Train with the sport’s most kawaii professional sumo wrestler.

Sumo is an ancient, revered sport steeped in ritual and tradition, where wrestlers undergo strict training in order to finesse their moves and look large and menacing in the ring.

That’s not to say sumo wrestlers don’t know how to have fun, though. In recent years, professional sumo wrestlers have shared hilarious videos of themselves on Twitter, showing them sleeping like giant babies and waving at Google Street View cars, and now the Japan Sumo Association is joining in the fun with a new tweet that’s got everyone talking.

In fact, when the tweet first appeared, people assumed it was from a fan account, because it includes the image of a wrestler with animated pink love hearts falling around him. However, this really is the work of the official Sumo Association, and the hearts are actually part of a screenshot game aimed at testing your timing skills.

Simply click on the screen at the exact moment the large heart in the centre falls into his hands, and you’ll be rewarded with a special screen!

https://twitter.com/sumokyokai/status/1190237368696967168

Were you able to guide the wrestler to the heart? It’s a lot harder than it looks, and people in Japan have been playing it over and over again, leaving comments like:

“Omg this is so much fun!”
“I yelled out when I finally got him to catch the heart!”
“I was successful at the heart-catch! Although I ended up taking it way too seriously in the end.”
“This was so hard I felt like I was seriously training with a sumo wrestler at one point.”
“I can’t help but wonder why they decided to create such a cutesy game for such a serious sport…”

It does seem to be an odd choice for the Sumo Association, but the game is actually designed to promote the Grand Sumo Tournament in Kyushu, which is set to be held at the Fukuoka Kokusai Centre from 10-24 November.

The fact that the screenshot game is such a left-field choice is the reason why it’s attracting so much attention right now, and with people sharing the game with their friends online, word about the upcoming tournament is spreading so fast that tickets are almost completely sold out.

And just in case you haven’t been able to get the heart into the sumo wrestler’s hands, here’s an image of the winning screen.

https://twitter.com/takuake/status/1190243908011225089

We have to admit, the strange yet adorable screenshot game is a brilliant marketing plan that’s got everyone thinking about the national sport again. Let’s just hope our Japanese team doesn’t get a wind of this and decide to come out with their own version of the game, using their experience with nipple sumo as their inspiration.

Source: Jin
Featured image: Twitter/@sumokyokai
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