5-Year Blogiversary - Thanks Everyone!

5 years ago and 321 posts later, here we are.  Thanks everyone for stopping by through all these years and all the great comments.  I am a rookie when it comes to a lot of the other blogs out there, but am thankful to be part of the card-collecting blogosphere.  This also marks my 2-year anniversary of doing my Fantasy Sumo Card game which has been holding strong at 16 players per tournament.  Here is the latest set that I recently gave a design refresh.  Sumo popularity is as strong as ever and I am extremely thankful to help try and be an ambassador to the sport.

Have a great Christmas everyone!  Sayonara!

Congrats - Sekiwake Shodai on his 1st Sumo Championship!

Sekiwake Shodai has been tearing it up recently and the extra reset he is getting during the COVID-19 Pandemic seems to be helping his sumo.  He just won his first Top-Division Championship today and looks to be getting his Ozeki promotion news soon (hopefully).  He absolutely dominated and beat everyone that was ranked above him and finished the tournament with a 13-2 record.

Here is Shodai featured on his September 2020 Fantasy Sumo Card and the next time we see him on a card he will most likely be an Ozeki.

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend and sayonara!

March 2019 Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game

Hakkeyoi!  Welcome to another iteration of my custom Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game that we play over on Facebook's BBM Sumo Card Collectors group.  The cards just went out in the mail today so keep a lookout to those that are playing.  The January 2019 game was a big hit from what I can tell and we are now up to 10 players for the March 2019 tournament!  This means each player will get 5 cards with 2 card ready to go from the bench in case someone's wrestler gets hurt and has to withdraw from the tournament.  This tournament's cards are blue-bordered and the company I used to print the cards went with a new printing company and they turned out really nice.  Take a look!

I switched up a few of the ways to score to keep things interesting, but overall the game is the same.  Check out this 5-minute video I did of the card deck:

For those interested, here are the basic rules to the game:

1. Each player gets 5 random cards and on the back of those cards are ways their card/rikishi earns points as the 15-tournament day progresses.  As mentioned before, I ship those cards to all the players free of charge...really, no catch.
2. Some points are daily points while some points are awarded at the end of the tournament.
3. Scores are recorded at our Facebook BBM Sumo Card Collectors group page on our scoring spreadsheet.
4. Each player is encouraged to update the score sheet several times a week, daily if possible, to help keep the game active and competition exciting.
5. The winner is the player with the most total points added up among all their cards.
6. The runner up receives a specially-printed Jun-Yusho card that only he/she gets.
7. The winner receives both a specially-printed Yusho card as well as a full deck of the cards.

Thanks for swinging by my blog and thanks to those who signed up to play this tournament!  Until next time, cheers!

Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game - First Edition!

Hakkeyoi!  I've had this custom Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game project in mind for quite a while now and was finally able to put some work into it last month to make it happen.  I pitched it over at our Facebook Group, BBM Sumo Card Collectors, and was able to get 7 other players.  So 8 of us are playing the first-ever Fantasy Sumo Wrestling Card Game for the Hatsu 2019 (January 2019) tournament.  In a nutshell, here is how it works:

1. I build a custom 54-wrestler deck of cards (see images above for front and back of card #05)  and have it printed at a store specializing in custom playing cards.  Printing, shipping, and delivery takes about 3 weeks.
2. Once I get the deck, I randomly divide the deck up across all the players using Random.org.  In this case, each player got 6 cards with 6 left over.  These left over cards are used as substitutes in case a wrestler withdraws before the tournaments starts.
3. I ship each players' cards to them before the tournament starts.
4. Upon receipt of the cards, each player discovers the different ways they can earn points during the tournament for their wrestlers printed on the backs of the cards.  See picture above.  With card #05 there are 5 different ways to earn points.
5. At the end of the tournament, each player adds up the total number of points from all their wrestlers and the winner is the one with the most points.
6. The winner receives a full deck of the cards from me as a prize.
7. This deck of cards is retired and we repeat for the next tournament.

Best of all, it's free!  My main goal is to try and connect the sumo card community a little more in a fun way during tournaments and overall it's fairly low cost.  The only "catch" is these cards cannot be sold.  They can only be traded or given to other players.

Things I've learned about making a custom card set:

1. I am not a graphic artist by any means, but figure the aesthetics of the cards will grow over time.
2. I clearly don't understand the entire printing process as you can see I've pixilated the grey background of the card during my editing/saving time.  They went to the printer looking just fine, but came out printed like this.  I'm working to fix this for the next round of cards.
3. I did not want to get bogged down with making this set perfect.  I'd rather get them in hand and figure out how to improve them for next time.  Font size and balance come to mind after I see what the final product looks like.
4. Feedback from the other players will be critical for the next tournament.  What new ways to earn points would be fun, what didn't they like, what did they like, any special cards I should print, etc...?

Interested in playing?  Be on the lookout for the March tournament announcement sometime toward the end of February.