This November’s sumo tournament was always going to be a weird one. Instead of Kyushu, the event took place in Tokyo. Sadly, this robbed Kotoshogiku of a hometown crowd for his final backbend. COVID regulations really robbed him of much of a crowd at all. Kokugikan was a rather quiet stadium of just a few thousand people.
Pre-Basho Content
Our coverage of the November basho really began with the close of Wacky-Aki: COVID Edition, and Leonid’s publishing of his Banzuke Crystal Ball. As usual, once the banzuke was published, his attempt was spot on.
But before the tournament, we had hopes that Hakuho may participate since he joined in on the joint practice sessions. In the lead-up to Shonichi, he joined Kakuryu and Kotoyuki in the prebasho kyujo lists.
Tournament Coverage
What would a tournament be without Bruce’s fantastic previews and highlights posts? What would a yusho run be without Leonid’s Storylines and State Of Play? I’ll tell you what it would be. It would be boring as hell because there’s not a whole lot of people I can chat sumo with at the office — or even at home — and those who know what it is sure can’t tell their otsuke from their shikiri-sen.
Wrap-Up Content
After the tournament, Leonid and Tim wrote up great summaries and analyses of the previous fortnight’s action. With Takakeisho’s yusho, Leonid provided extra historical perspective on the Ozeki’s Quest for a Rope. We hope to see all of our Yokozuna and Ozeki back in action in January!
I think I like this format, so expect to see more basho summaries in the future which take a look at Tachiai’s Team coverage, and consolidate the links into one page. As I’m writing it, I’m more and more convinced this is the best way to tie all these threads of content together. However, the next one will look forward to the BakuHatsuBasho, as Herouth cleverly coined it. Once I get that one going, I’ll start moving back through time, consolidating content into individual pages which you will hopefully find easily, tucked up in the menu bar under “Archives.”