Substitutions Guide
Why Is This a Thing?
There are a few reasons why substitutions would be beneficial. The main reason is that users have voted for it! The community has spoken.
Add an Injury Replacement System?
Vote on whether you feel like the competition would benefit from replacing an injured rikishi in your stable (in future bashos)
Another reason is that it adds a layer of strategy to the game. Riskier picks can be made, knowing that you have a backup plan in case of injury. Intentionally choosing an injured Rikishi to have your substitute automatically replace them could also be a viable strategy (if you don't like anyone in a particular rikishi pool).
Lastly, it is a way to keep stablemasters engaged if an early injury occurs. If you have a rikishi that is injured, you can still have a chance to win the basho by having a substitute replace them.
How Do I Start?
Substitutes will be a completely automated feature. Once your stable is locked in, a substitute will be selected for you that fits logically within your team. For example, if your lowest-ranked rikishi is M15e, your automatically chosen substitute will be M15w. This is only a temporary selection that can be changed at any time before the deadline.
Your substitution will show under your stable on the Pick'ems page. It will look like this:
Substitution
Mitakeumi
How Does It Work?
To be as concise as possible, the rules for substitutes are: Pick anyone - Replace higher (PaRh).
If at any point during the Basho you have an injured Rikishi in your stable, the substitute you have chosen has the ability to replace the injured stablemate if certain conditions are met. The conditions are simple: if the substitute has a lower rank than the one they are replacing, they will be swapped in. This is to ensure that you cannot gain an advantage by having a higher-ranked rikishi in your stable if a lower-ranked one is injured. The swap will occur during the day a rikishi is kyujo, you will not have any fusen losses.
View this example:
Notice that Onosato is able to replace Terunofuji, as he is ranked lower (at the time of this example K1w < Y1e). If Kinbozan were injured instead, Onosato would not have been able to replace him, as Onosato is ranked higher (K1w > M10w).