[Sumo Games] ISP Banzuke (Not)

[Dale <drc@oz.net>]

Hi,
First, thanks to all of you who wrote in
response to my whining... Nobody was very
enthused about taking over, so I guess you're
stuck with me for awhile yet :)

An idea came in from Graham Clarke, of "World Famous 
Sumo Pool" fame. He suggested that since we have so 
many players in the ISP (about 75), we might split 
it up into Maku(no)uchi and Juryo divisions. If it 
became necessary, the two divisions could be run by 
two different people, to share the load.

Well, I think I can still cope with 75 or more players,
but I like this idea. I would really like to have a more
realistic banzuke, but with 75 players (19 of whom were
at Komusubi last time) this is impossible. So, I propose
a "radical realignment", to borrow a phrase from U.S. baseball.
We could have 40 spots available in the upper division, and
the remainder in Juryo. We would be playing against each other
for position on the banzuke, rather than going up or down as
if nobody else existed.

Of course, this would mean that many players currently in the
mid to lower Maegashira ranks would find themselves in Juryo,
fighting for a promotion as space permits. But there's quite a 
bit of movement in the ranks anyway, as some of the sanyaku players
who had only 4 or 5 wins last time would soon discover :)

OK, since the list is still pretty quiet, I thought I'd
ask about this and see your reactions. If there's going 
to be alot of debate, non-ISP list members would probably 
appreciate it if you sent your comments to me, rather than
the list. I could pass them around.

If there's little objection, I'll post a banzuke as described
above in the next day or two. If you seem to hate the idea,
I'll just post the old style banzuke, with all its flaws :)

Thanks,
Dale