S4 Rules

Daily play works as follows: each day submit your selection of 4 sekitori (= a "quadrumvirate") who you think will win that day.

Daily picks must be submitted before the deadline, which is 2pm (14:00h) 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 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 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 one or two 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!

Procedure:

Before the basho begins, go to the LOGIN page (bottom section) to register. Please be sure to enter your shikona (battle name), password, email address, and choose your nation (all required!).

Once you are registered, you will be able to login using the same page (top section). Once you are logged in, you will be able to enter your daily picks, using the ENTRY page. Each day, you can pick any 4 sekitori. Typically, you will see the day's torikumi, based on which you can make your selections of 4 rikishi you think will be winners that day. Simply check the boxes next to the 4 rikishi you wish to enter, then press "SAVE PICKS" to enter your picks, or "SUBMIT YOUR PICKS" to enter them, AND receive an email confirmation. That email should be sent within a few minutes to the address you specified when registering.

Once you have picked a rikishi, you will notice that on subsequent days that rikishi will be "greyed out" (or faded) and their check box will be replaced with a number indicating on which day they have been picked. These greyed-out rikishi can then no longer be picked - as per the game rules, each sekitori can only be picked ONCE per basho! You can change your selections for each day before the deadline passes, and as many times as you wish, but once the deadline for a day passes, your selections for that day become permanent, and that rikishi will not be pickable again that basho. Please note that Makushita rikishi who are fighting in Juryo on any day are NOT eligible to be picked. They will automatically appear "greyed out" and without a check box.

At the end of the basho, your selectable rikishi will be very limited in number and (depending on your strategy) quality - thus pulling out wins late in the basho is usually a very difficult and honorable feat! :)

Should you miss picking on one or more days, you will receive a "yasumi" (absence), 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 using them all at once. There is also no rule against players picking BOTH rikishi facing each other in a bout (i.e. guaranteeing one point), but this tactic has been shown to be largely ineffective. There is also no rule against picking only 3 rikishi on any day, but generally it is difficult enough to get a shiroboshi with 4, you would have to be quite adventurous to try it with only 3! :) But the option to pick 3 and "save" another pick for another day is there.

Daily results will be visible on the RESULTS page. Please note the legend to explain all the abbreviations, and see their respective meanings in these rules.

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 4 sekitori with the MOST TOTAL WINS that have NOT been picked by that player on any day 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 higher ranked rikishi (cumulative) on their tie-breaker team will win (i.e. the player who left more top-rankers unpicked).

If there STILL is a tie, then other scores accumulated during the basho will determine a winner, in the following order: total win points, Kanto-sho score, Shukun-sho score. If that all still doesn't work, the nod will go to the player ranked higher on the S4-Banzuke. Tie-breaker scores are shown on the RESULTS page, together with all other scoring, and may change daily depending on which rikishi are selected.

Special Wins: 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 towards the Shukun-sho standings. Wins through fusensho are not eligible for this category.

Fours:

Fours 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.

Craps:

Craps are the opposite of Fours: days on which a player picks 4 LOSERS. Craps have no real impact on the results, but are a "mark of shame" on the score card, and may be used as last tie-breaker, if needed.

Demerits:

There are no rules prohibiting using fusen matches. However, 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 (win points earned through fusensho do not count, but shiroboshi earned with help of a fusensho DO count) as well as the Shukun-sho score (where the Demerits count negative). If a player scores a Four while using a fusensho, the Four will be counted as such, but the resulting Demerit cancels out the score in the Shukun-sho standings. Also, fusensho wins do not count towards the Gino-sho win points total.

Sansho (special prize) awards:

Shukun-sho (outstanding performance prize): to the player who accumulates the most Fours and special wins (kin/gin/douboshi), all added together. In the Shukun-sho standings, Fours and Douboshi will count ONE point, Ginboshi TWO points, Kinboshi THREE points, and Demerits MINUS ONE point. Most overall points wins the Shukun-sho.

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, regardless of shiroboshi total).

Kanto-sho (fighting spirit prize): players earn more Kanto-sho points through picking winning rikishi that have not been picked my many other players that day. For each winning rikishi, Kanto-sho points are scored as follows: should a player be the ONLY one to pick that winning rikishi that day, they will score 1 full point. Should another player, or several other players, pick the same rikishi that day, each player's Kanto-sho score for that rikishi will be 1 point divided by the square root of the total number of players who picked that rikishi. In other words, if a total of 2 players picked him, the Kanto-sho score will be 0.707, if three picked him 0.577, if 10 picked him, 0.316, if 25 picked him 0.200, if 100 picked him 0.100, etc. Kanto-sho points are added up for all 15 days to determine a Kanto-sho winner. Rikishi that do not win do not earn any Kanto-sho points.

In case of ties in any of the sansho, the tie-breaker teams will determine a winner here, too.

Please note that only players who earn a KACHI-KOSHI are eligible for sansho. However, should there be a basho with EXCEPTIONALLY low scoring, that requirement may be waived, entirely at the discretion of the S4 Kyokai.

All the above scoring categories are displayed on the RESULTS page.

Picking in advance:

You can pick in advance should you anticipate otherwise having to miss a day or more of the basho. When you attempt to pick days in advance, you will notice the entry form has a different format - since the torikumi for advance days is typically not known, you will enter your picks with a form reflecting the current banzuke. Picks made in advance can be changed again before the daily deadline. You can pick as many days in advance as you wish. The same rules of selection apply as in regular daily play.

Obviously you may not know the torikumi for days you pick in advance, so it is a bit of guesswork as you can not be sure who will be fighting who, 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.