I just returned from an off-the-grid break and finally got to see the January banzuke. I have to say, the Crystal Ball was clear this time! Of the 42 predicted ranks, 30 were exactly right, with an additional 4 rikishi at the correct rank but on the wrong side. That’s a Guess the Banzuke score of 64, good enough for 3rd place out of over 360 entries. For the second straight basho, the Crystal Ball will be ranked number one overall in banzuke predictions over the past year.

The Crystal Ball got all 8 sanyaku rikishi exactly right, as well as the 3 exchanges between Makuuchi and Juryo. No placement was off by more than a rank and a half, and that was Shodai’s surprisingly lenient demotion from M5w to M8e after his 4-11 record at Kyushu. I thought I was already going out on a limb by only dropping him to M9w in my prediction. This also affected my predictions for Gonoyama and Roga. The other trouble area for the Crystal Ball was M4e-M5e. I thought Daieisho, Atamifuji, and Tamawashi could reasonably be placed in almost any order, and the banzuke committee went with one that was very different from mine. The rest of the differences from the prediction amounted to 3 half-rank swaps.

We have one new Ozeki (Aonishiki) and six rikishi fighting at their career-high ranks—M1e Ichiyamamoto, M1w Yoshinofuji, M7w Fujinokawa, M10e Tokihayate, and the two Makuuchi debutants, M17e Asahakuryu and M17w Hatsuyama. Hakuoho has been renamed Hakunofuji, and Asanoyama is back in the top division. By my count, no fewer than 13 Makuuchi yusho winners will be fighting in the top division in January (plus Takerufuji in juryo). It’s now less than two weeks until the start of the Hatsu basho! Let’s see how everyone fares at their new ranks.