II (Aki 2006)
Ms9w Nikishima (Hatsu 2008)
Ms10w Mysko (Kyushu 2007)

Good luck to all of them for the rest of the year!