Abbie Youmans will be thankful to have something to do over the next two weeks when her insomnia wakes her in the middle of the night: She will check on her fantasy team.

But she won't be looking at stats from Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry or Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper. Instead, she will be searching for names such as Takakeisho, Ichinojo and Abi and hoping that their sumo wrestling results half a world away in Japan can send her off to sweet dreams.

Yes, Youmans of Westerville is in a sumo wrestling fantasy league. And no, she doesn't know much about the sport — but that matters little to those involved with the league at Level One Bar + Arcade on the Far North Side, where it's not out of the ordinary to find highlights from the sport on television.

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"To be a top sumo wrestler, it's not just how you play, but you have to be a good person, which is really different than in a lot of American sports," Youmans, 41, said. "The sport is not popular here and this intrigued me as well as I wanted to do something out of the norm."

Bar manager D.J. Gullette, an avid sumo fan, decided to start the fantasy league — after seeing a format explained on Reddit — to further engage patrons and interest them in the sport he fell in love with several years ago when his late shifts made it easy to catch live streams of tournaments online.

"The history and tradition is what drew me in — that the guys are expected to act a certain way," Gullette said. "There's no boasting. The sport hasn't changed in centuries."

Plus, it's just plain fun to watch, he said.

Entering the fantasy league is simple, Gullette said. Participants choose five wrestlers — all listed with biographies and statistics outlined in a binder he created — to be on their "team" ahead of six grand tournaments held every other month throughout the year.

The first fantasy league took place in March with nearly 50 participants, and the second installment — and a growing field of fantasy players — follows the tournament that kicked off Sunday. (Registration for May's round — which was free — is closed.)

These tournaments, called honbasho in Japanese, take place over 15 days with each wrestler competing once a day. Each time one of a fantasy player's chosen wrestlers wins a match, he or she garners a point. The player with the most points at the end of two weeks wins the league — and authentic Japanese sumo merchandise.

"Some people like to pick the biggest, some the smallest, youngest or most handsome," Gullette said.

Erich Rottenbiller selected his five wrestlers mostly based on the designs on the ceremonial robes they are wearing in photos in Gullette's binder.

"I literally know nothing," said Rottenbiller, 29, who lives in Worthington near the bar. "I'm kind of going off the robes. … They seem to have either animals or nature themes."

With one tournament under his belt, Justin Adams, 41, of Worthington, said he knew a bit more of what to look for when choosing his wrestlers for the May league.

"This time around I'm paying more attention to guys who were doing well in the last tournament," said Adams, who said he was drawn in by the ease of participation and the excitement of having something to cheer for during the several evenings a week he spends at Level One.

Though Gullette can't show any of the sumo matches live due to the time difference, he will show YouTube highlights from each day's matches throughout the next few weeks.

"It's fascinating to watch," Adams said. "It's not content we ever watch. It's not on American television, but it's a huge production over there. It's like their NFL."

And just like what fantasy leagues and pool challenges do for professional football or March Madness basketball, similar exercises can be used to promote sumo, said Robert Folz, a longtime fan of the sport and owner of www.bigsumofan.com, which offered the sumo prizes for winners of Level One's first league tournament.

"Anytime you enter a picks selection, you pay more attention, talk to people about it and learn more about the players and coaches," said Folz, who lives in Montgomery, northeast of Cincinnati.

Folz said sumo wrestling is a great sport to follow because it is elegant and powerful but relatively simple from a rules standpoint — if any part of the wrestler's body other than his feet touches the ground, or he steps outside the ring, the opponent wins.

"As you learn more about it, you understand that it not only takes strength but a substantial amount of skill," Folz said. "At this level, they are incredibly agile athletes. All the big guys can do the splits."

Scott Vieth, who finished tied for second in March's fantasy league, said part of the fun of the league is gaining new knowledge of a sport, especially about its cultural rituals. For example, wrestlers throw salt in the ring ahead of each bout to purify the area.

Vieth, a 39-year-old Northwest Side resident, said he expects the fantasy competition to be a bit tighter during this sumo tournament and those in the future (the next time to sign up for the league will be in July) as people learn more about it.

"There are injuries just like in fantasy football — this one guy has a nagging shoulder, maybe I shouldn't pick him," Vieth said. "Things people didn't think about in this first tournament, they are now. Everyone is getting smart real fast."

award@dispatch.com

@AllisonAWard