Top ’98 Hoshitorians

[John Szczepanski <johnski@gol.com>]

Hoshitorians:

With the dohyo sadly quiet in between basho, I thought I'd turn our gaze
inward, and reflect upon the cyber-rikishi of the Hoshitori, and our
performances during 1998.  Those of us who participate in the contest know
that our world is as every bit as gritty, tension-filled and nerve-racking
as what’s served up on NHK - even if imprints of our faces aren’t left in
the dohyo clay!

First, what follows is a list of the top Hoshitori winners for the past
year.  Total '98 victories follow each name; in parentheses are the
victories of each basho, starting with the January tournament.

 1   Peroginishiki    70    (5, 14, 13, 11, 13, 14)
 2   Kesamaiasa       66    (11, 12, 9, 10, 12, 12)
 3   Getayutaka       65    (8, 14, 10, 14, 7, 12)
     Hokutofuji       "     (9, 10, 15, 14, 9, 8)
 5   Asahinokuni      63    (10, 12, 8, 13, 12, 8)
     Heibeibi         "     (14, 10, 9, 13, 12, 5)
 7   Ekigozan         61    (11, 14, 6, 14, 5, 11)
 8   Kojima           59    (5, 7, 10, 13, 13, 11)
 9   Mizugamezu       58    (12, 11, 8, 10, 8, 9)
     Takanorappa      "     (6, 11, 11, 4, 12, 14)
11   Kintaro          57    (13, 4, 9, 13, 8, 10)
     Leonishiki       "     (9, 6, 13, 13, 5, 11)

Apologies to anyone whom I missed!  I compiled this by hand, searching
through print-outs of the final Hoshitori postings from each basho, so
there's potential for omissions or mistakes.  I first made a list of
everyone who won at least 9 victories in any of the year's basho - about
140 names - several duplications - then began filling in the victory-totals
of anyone who had 8 or more wins from each basho.  When I noticed empty
spaces, I searched the print-outs for the missing victory-totals.  In all,
I filled out full-year's totals for about 60 cyber-rikishi, then decided -
in the interest of time and my sanity - to limit my focus to only the top
scorers.

Honorable Mentions and Cyber-Rikishi with Missing Basho:  The following
cyber-rikishi would probably be on the list if they had participated in all
six basho - I searched and searched until my eyes hurt, but couldn't find
their names for some tournaments:
      Puchasuzon      48   (NA, 14, 11, 12, NA, 11)
      Shiawasekiwi    55   (7, 15, 11, NA, 10, 12)
      Utsukushiyama   49   (12, 10, NA, 8, 9, 10)
      Sakurajima      47   (3, 12, 8, 9, NA, 15)
I'm guessing that Hinerikeri joined the Hoshitori from the May basho, but
has established a  reputation for consistency with 10 wins for each of the
year's remaining basho, for 40 total victories (NA, NA, 10, 10, 10, 10).  

Lessons Learned:  We joke about the rikishi in the real world whom we call
Yo-Yo's or Elevator Men, but us Hoshitorians are no better, and probably a
lot worse.  Trying to win consistently is very difficult in this contest.
Even from the above list of the Top Twelve cyber-rikishi, only 4 had no
make-koshi basho during 1998.  And reviewing the past 6 yusho winners going
back to November of ‘97, only two (including Shiawasekiwi and Hokutofuji
from the above list) were able to follow their yusho with kachi-koshi
performances.  It ain't as easy as it looks!


SANSHO Recipients
Special congrats to Heibaberiba, who was the only cyber-rikishi to win all
three sansho last year, and won the Shukun-sho an amazing 3 times.  No
other cyber-rikishi finished first or second in more than one sansho
category throughout 1998.  

The top scores in 1998 for each of the three prizes are listed below.

Shukun-sho (Largest gin/kin-boshi total, to kachi-koshi cyber-rikishi)
     156   Heibaberiba (Nov)
     144   Heibaberiba (Mar)

Gino-sho  (Biggest upward jump in one day, to kachi-koshi cyber-rikishi)
     116   Peroginishiki  (Jul)
      94   Kesamaiasa (Jul)

Kanto-sho  (to cyber-rikishi with lowest average position still able to go
kachi-koshi)
     109   Leonishiki (Jan)
     103   Tatsuoyama (Jan)


Regards,

John "Peroginishiki" Szczepanski

(Oh, and the fact that I, with stable-mate Kesamaiasa, had the highest
win-totals for 1998 had NOTHING to do with the inspiration for this
exercise.   Honest!)