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Sekitori-Quadrumvirate Game Rules (Tentative)
How to play:
Daily play works as follows: each day submit your selection of 4 sekitori who you think will win that day. At least ONE of your daily 4 MUST be a Juryo rikishi, and at least one must be a Makuuchi (i.e. you can not pick 4 Juryo or 4 Makuuchi on the same day). If your daily 4 do not adhere to this rule, your result will be an automatic loss for that day. So be careful!
The only exception to the Juryo/Makuuchi rikishi requirement is, should a player have "used up" all their Juryo/Makuuchi already - then, they may obviously continue with their remaining allotment of Makuuchi rikishi only.
Daily picks must be submitted before the deadline, which is 1pm (13:00h) Japan time, well before Juryo action begins.
How to win:
If at least 3 of your daily 4 rikishi win, you will receive a shiroboshi (win) for that day. Simple. If only two, one or none of them wins, you will obviously get a kuroboshi (loss). Player with the most shiroboshi at the end of the basho will of course win the yusho.
The twist of the game is: once you have selected a sekitori in your daily 4, you may NOT use that rikishi again for the duration of the entire basho!! In other words, you are expected to select 60 different sekitori (of which a minimum of 15 must be Juryo rikishi) over the course of the basho (4 each of the 15 days of the basho). Strategy is needed! Do you use your "sure bet" top rankers early or late? When should you use more than one Juryo? Can you afford to "sacrifice" one of your daily 4 and hope the other 3 will pull through for you? And, by the end of the basho, if you don't play wisely, your available sekitori left to pick may be a rather shoddy bunch - so do you go for the strong start, or the big finish? And don't forget, rikishi may also go kyujo during the basho, which may further limit your choices late in the basho!
Should you accidentally pick a rikishi that has already been picked by you before, that rikishi will be counted as an automatic loss, and you will be at the mercy of your remaining, "legal" picks. So pay attention! :)
Should you miss picking on one or more days, you will receive a "yasumi", which will count the same as a 0-4 kuroboshi (loss) for each day you missed. You may carry on with the game if and when you return. Any advantage you may gain from having "more pickable rikishi left over" than your opponents who picked every day should be offset by the fact that you scored a 0-4 loss for the day(s) you missed.
Note: there are no rules prohibiting the use of Yokozuna or Ozeki early in the basho, or against using fusen matches. Players who use a fusen match (i.e. picking a rikishi who receives a fusensho) will receive a "Demerit", which has no effect on the win total, but will affect the total points score (fusen points do not count) as well as the Shukun-sho score (where the Demerits count negative).
Tie-breakers:
Should there be a tie for the yusho, the tie-breaker teams of each player swing into action. Each player's tie-breaker team will be the FOUR sekitori with the MOST TOTAL WINS that have NOT been used by that player during the basho. This tie-breaker team may include sekitori who actually went kyujo during the tourney, but still managed to score one or more wins. Should there be a basho with too many withdrawals to allow a full 4-sekitori tie-breaker team, then what ever is left over will be used.
Should there still be a tie, the player with the lower ranked rikishi (cumulative) on their tie-breaker team will win. If there STILL is a tie (i.e. if the tie-breaker teams happen to be identical!) then other scores accumulated during the basho (such as total points or special wins scored) will determine a winner.
Kinboshi, Ginboshi, Douboshi:
These are special wins scored by Maegashira rikishi over Yokozuna (kinboshi), Ozeki (ginboshi), and Sekiwake and Komusubi (Douboshi). Should one of your daily 4 achieve this feat, you will also earn the corresponding respective honor in the game. A kinboshi will count 3 points, a ginboshi 2 and a douboshi 1 point in the Shukun-sho standings.
Fours:
Threes are days when your daily 4 ALL win their match, giving you a perfect score for that day. These are counted as a separate category in the standings, just as are the special wins. Together points earned in both will comprise the Shukun-sho results.
Sansho (special prize) awards:
These are not set in stone, but might look like this:
Shukun-sho (outstanding performance prize): to the player who accumulates the most Fours and special wins (kin/gin/douboshi), all added together.
Gino-sho (technique prize): to the player who scores the most overall win points (i.e. who has the most winning picks amongst his daily 4 during the basho).
Kanto-sho (fighting spirit prize): at the discrection of the Sekitori-Triumvirate Kyokai (S3K), can be given to a player who launches a remarkable comeback from early losses, who manages a good record despite absences or other difficult circumstances, or to a player who manages kachi-koshi with the least amount of total points scored, or through especially bold picking techniques.
If and when this game is automated, the Kanto-sho might be linked to the risk factor in Sekitori-Toto, where players in Sekitori-Quadrumvirate receive risk factor points based on the Sekitori-Toto risk factors for each selected rikishi.
All recipients of sansho awards in this game must finish the basho with a kachi-koshi record to be eligible.
Picking in advance:
You can pick in advance should you anticipate otherwise having to miss a day or more of the basho. Make your picks in chronological order and be sure to specify which 4 will be competing on which day. Picks made in advance can be changed again before the daily deadline. If you change a day, you will also have to re-submit any subsequent later days you may have picked in advance before. This is to avoid you making changes and possibly selecting a rikishi twice by accident. Obviously you may not know the torikumi for days you pick in advance, but it still beats taking an automatic 0-4 for each day missed - with a little luck and the right strategy you may well end up with a win or more.
So much for now... what did I forget? :)