Reach Mahjong

New M. League to Revolutionize Professional Mahjong

jenn — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 16:05:06 +0000

In a press conference at noon on July 17, 2018 aired on AbemaTV from the ANA Intercontinental Hotel, Susumu Fujita (CEO, CyberAgent) announced the formation of M.League, a new professional mahjong league created in the spirit of promoting mahjong as a mind sport in Japan.

The league will feature seven teams sponsored by CyberAgent, TV Asahi (EX Furin Kazan), Dentsu (Team Raiden), Konami (Mahjong Fight Club), Sega Sammy (Sega Sammy Phoenixes), DY Media Partner (Akasaka Drivens) and U-NEXT (Pirates). Each team will have a uniform.

Fujita will serve as the chairman of the league, in which 7 teams of 3 pros each will participate. The season will consist of 80 games from October 2018 to February 2019. Red dora will be used. The first prize for the inaugural season will be a whopping JPY 50 million (approximately USD $450,000).

One of the goals of the league is to promote mahjong as an official sport in the winter Olympics. Each pro must swear off of gambling (we’re assuming this only refers to jurisdictions where gambling is not legal) in order to participate.

The draft will take place on August 7, 2018 at 8:00pm JST and broadcast on AbemaTV. All candidates must be a member of one of the major professional mahjong organizations in Japan. There will be three rounds of picks, but if two teams want the same player there will be a drawing to determine which team will get the pick.

Check out the official website here: https://m-league.jp/

Jong-cast #111 Mar. 20, 2015

jenn — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 05:00:10 +0000

Another weekly edition! Recorded a few weeks ago, but still good!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 111!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #110 Mar. 13, 2015

jenn — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 05:00:46 +0000

And here we are weekly again! Recorded a few weeks ago, but still good!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 110!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #109 Mar. 6, 2015

jenn — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 05:00:40 +0000

The weekly thing is back! Recorded a few weeks ago, but still good!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 109!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #108 Feb. 27, 2015

jenn — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 05:30:37 +0000

The back episodes are here now!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 108!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #107 Feb. 20, 2015

jenn — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 05:30:53 +0000

A new podcast coming to you late, but it’s here now!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 107!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #106 Nov. 7, 2014

jenn — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 12:55:22 +0000

A new podcast with your three favorite gaijin in Japan!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 105!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #105 Oct 24, 2014

jenn — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 15:27:17 +0000

It was nice while it lasted…

Not so weekly but still regular.

It’s thanks to all the fiber.

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episode 105!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

WWYD 6th Oct

Gemma — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 10:07:12 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

Jong-cast #104 Oct 2, 2014

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 12:00:27 +0000

And, dare I say it…

Here is your WEEKLY podcast!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy episod 104!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-Cast #103 Sept 25, 2014

jenn — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:00:39 +0000

And exactly one week later…

We are in serious danger of becoming regular in our podcast updates by being totally on-time with episode 103.

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

To the Top 8 in 3rd Place

jenn — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 15:51:16 +0000

Today I played in the Saikyosen tournament for the second time. Last year I got a great start and it went downhill in the third game. I was ready for my revenge this time.

This year’s pro event was split into male and female events. I, obviously, played in the women’s event with about 55 other women. We played three games before sending everyone with negative scores home, then played another game to determine the top five players to join the three regional qualifiers in the Best 8 round.

I had another great start in the tournament with a big first place. It was intense. The player to my left was right on my heels and the first place position switched back and forth between us four times.
I felt fortunate to take a lead, but I knew it could all go wrong at any moment. The second game I was in last place and somehow came from behind to take second for only +0.5 points. I was so relieved since I had dropped down to about 6000 points. It reminded me of the way Horiuchi never gave up in the first game last year and took second to me.
Call it a miracle, call it good play, whatever forces were working today, I somehow got first place in the third game too. I was already guaranteed to play in the fourth game, but that was going to be the toughest.

Going into the fourth game I was in second place overall with +136 or so. First place had more than +190. My table consisted of 6th, 10th and 14th places. Everyone was going for first place.

I took a lead towards the end of the game but the player to my right, I believe the 6th place player, representing Mahjong Union, was right behind me and as the final dealer, she kept the pressure on and passed me. I had to hope that my positive score of around 30 would be enough to hold up, even in second place.

Since only five would make it to the semi-finals, I was nervous with anticipation. they called out the first player, the same player in first place from before. Then the second place player, but it wasn’t me anymore. Finally I heard my name in third place.
YES!!!
I did it. I made it to the final eight in third place.

The last game consisted of two tables. The top two players from each moved on to the final tomorrow, which will be broadcast on NicoNico.
But alas, my luck had run out. I chose two spots to push after my final deal had passed and they both were wrong. I discarded the dealer’s winning tile twice and the only option left to me was to draw baiman or higher. I just didn’t get the tiles to put it together.

Looking back, after my first deal in the third hand of the East round, I could’ve gone for a flush hand and that would’ve been a better place to push. The player to my right kept reaching and I tried to play conservatively, waiting for a better spot. The better spot never came, so I should’ve taken a few chances early in the game, knowing that this was just one shot and I’d have to win now or count on my turn at dealer to continue.

Maybe that will work next year…

Jong-Cast #102 Sept 18, 2014

admin — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:30:42 +0000

We couldn’t wait an entire week.

We knew that you couldn’t wait an entire week.

So here is your next irregular installment of the Reach Mahjong podcast! It’s episode 102.

We’ve made it to Mahjong College!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-Cast #101 Sept 14, 2014

admin — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:20:09 +0000

Happy Sunday!

Just for you, another irregular installment of the Reach Mahjong podcast!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

And so Concludes Session 1

jenn — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 12:00:18 +0000

Garthe and I are in the same league again.

It’s been a while. He moved up before, then moved down two leagues to pass me in one swoop.

I remained in D1 until the worst 6 months of mahjong I’ve ever played in my entire life.

Not that I was playing horribly the entire time. A combination of getting unlucky and going on tilt I suppose. Ever since January I’ve had a rough go of it. The WRC was especially bad.

I mentioned in my last column that I would be going through a list of reading material to help me get in the right mindset and there was a request to disclose that reading list.

Well I’m starting with Masayoshi Ara’s “Yaburezarumono.” Such a badass title. “Those who won’t be beaten.” It totally suits him.

I’m just getting into it, but I’ll give you my reviews as I go along.

For the time being, my league turned out not very bad. I got almost 28 points in the positive, a good start. Just a few more sessions like that and maybe I’ll get a chance at special league again.

One can only hope, and read, and practice, and contemplate, and discuss, and get super-duper lucky.

Just about to League

jenn — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:15:02 +0000

It’s that time of year again. Time for the second half of JPML’s Pro League.

I have to say that after this many years in the pro league, I’m completely disappointed and devastated at where I am. Lack of concentration, bad attitude, bad luck (seriously, 11 outs on a riichi in the 2nd discard and the hand ends in a draw? more than once??) and not enough practice.

These are my excuses, every single one of them true, valid, and every single one of them a sad excuse.

This season I need to step it up. I need to play in Champion’s League, I need to move up in Pro League and I need to play better in North Kanto League. I need to get past all these excuses and just play some Mahjong.

Last year’s MFC voting event

This season I have a reading list. It’s mostly the books of my sempai in JPML and I am aiming for a book per month or so. I’m also going to get on a regular MFC and Free Parlor schedule. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for months and the new voting event in MFC (YES, please play and vote for Garthe and I. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease) has given me another excuse, this time a good one, an excuse to put other work aside and concentrate on MFC and mahjong in general.

So find me on Ron2, find me on MFC and please give me some positive vibes for league this year. After a really bad streak of tiles this year putting me on a tilt that I can’t excuse, I need something positive, especially on the score sheets!!

WRC: Garthe’s Opinion

Gemma — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 01:24:31 +0000

OK, setting aside my performance, it was a great weekend of Mahjong. Remembering my performance, it was a somewhat disappointing weekend of mahjong.

Following the great start then lackluster finish of my first day of the tournament, my second day was an up and downness that saw me finish 4 points short of 32nd place, leaving me to wallow in the consolation bracket while the remaining 32 battled it out for 1st place. The top 32 was dominated by Japanese players, most of them members of the Japanese Pro Mahjong Association (JPML). The last remaining western player in the tournament, John Duckworth of the UK Mahjong Association, was knocked out of the semifinals by Hiroshi Yamai and Kazuhiko Nishijima of JPML. Jun Nishikawa also of JPML, and Noriyuki Kiriyama of Nihon Pro Mahjong won the other semifinal to make it an all Japanese final table.

Yamai won the first game of the final table by quite a large margin but hemorrhaged enough points in the second game to allow third place finisher Nishikawa to get back into the fight. By the last hand both were in a position to win the tournament by simply winning the final hand. However, Nishikawa had no interest in letting it end that simply. Despite his last place finish in the first game, this was his final turn as dealer and he made the most of it, winning 3 hands in a row to near himself to a shot at winning the trophy. It was an epic final hand battle, with the tension and excitement infecting player and spectator alike. However, it was Yamai who in the end drew his own winning tile to ensure his victory.

Congratulations to Hiroshi Yamai, winner of the first World Reach Championship! Word on the street is that before the final table began, he had already committed to changing his name should he manage to win the finals. We’re not sure what “Moosh” even means, but maybe we’ll get more explanation soon.

Next, congratulations and thanks must go to Valerian Thomas and his team for organizing the first successful WRC. With no history to guide them, it was a vast and historical undertaking which will serve as the foundation for the events to come in the future. Inspired by their success, a committee has already formed with Gemma Sakamoto (nee Collinge) at the helm to start working toward the formation of the next event. Gemma was an instrumental liaison between the French and the Japanese and certainly some of the credit for this event must also go to her.

As an uninteresting aside, how about the unhappy circumstances of my exit from the main competition on the second day? I lost my 6th game in a non-stop slew of hands with which I could do absolutely nothing but play defense. I won the seventh game to put myself back in a nice spot and needed only not to lose too many points in the 8th game to continue on to the top 32 on day 3. However I was up against Takeo Kojima, also known as Mr. Mahjong in Japan, and while he was already effectively out of the running, he wasn’t giving up the last game without a fight. While he put together several large hands to build up quite a large lead, I suffered a return to non-progressing hands. I couldn’t even tenpai. To finish me off on my turn as dealer, Panjing Song of China drew her winner on the final draw and found 3 hidden dora to turn it into baiman, or an 8000 point loss for me. That was to be my end, half self drawn hands and the rest drawn hands in which I again couldn’t get to ready. Sometimes it simply isn’t meant to be.

In a strange twist of tournament structure, we retained our scores from the first two days. This meant that those already at the top of those standings were likely to stay there. I won 3 straight games to drop one place and finish the tournament 2nd in the consolation bracket or 34th overall.

Congratulations again to Hiroshi Yamai and the other finalists on a tournament well played and thanks again to the organizers. We all can’t wait to see where this historic event takes us.

Entering Day 2 of the WRC: Garthe’s Opinion

Gemma — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:00:19 +0000

Holy cow, what a start!

Holy mediocrity, what a “Meh” end to the first day!

Today saw the beginning of the first ever World Reach Championship and I managed to start it of in championship form. I won a total of six hands on my turns as dealer to begin the tournament with a whopping plus 74.9. I win the next game too to extend my lead in first place.

Then in the third game I ran into Hisato who couldn’t stop winning hands and finally Furuhashi in the last game who couldn’t lose either. Two consecutive 3rds places dropped me down to 9th place at the end of the day.

It’s not so bad as we just need to be in the top 32 by the end of tomorrow. I just have to not blow it. Given my recent Champion’s League performance, if there’s a person capable of blowing it, it would be me.

So my mantra: don’t suck don’t suck don’t suck don’t suck…

Reach Mahjong.com at the WRC!

Gemma — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 19:24:01 +0000

So Jenn, Garthe and me are in Paris. It didn’t look like the trinity was gonna be together after Garthe misread his plane ticket and totally missed his flight. A new plane ticket later and he made it on the day of the opening ceremony. So how are we getting on…

Gemma

I had a fairly a miserable time of it. My first and second tables were large minuses. I brought it back a little in the third hanchan with a modest second place. My final hanchan of the day was a third with -1600 pts before uma. Not bad considering I was expecting a bloodbath. However, it doesn’t change the fact I’m not doing as well as I hoped halfway through. I’m gonna need to create some kind of miracle to get in the top 32. Let’s face it, that’s not gonna happen…

Jenn

Jenn’s string of bad luck seems to have followed her on her flight. Although not as well as she would have hoped, Jenn did win a game which makes her better than Gemma. Her aim for tomorrow is to beat her fellow JPML members outside of Japan.

Garthe

Garthe did really well and Jenn and me aren’t talking to him anymore.

Things to Know When Playing with Sticks

Gemma — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 20:26:07 +0000

One of the least controversial announcements from the WRC has been that counting sticks (bones or tenbo) will be used. Not everyone will be used to playing with them, and there are some little tricks to know…

The top stick is 100

The next stick is 1000

The stick one from bottom is 5000

The bottom stick is 10,000

What tricks are there to make the game and the payment run smoother?

1) The score should be called out clearly (and not mumbled like what I do).

2) After the score has been called out, the payment is made.

3) Payment is made by placing the sticks on the table in front of the player to be paid.

– Don’t place them in front of you or in the middle of the table. This is just polite and it makes it obvious who the sticks are going to.

– Don’t hand the sticks to the hand of the payer being paid. The reason for this is to avoid sleight of hand, and so that all other players can visually confirm that the correct payment is being made.

4) Profit! (If you’re the one being paid)

A few other tips:

– Sticks should be placed on your right and be in full view of all players.

– When a 100 stick or sticks are out to indicate a continuation and there is a draw but the dealer is not the winner, the sticks should be left out until the new dealer has taken out that number of sticks plus one and placed them on his/her right.

– Try to make the quickest and easiest solution. So if you need to pay 1300, hand over 1000 and 3 100s. Not 2 1000s where possible.

– If possible, try to ensure you always have a 1000 stick in your collection to reach with. I.e. by paying with a 5000 stick to another player who is in a situation to break it when this is appropriate.

– If you run out of 1000s and you need to riichi, ask another player to break a greater value stick for you. Don’t use a stick of any other value. Don’t EVER borrow another player’s 1000 stick to make your riichi.

– When there is a continuation but you don’t get to keep your dealership, leave the continuation sticks out until the player to your right has placed them out. That way, things won’t get forgotten.

– Don’t play with your sticks. This is good life advice in all situations.

If you don’t have any counting sticks in your mahjong toolkit, it might be a good time to add some! mahjongmart.com offer a set of white counting sticks and we’re looking to add some colored sticks to our inventory.

The World Riichi Championship

Gemma — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 23:59:44 +0000

It’s here (almost!). I’m tired, though… It’s been a lot more work than I think I anticipated. I also learned the very hard lesson that it is never ever ever possible to please everyone.

From minor rules to the whole tournament structure, every single issue seems to have been contested. For that reason, I really don’t know how this tournament will be received. It is different and we’ve tried to merge several worlds.

One big surprise I have had (and I feel I can say this as one of you), but it’s the inflexibility of some European corners. I feel at points where rule adjustments have been made, we’ve been treated as if we’d attempted to rewrite the bible.

Interestingly, I haven’t felt that from the other parts of the world. There’s been interest and advice, but not the same level of horror and almost disgust that we would attempt to try something new.

Well, I guess the proof will be in the pudding and it is almost ready to serve…

These are my priorities now:

1) People will enjoy themselves in the games, and have constructive criticism at the end of it.

2) We will be able to secure future tournaments.

3) Clubs will have the opportunity to network with each other to build a stronger international riichi community.

4) I won’t play like a moron next week.

I’m really looking forward to seeing a lot of you next week! Please do make notes of anything you see going wrong and let me know as it happens. Don’t leave and shrug your shoulders. This tournament’s future will be a group effort!

Jong-Cast #100 July 14, 2014

jenn — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 16:00:18 +0000

Just days before the WRC, we release our 100th episode!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

What Would You Discard – June 29, 2014

admin — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 18:00:29 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

What Would You Discard – June 22, 2014

admin — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 18:00:16 +0000

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Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

What Would You Discard – June 15, 2014

admin — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 18:00:27 +0000

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Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

What Would You Discard – June 8, 2014

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 18:00:44 +0000

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Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

What Would You Discard – June 1, 2014

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2014 18:00:16 +0000

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Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

More from Garthe in Gunma and at Champion’s League

garthe — Sat, 31 May 2014 18:00:59 +0000

Interesting. I’ve finally had a couple great sessions in a row and I’m more annoyed at mahjong than ever.

You may remember me ranting after league this month about how I don’t get to be a lucky player so I have to keep my game small to have any chance of winning. Well I was right! And I couldn’t be more miffed.

So starting with North Kanto league on Sunday, I went into it thinking maybe I can put together a positive score for once if I just sit around and not draw attention to myself. As it turned out that is pretty much what happened with the exception of the third game. I killed it that game while still managing not to be lucky at all. I had already won reachless mangan and haneman hands in the first two hands when in the third hand of the east round I got to ready with this hand:

Draw:

Dora was 3 so it was already a big hand. I had thrown 六 earlier so it was the perfect opportunity to reach except that my reach is perfectly readable by all players so I again waited without reaching. Of course I drew my winner so it was only 2000/4000 instead of the 3000/6000 it could have been had I been a lucky player who could reach. The next 4 hands I was dealer and every single one I started with at least 2 dora in my hand with good shapes 2-3 tiles from ready. Wow finally a little luck right? Nope. I couldn’t win a single one of those hands including the last one where I ended up throwing mangan to another player’s Half flush. No nagare here!

Cut to the next day, my first entry into Champion’s League for this season. I managed to get positive scores just sitting around quietly again in the first two games but then suddenly again in the third game I broke out. I won few hands early and then the first hand of the south round I was dealer again and got to ready with this:

When another player ponned, I drew my 6 for 6000 points from each player and a huge lead. Actually I had just drawn another tan/pin/tsumo/sanshoku/dora (Simples, Peace, Concealed Self Draw, 4 Colored Runs, dora) hand right before that to end the east round. If nagare or tsuki is a thing, it’s GOT to be coming my way now right?

Sure enough, the next hand I get to ready on the third draw with a mere Pinfu/dora (Peace and dora) but thinking if ever I had a chance to reach, this should be it. Wrong. Dude who’s been throwing mine and others’ winners so far all game suddenly decides that’s his chance to go for it. He plows ahead ignoring my reach, he manages to reach on draw 10 and draw his winner as the hand is about to end. Besides the fact that I was supposed to be in luck mode, certainly he was supposed to be in bad luck mode! I ended up winning only 56 points that game.

OK, putting things into perspective, a positive 56 points for an entire day, let alone one game, is actually a pretty notable accomplishment. I finished in the black with 76 and 92 points in North Kanto and Champion’s, both phenomenal for one day. Of course people were understandably somewhat confused by my disgust but it comes from this: if this luck/nagare/tsuki crap people talk about all the time is really a thing, my situations above should have led to my continuing luck perfectly, but they did not. I know I have always said that this kind of thinking is simply ridiculous, but I have been re-irked of late by the fact that higher ups in the league here and there have blamed my poor performance recently on the fact that I don’t buy into this philosophy. Bullsh-

Ahem. To reiterate then, you cannot determine how lucky you will be this hand, based on how lucky you were last hand. Any review of your play that involves such thinking is simply backward thinking in every stupid sense.

Also, I am still really unlucky.

Jong-Cast #99 May 30, 2014

admin — Fri, 30 May 2014 18:00:04 +0000

Less than a week and now it’s podcast time again!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Garthe’s May League Session (D2)

garthe — Wed, 28 May 2014 18:00:11 +0000

I’m annoyed.

Nothing in Mahjong is working for me right now. Actually, it’s not that absolutely nothing is working for me, it’s just that what everybody makes fun of me for not understanding, i.e. luck and flow, are ESPECIALLY not working for me right now.

I had another disappointing showing at league this month. And it came after an especially awesome performance at study group just a few days earlier. What I failed to remember is that all that BS they seem to believe in, really doesn’t apply to me. So when I stop trying to think that way at all, finally again I seem to have a chance at winning. No matter how I win a hand, trying to ride that wave not only leads to nothing bigger, but really just results in me giving back those hard earned points.

It was exactly what happened at study group, in frustration I stopped reaching at all and I started winning. It was the same at Masters, when I played nonstop small ball I won. And it was also the same at Masters later in that, when I started reaching again I lost. And finally, it is what happened on Sunday when I stopped playing big. I can’t even point to any particular hand as being significant. I just never felt like anything was coming my way, and finally at the end of the session I was able to eke out a little tiny win to save -21 points for the day. Yippee.

So screw mahjong luck boxes, I’m taking half a page out of Teddy Roosevelt’s playbook: my strategy has to be to walk softly and carry a little tiny stick. Maybe it’ll be just big enough to poke your lucky little eyes out.

Jong-Cast #98 May 27, 2014

admin — Tue, 27 May 2014 18:00:27 +0000

Podcast time!! Hurrah!

Mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Tournament Structures!

Gemma — Fri, 16 May 2014 06:49:34 +0000

Now we have the names of the WRC participants, we need a way to put them in their seats. Cue more controversy!

MahjongNews.com has already posted a report on the organizer’s current motivations, and this has started some discussion.

http://www.mahjongnews.com/en/wmc/wc-riichi-2014/3098-wrc2014seating

http://www.mahjongnews.com/en/wmc/wc-riichi-2014/3114-tntreact

The concept so far is that at some point, the better players will be streamed off to play each other. This is fairly typical in tournaments of this type in Japan (with pros and amateurs mixed together), and elimination tournaments are common. However, just because it’s what they do in Japan, doesn’t mean we should be doing it. Why then is this the method that is most likely to be adopted by the WRC 2014 organizers?

– Having the same level of risk for each player at the table

I’ve complained enough about this problem at EMA tournaments. As you reach the end of the tournament, some people are just not going to win. It’s harsh and probably unfair. But life sucks. However, when you’ve got that shot at top 3 and you’re dumped on a table with someone lagging a few places from bottom, it tilts the game and your chances a lot. That lesser-ranked player has less motivation to defend and more motivation to play like a lunatic. Secondly, I’m not actually given a chance to face off against my rivals and take their points to ensure my glorious victory. Having a few rounds of final tables solves this problem.

– Exhibition

Part of participating in a tournament like this is to have the opportunity to see the top players play. Final tables achieve that. They also create the chance for tables to be televised. Watching a 9^th dan at the peak of their game destroy some poor player who is just starting to find their mahjong feet would be a blood sport. However, watching the best European player battle against the best Japanese player, that I would like to see. It’s going to be exciting to watch the last few players battle it out.

– Legend!

The truth is, very few of us probably have a chance of making it to the final table. Perhaps that is why some people are complaining. They know they can’t do that. But we should be encouraging achievement and letting people boast about those final two tables. We should be creating legendary moments that we can share as a community.

What are the cons?

– Luck

Inevitably, some people are going to lose to Lady Luck. There’s not much that can be done to fix this. Even the best players get an unlucky streak. In Japan where there are more opportunities to play, this isn’t the end of the world. You just wait for the next time. We aren’t so fortunate in Europe. Tournaments are expensive to get to and few and far. We want to play as much as possible.

– People are jerks

One thing the World Series of Mahjong struggled with was people dropping out when it was evident they couldn’t win. I’m hoping that won’t be the case here. You’ll still be playing against some of the best players in the world, isn’t it worth staying for that? I hope that there will be some terrible penalties for people who refuse to stay the distance.

Anyway, hopefully the final format for the tournament will win over the hearts and minds of most of the players. In the end, not everyone can be made to be happy. No system will be perfect. We can only choose the system that fits our needs best.

Jong-Cast #97 May 8, 2014

admin — Thu, 08 May 2014 18:00:33 +0000

What, what WHAT?! Another podcast already?!

Ohhh yes, mahjong in English straight to your mobile device or some other way to listen.

Enjoy!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

WWYD May 6, 2014

admin — Tue, 06 May 2014 08:00:31 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

Working on the WRC 2014

Gemma — Mon, 05 May 2014 12:00:09 +0000

I’ve been quiet over the last few months for one main reason – the World Riichi Championship 2014.

It’s an amazing opportunity to help the organizing team for what I hope to be the start of better international relationships in the world of riichi mahjong, but it’s also been a tiring rollercoaster ride.

As anyone who has ever had to work across borders, cultural differences show themselves in wierd and wonderful ways. I’ve been very fortunate in that all involved have been very sensitive to the issues posed.

However, it’s all coming together! Most players are registered (including 45 Japanese players although as of the date this article was written, their names aren’t published on the site as muggins (me) had to get the sheet ready)

In the stress of this endevour, I often forget how much we have already achieved. Not only are we holding an international event with some of the best players in the world, but we have also established communication networks with riichi clubs throughout the world. Connections which are sure to promise even more projects in the future.

I can’t wait to see what new friendships are formed when we all get to sit in a room together in July and play our favorite game!

If you haven’t yet, do check out the official website: www.wrc2014.com. If you have any questions direct to the organizers: wrc.france2014@ [geemail.com]. Or if you’re interested in my involvement, head to the forums and ask away!

Jong-Cast #96 May 3, 2014

admin — Sat, 03 May 2014 18:00:43 +0000

New episode!!

No theme music this time, but deal with it.

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

World Riichi in France hosted by TNT with Ron2, RM.com, Mahjong NEWS and many more!

admin — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 18:00:33 +0000

(excerpts from the WRC official website)

From July 16th to 20th, 2014, the city of Puteaux (a suburb of Paris, France) will host the very first Riichi Mahjong World Championship. Top players from all across the globe will face off at this event, all striving to win the historic first title.

This major international competition is organized by the TNT French Riichi Mahjong Club and its partners, which include yours truly (ReachMahjong.com) and the main sponsor, Ron2, JPML’s official battle site.

The competition will take place in Puteaux, a town on the western border of Paris. It contains La Defense, a premier European business district, and thus is easily accessible by many modes of transportation.

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014
Registration, Cocktails, Opening Ceremony, Dinner Buffet

Thursday, July 17th, 2014
Welcome and Breakfast, 1 Hanchan, Summer Buffet, 3 more Hanchan

Friday, July 18th, 2014
Welcome and breakfast, Another Hanchan, Brotherhood Buffet, 3 more Hanchan

Saturday, July 19th, 2014
Welcome and breakfast, Another Hanchan, Traditional Buffet, 3 more Hanchan

Sunday, July 20th, 2014
Welcome and breakfast, Final 2 Hanchan, Lunch Cocktail, Closing and award ceremony, Cocktail and dessert

This is the schedule ReachMahjong.com will be joining in and you’ll get regular updates from us throughout the event! Don’t forget to check out our Twitter feed (which will be updated on the road if not while we’re at home), and look for more updates leading up to the event. For now, book your plane tickets!

New White Tile Sets on MahjongMart!

jenn — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 18:00:13 +0000

The White Dragon Set has been MahjongMart’s bestseller for years.

But, when our supplier ran out of stock with no sign of restocking in sight, we had to find an alternative.

For just $5 more than the popular White Dragon Sets, we introduce the King Tile Set!

The case is nicer, it includes trays for the tiles, the scoring sticks are bigger and there are dealer markers (chicha markers) included!

The set is still compact so it’s easy to tote around if you so desire and you can buy yours now with just a few clicks! Check out the King Tile Sets on MahjongMart.com.

Ron2 League

jenn — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 12:00:06 +0000

A couple months ago I wrote about playing on Ron2 League and I didn’t give any dates or anything.

What was I thinking.

So Today I’d like to try and fix that.

My plan was to make it to the Gold League by April so that I could try and qualify for the Internet Mahjong Championship. It so happens that I was offered a spot in the main event anyway, so the fact that I only made it to and retained my silver status ended up OK.

Tonight I’ll be finishing up my silver games and here are the date’s I’ll be playing next month (whatever league I end up in):

May 3rd (Saturday)
May 4th (Sunday)
May 10th (Saturday)
May 17th (Saturday)

Hopefully with these 4 dates I put or keep myself in the Gold League. If you have time join me or come watch! Ron2 Official Battle Site

On to the Best 32!

jenn — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 18:00:22 +0000

On the 24th and 25th of April, Garthe and I played in the Internet Mahjong Championship, starting from the main event.

I played on the 24th with another pro, Koguruma. We played with two users who had won their way into the main event and to our table.

I had a problem with my connection and dropped out no fewer than 10 times, ending in third place for the first game. Lucky for me there were two games and while the majority of those disconnections happened during the second game, I somehow was able to win and pass Koguruma’s score for second place to make it into the Best 32, to be held on June 3rd! A user named Suzuki also advanced to the next round.

The next day Garthe had his game and he was paired with Hisato Sasaki and two other users. They both posted scores much higher than me and it seems they advanced without much trouble.

The other pro’s advancing to the Best 32 so far:
Sho Shiratori
Masaharu Tomotake
Masatoshi Sarukawa
Kansuke Sugiura
Yudai Maehara
Kenji Katsumata

9 of the 16 pro’s in the first round made it to the second round along with 7 HanGame players.

The next half of the main event will take place in May on Ron2 with 2 pro qualifiers, 14 seeded pro’s and 16 Ron2 players.

Games will be available in the future on one of JPML’s various Niconico or Youtube channels and we’ll let you know once they’re available.

Jong-cast #95 –April 23, 2014

admin — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 12:00:34 +0000

An on-time update!!!

We’re almost on a schedule?!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

2014 Internet Mahjong Championship

jenn — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:00:38 +0000

For the past few years JPML has participated in and helped facilitate the Internet Mahjong Championship. Every year a number of pro’s are invited to play in the main tournament and qualifiers are held on Ron2 and Hangame for the remaining participants.

This year Garthe and I were chosen as professional representatives and we’ll both be playing on HanGame. I’ll be playing at 9pm JST on April 24th and Garthe will be playing on the 25th. You can view the games, so if anyone has a Hangame ID, we’ll be on the 4-player mahjong site. We’ll play 2 games to decide who moves on to the next round.

Here’s a list of the pro’s playing in the first round:

April 24th on Hangame (9pm JST)
Masaharu Tomotake
Masatoshi Sarukawa
Sho Shiratori
Kansuke Sugiura
Sho Koguruma
Yukiko Izumi
Yukina Shirakawa
Jenn

April 25th on Hangame (9pm JST)
Yudai Maehara
Kenshi Katsumata
Hisato Sasaki
Dump Ohashi
Kohei Ide
Garthe
Masato Morishita
Mari Takamiya

May 13 on Ron2
Masayoshi Ara
Satoshi Fujisaki
Yumi Uotani
Kazunori Takizawa

May 20 on Ron2
Shigekazu
Yuko Ito
Naoki Setokuma
Kotaro Uchikawa

May 27 on Ron2
Makoto Sawazaki
Hiroshi Yamai
Saki Kurosawa
Aki Nikaido
Akira Wakutsu
Kozue Miyauchi

Of the above, plus 2 more pro’s to be determined and 32 qualifiers, 32 players will advance to the next round to be held on June 3rd.

From there 16 players will advance to the quarter finals on June 16th or 17th and then 8 more to the semi-finals on July 7th or 8th

The final four will battle it out in the final on August 10th.

Games are expected to be shown on JPML and Ron2’s YouTube channel, so if you can’t watch live, keep your eye out for videos to be updated later.

We’ll post our results here too so keep reading ReachMahjong.com!

Not Quite Mastered

admin — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 12:00:55 +0000

A brief look into Jenn and Garthe’s day at JPML’s Masters qualifier.

Jenn:
On Saturday I played in JPML’s Masters tournament.

In the words of Garthe:

Blech

What a horrible event for me.

Historically I’ve done pretty well making it to the main event, but this year I had no chance.
I started out OK and took first place at my first table. But, I ended up at the same table all day (this is called the Table Master, no relation to the name of the tournament) and I carefully observed that the exact same seat got first place in all 4 games that day. I managed to get fourth place in the three games I didn’t sit in that seat.

The hand that stood out for me somehow turned out like this:

There were no more Wests or Norths left, so there wasn’t much happy about this hand and I ended up discarding 2b waiting for a single tile to switch to an all-pairs hand. I then drew another East and another player won before I could change anything else.

A perfect metaphor for my entire day. Things looked good at first but in the end nothing happened.

Garthe:
Mahjong season begins again in force in April kicking off with regular league, then Champion’s league, and Mahjong Masters. On Saturday Jenn and I played in the pro qualifier with mixed results.

I’ve already complained a lot about a system in which some players get to start at later stages of the tournament, i.e. the “seed” system, so I won’t continue with it too much here. Having complained of it anew at a gathering last week, I did get a little more insight into why it makes sense to everyone else. They picked up on the fact that I was calling these events “tournaments” (大会), whereas in fact they are called “title fights” (タイトル戦). I had pointed out that in tennis’ US Open, for example, seeds only determine match ups so that the top players don’t meet in the early rounds but that everyone still must play all the rounds that the other players do. While that is true for the event most of us see, there are of course qualifiers for the players who get to play in that event and a large section of the field gets into it also based on their past performance. How mahjong competition is more easily compared to tennis than poker is a bit of a mystery to me, though it is apparently quite obvious to them but I’ll leave it at this: based on our previous performance, or really lack of performance, we have to play in a qualifier to make it to the “main” fight. Amazingly (to me) there are even players who get to jump in at later stages of the “main” fight, but whatever. I have won a little more than Jenn in the past, giving me a higher ranking (though she will probably catch up this year) so I got to join from the second half of the qualifier while she had to start from the beginning. Yes, for all my ranting about seeds, I did take advantage of it already in this tournament.

So how did I do with my slightly favorable starting position? Well not too badly actually. The first game I was matched up with Kaoru Aisawa and a couple others I don’t know. She drew haneman on the first hand, then my turn as dealer, the previous dealer drew mangan and right off the bat I was feeling the pinch in last place. By the first hand of the south round I was far into last place when the dealer reached and I got to ready with this hand

draw:

With no dora, a crappy wait and nothing making the hand really worthwhile, I reached, followed immediately by the player to my right reaching. I figured that was probably the end of my Masters tournament but then the 3rd reacher threw my winner. I don’t know if my lackadaisical play had any affect on the others but I was then able to draw mangan on my turn as dealer and suddenly I was only about 4000 out of first place. I didn’t get anything to work with the rest of the game, but by sort of just staying on the sidelines and letting the others take pieces of each other I was able to eke out 2nd place and a positive 7 points to start. And that turned out to be sort of the theme for me throughout the day, nothing much to work with myself but let the others kill each other.

There were 72 people in our qualifier, of which the top third would get to continue on to the “main” fight and 4 would get a little prize money. That meant that the final border after 4 games would probably be around 20 points so if I could just maintain that sort of average I would probably be in good shape.

The next game was more of the same though I finished in 3rd putting me back to just about 0 points total. The 3rd game I had a bit of a scare at the end despite having pieced together a commanding lead going into the last hand. And it is for this reason only that I sometimes wonder if they are sometimes right about the impossibility of making mahjong tournaments more like poker. The girl currently in last place had also finished last in her first two games so was already looking pretty dead in the water by that point. I don’t know what she had in her hand, but I doubt it could justify this play. On the last draw of the last hand, she threw haneman to the second place player which just only just barely didn’t quite thrust him into 1st place. Despite no longer having anything to play for, a player’s actions may still have a large effect on the outcome of the game. I got lucky that it didn’t actually kill me but it would have been pretty frustrating to lose 1st place because of such lackadaisical play.

Oh wait, lackadaisical play is how I saved myself in the 1st game. Yeah, I guess I don’t know how to make this game fair after all.

With a positive 29 points going into the final game, I probably just needed to finish positive. At my final table the other players had 70, -15, and -45 points. So one was thinking with a win he might get to one of the top spots and win some money. Another was thinking he needed a big win to stay alive. And the last was probably just gonna throw Hail Mary’s the whole game. As it turned out the top guy just started throwing one huge hand after another to the 3rd place guy and very nearly busted himself all the way out of the tournament! I kept to my theme of staying quiet, and was again able to eke out a 2nd place while the others kept beating up on each other.

So hooray! I’m through to the “main” show next weekend. Out of around 220 players only 50 will continue on to the “main fight tournament” so it’s going to be a little tougher to keep progressing. And of course, the field gets much stronger as all the A leaguers and seeded players will be joining the action there. I’ll have to get extra lackadaisical for them I guess.

Don’t Visit DryingPaint Studios!

jenn — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 08:00:58 +0000

I’m just kidding.

I needed a catchy title.

You should definitely visit DryingPaint Studios here.

It’s a mahjong site based in Seattle that was created to run ReachMahjong.com off the internet!

Just kidding again, these guys are great and I try to get a game in with them every time I’m in Seattle. Takeshobo’s Kindai Mahjong (in this issue). I had the pleasure of playing with one of the website co-founders Shane Rideout last year when I was visiting and also enjoyed some chicken wings from the “warming drawer.”

DryingPaint Studios was just brought to my attention this week, coinciding with the Sakura-con taking place in the Washington State Convention Center this week. If you’re in town jump on over today (I believe this is the last day) and play some mahjong.

The coolest feature of this site so far is the mahjong calculator. By just inputting the han (hand points) and fu (base points) you can calculate the score for your hand. And, as far as I can tell, there is no limit to the fu. I clicked up to 1500 before I gave up and got back to writing this article…
(it just so happens that the total score for 1 han and 1490 fu is 47700 points: 12,000 from each non-dealer and 23900 from the dealer)
I almost want to play a 10-times fu version of the game just to see what this calculator can do!

So in all seriousness, hop on over to Sakura-con, check out DryingPaint Studios and join the Seattle Mahjong Group. It just so happens that they are awesome.

Garthe on the First League Session (D2)

garthe — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 12:00:13 +0000

Spring is here, and that means one thing: 2-3 weeks of the entire country being alternately smashed or hungover as they lurch from one hanami gathering to another.

Oh but wait, there’s other thing: the beginning of the year for Japan Professional Mahjong League!

On the strength of my 150 point penalty in session 4 last season I made a strong dive from D1 league into D2 while Jenn continued to play steady, holding her spot in D1. At least with D2 beginning at 4 in the afternoon, I am much less likely to miss it or even be late! Benefits aside, it did little to help my showing this month.

Actually it started out not all too bad. In the first game, three of us ganged up on the youngest guy at the table to finish positive and give him a negative 27 point start. In the final hand of the second game I won a 2000 point hand from him to steal first place rounding out a nice first half. It was pretty easy to go on the offensive as no one seemed to want to put together very big hands making throwing into them relatively inexpensive.

In the 3rd hand of the 3rd game, the same kid got to ready on his turn as dealer and reached on the 3rd discard, leaving very little obvious outs for playing defense. With my hand starting to come together and a couple ’s on the board, I dealt into this:

While some might argue that 2 straight games of el cheapo hands might justify simply going for it every time against those guys, the truth is my hand was nothing special and I did still have tiles that appeared safer than that (2). In the end it was a pretty careless mistake that could have been avoided and the lost 11600 points was the beginning of the end of good hands coming my way for the day.

The one place I do wonder if a different play would have served me better was in the South round of the last game. I was in the south seat and got to one away from ready with this:

Dora was , and I could already see 2 of them out along with one each of and around the 8th draw. When the dealer discarded the second 2, I chowed it to take tenpai and eventually won a small 2000 point hand from the current 3rd place player to take 3rd place going into my turn as dealer. The next two hands, however, all the players chowed and punged until they had practically no tiles left in their hands, and went out with cheapies to push me just back into last place by the end of the game.

Taking the cheaper option is not usually my style and I do wonder how differently things might have turned out had I waited a few more draws to see if I could have turned the hand into something more expensive.

Negative 19 points to start puts me only 7 players and 20 points away from the border for dropping into D3! Looks like it’s time to start getting tips from Jenn again as she finished the day with another solid positive finish of 18 points and is currently only 5 players away from the border for moving up to C3.

Still a long season, let’s see where it goes…

Jenn’s April League (D1)

jenn — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 13:06:37 +0000

Last week was our first League tournament of the new season.

I’m proud to say that out of all the League-players on the ReachMahjong.com staff, I am in the highest league, D1.

Right, not a very high league considering the highest is A1…

But I am beating Garthe, which is my biggest goal in life at times.

So league is 4 games, East/South rounds. There’s no hidden (ura) dora or quad (kan) dora or red (aka) dora. Just one normal old dora. Lately I like to play with lots more dora.

Also we have to roll the dice and draw our own hands from the wall. This is a pain. I like the table to prepare my drawn hand for me.

But somehow, through all of this adversity, I was able to play my game.

My game, it so happens, is great during the play. I can read hands, I can choose good paths for my own hand, but I can’t close the game.

In the first game I was doing great. I was folding when I should, pushing when I should, and I was in 2nd place going into the last hand. In league, which is a 5-session (20 game sprint), I am very happy with 2nd place.

However, with the player to my left riichi and 3 concealed triples along with a pair in my hand, I had very few choices in the way of safe tiles, not to mention a potential monster in my own hand. I ended up dropping my loner 7-craks (with three 6-craks in my hand) and dealing into his 7700 point hand, putting me into a negative 3rd place.

I was somehow able to win after that though and ended with a positive score. My goal is to get about 20 or so each time and I got just below that, so not too shabby.

One of the biggest things I have to tell myself during league is that I don’t need to get first place. Sometimes one player dominates the table. This time it was a young guy who seemed very concerned with his appearance. He was new and his buddies were around to cheer him on. He did well. It was infuriating. But it doesn’t matter in league if another player is doing well, or even better than me. All that matters is that I end positive and I make my way to the top. Consistency is way more important than one dominating day.

Remember that Jenn!!!

Haaaaaaaaaaaai!

The PAX East Experience

garthe — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 12:00:43 +0000

Uffda!!! What a weekend! What an experience!

Amazingly, our number one biggest surprise: people like mahjong.

No, really! It is quite the mystery how a group of people who love mahjong could underestimate how much people who love games would love mahjong, but we did.

By the third day we had an hours long waiting list for people trying to get a shot at playing on any of our 3 tables. And they’d sign up again when we had to kick them off so others could get a chance to play. It was a surprise success that I don’t think any of us anticipated.

Of course the vast majority of the players were coming to play mahjong for their first time. It was an obvious scenario that we were totally unprepared for as we had nothing to give new players to help them understand even the basics of a complicated game they had never played. So we scrambled to try to explain everything at once, confusing quite a few new players in the beginning I’m sure. We were also thrown for a loop sometimes by players who sat down confidently because they “knew” how to play mahjong, only to discover that it was not the pair matching solitaire game they were familiar with from their computers.

It was Gemma’s teaching experience that saved us in the end. By dividing up the learning process into bite size chunks, she was able to get them playing hands and shooting for a few simple hand points within half an hour of sitting down at their first mahjong table.

While we were definitely focusing on Japanese Riichi Mahjong, there were quite a few players of Chinese mahjong also happy to sit down at a table and play a few hands of the version they were familiar with. It was a relief sometimes to have a break from the non-stop teaching process that had become our booth.

And the other surprise: the appeal of an automatic mahjong table.

After learning how to play mahjong on playstation, I played on automatic tables from my very first time playing with people. I’ve worked in mahjong parlors enough that they had become rather mundane. It was not so for the average passerby at PAX east. There were times when the group gathered around the table was 2-3 thick, just waiting for a hand to end so they could watch the amazingness of pushing a button so the tiles could be dropped into the center, followed by another push to make 4 fresh walls magically rise up from its depths.

We had so much interest that it was nearly impossible to get around and see much of what else PAX had to offer. I did make it to one panel discussion on pinball, headlined by reigning world champion Bowen Kerins. He taught some tricks for which he then selected some volunteers to come up and try to replicate. It’s pretty basic and yet I had never mastered the “post pass.” He also give some “nudging” tips which I got a chance to repeat and claim some swag. Afterwards I voiced my concern that pinball seems to have disappeared from Tokyo and he said he and PAPA were working on making their way back into Japan. And finally armed with my new skillz I made a trip to the main expo floor where they had a couple real machines! Good times!

We should finally give a few shout outs to the group who made our booth work. First of all, we have to thank David Bresnick, president of the US Pro Mahjong League, who put the whole thing together. From just getting a spot at the convention, to gathering all the equipment it wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without his efforts. Thanks to Tom Riedel and Allon Scheyer for tirelessly sharing their passion for the game with the new players and for driving things back and forth from New York. And Thanks again to Dave and Ceren for letting us stay at their place while in New York.

We had a great PAX east, and hope everyone who got a taste of mahjong there whet their palates for more.

Jong-cast #94 -April 16, 2014

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:00:19 +0000

Another late update!

The tournament mentioned is completed and Jenn made the final table! Hurrah?!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Setting up at PAX East

jenn — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 18:00:47 +0000

([] text refers to images that Garthe has yet to submit. Something to look forward to)

Well a few more years and I may lose my sense of Americanity entirely!

The first day and a half we were mostly just hanging out and trying to hit a cool spot or two for food.

[Hamburger pic]

Wednesday we managed to track down recently dead to us Tokyoite Kate, who has just moved back to New York.

[4 of us at bat]

And of course that had to end with a 5am trip to White Castle, because I grew up on the Beastie Boys and that’s what happens in New York from what I understand.

[White Castle pic]

That led of course soon led to the car ride to Boston and a short coma.

[car pic]

The Boston Convention Center is obviously no small production so it took us a while to walk around the entire center, find registration, and then walk around it again to find our booth space.

First thing, set up the tables.

Things were mostly obvious with the automatic table but we still managed to ignore the spot to connect the power. After getting half way through our set up the Teamsters came to tell is that our tables were not ours and we had a carpet coming so had to move everything out again and start over. Time to check mail:

Actually the Teamsters interaction was perhaps the most entertaining as I kept trying to “borrow” their carts/dollies to move our stuff from car to booth meeting with varying “Here, use this!” to “You shouldn’t use that.” to “Did you ask if you could use that, you blankety blank blank blank?! No you didn’t! It’s MCCA praaaahhhhpety! Put your stuff here and put that cart back! GRRR!”

With our new carpet installed it was back to assembly.

And then like magic we were done! Time for Thai food!

[garthe relaxing]

Jong-cast #93 –April 11, 2014

admin — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 12:12:01 +0000

Enjoy a podcast that was supposed to be up in February, while Gemma and Garthe are at PAX East in Boston!

The tournament mentioned is completed and Jenn made the finall table! Hurrah?!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

USPML @PAX EAST

USPML-David — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 12:00:59 +0000

We’re very excited to announce that the USPML will have booth space in the tabletop section of PAX Prime, being held in Boston MA from April 11 – 13! In addition to an open play area and a wide variety of mahjong products available for sale, the inimitable star power of Gemma Collinge and Garthe Nelson will be on display as our celebrity guests from overseas.

An offshoot of the “PAX Prime” convention located on the western seaboard, PAX East is a fairly new event first held in 2010. Despite it’s youth, the convention has grown at an astonishing rate and will be hosting over 65,000 guests this year. The PAX conventions are intended as a direct outreach from developers/designers/publishers to their audience, as opposed to the industry media focus of other events. The tabletop section has been one of the fastest growing segments of PAX East and being a part of it gives us a great chance to share our love of Riichi with thousands of gamers.

We’ll be taking signups for scheduled in-depth teaching sessions as well as running quick “how do I play this” tutorials for interested onlookers. Additionally, we’ll have plenty of merchandise available from tile sets to play mats to books and calendars. This is the first time that Riichi mahjong is going to have feature space at a major convention, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to reach out to such a varied audience. If you’re going to be at the convention, come and visit us at booth C125 in the Tabletop section – hope to see you there!

RM with USPML at PAX EAST

garthe — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 01:38:36 +0000

Hey, long time no write! Garthe here back from the not really dead, just fooling around too much, and now I’m about to head off to Boston with Gemma to fool around there.

YES! Gemma and I are headed to PAX EAST 2014 in Boston this weekend, and from what people said about last year’s event, it sounds like we are in for like the awesomest time ever. And I’m still not even totally sure what we’re supposed to be doing there besides just having fun.

OK, one thing I do know we’re gonna be doing there is playing mahjong. On automatic tables! Specially shipped from Japan by Reachmahjong.com just for this event! David Bresnick, president of the US Professional Mahjong League, has superhumanly managed to set up a booth for mahjong at the convention. I can’t wait to get some people drawing, discarding, pushing buttons, and winning hands! We’re also bringing some old school tables where we’ll be setting the tiles up by hand, so you can get the feel of how it used to be in the olden days. You know, 30 years ago. Maybe we’ll even give a few tips on old school cheating. Teeheehee!

Besides showcasing Japanese mahjong I’m pretty excited to hit some of the panels and shows. There is a lot to take in, from throwback talks on D&D to all the new games I don’t know because I’m old, it’ll be easy to get distracted from our primary mission. “Games that are so bad they’re good” sounds interesting because let’s face it, crap is entertaining. Then there’s the talk by Pinball world champion Bowen Kerins where I will try and fail to impress him with my knowledge of Addams Family and Bride of Pinbot. “The most evil game developers in the world” sounds intriguing too. And with a Japanese title, I can’t miss “Isshoukenmei: Localizing Japanese games.” Maybe I can fool someone into thinking I’m employable again.

Japan Professional Mahjong League’s winter hiatus has finally ended with our first league session of the year on Sunday. After 2 months off we are ready to play and excited to be trying to get some other people into our favorite game. While we are bi, tri, or maybe even quad curious having played lots of different rule sets from around the world, I think we’ll be sticking to Japanese mahjong on this trip. So brush up on your skills with a look at some of the old posts on Reachmahjong.com. If you don’t have time, come on by our booth anyway! It’s the US Professional Mahjong league’s booth, C125. We can’t help but have fun. We’re playing games!

Ron2 League

jenn — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:00:38 +0000

One of the fun aspects of JPML’s Ron2 is the ranking system. There are daily, weekly and monthly rankings that you can check daily and there are usually special tables and events with prizes for the top rankers.

I personally like to play in the Ron2 League on the weekends and give myself a goal of moving up or down. Every pro wants to be in the Gold League and while I’ve made it before, something always comes up keeping me from playing and I’m not able to maintain my status.

Now that we’re on hiatus I have every intention of making Gold before league starts in April and keeping my spot there. You’re all welcome to join me and since the games are limited to weekends and split up by Gold, Silver and Bronze leagues, we’re likely to end up on the same table if you start in the Bronze league with me in February.

How about it? Want to work our way up together?

Ron2 Season

jenn — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 10:50:23 +0000

The regular JPML Mahjong season is officially over. League finished at the beginning of January, Champions League and any other remaining tournaments have only the finals left to play and the next big event is the Grand Prix, reserved only for the elite in results and/or in name.

So what is a run-of-the-mill mahjong pro like Garthe and I to do until our first league session in January?

You’ll find me on Ron2, reading up on the game and practicing my butt off. I plan to be on Ron2 a lot. I hope to not fill my time with other things, but with no tournaments there will be a lot of free weekends.
You’ll also find me at the arcade, racking up Mahjong Fight Club hours. I hope to make it to some parlors in the meantime as well and I have just a few guest jobs lined up.

I’ll also take a trip or 2 to a remote, undisclosed location, with no mahjong whatsoever.
You’ll hear all about it on the podcast.

Jong-cast #92 –January 22, 2014

admin — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 12:00:54 +0000

First podcast recorded this year! Happy 2014!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Jong-cast #91 –January 15, 2014

admin — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 12:00:13 +0000

Recorded December 10th of last year, but we still gotta get it out there!

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MahjongMart is Back!

jenn — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 07:00:10 +0000

In 2012 ReachMahjong.com moved the online sales site MahjongMart.com to RM. We failed. The system wasn’t as good, there were Paypal issues and it was a complete disaster.

For the past 6 months Gemma and I have been preparing our new company, Reach Spirits Inc. As part of that we published “A Riichi Mahjong Study Book” in December and in January we have revived MahjongMart.com.

All the old products (that we can get ahold of) are still there and we’ll be tweaking the design and adding new products as time goes on. If you’re ever in need of Mahjong supplies, make sure to check MahjongMart.com first and support the podcast, the website and the forums.

2014 has already started off to be a good year thanks to our hard work in 2013 and we’ll continue to improve and someday be the best Mahjong website on the web.

Thank you everyone for your continuous support and for loving the game as much as Garthe, Gem and I do!

A New Year’s Resolution for European Players

Gemma — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 14:10:37 +0000

This is an exciting year for riichi fans! The World Riichi Championship is almost upon us!
And with it… Controversy! Check out the comments sections of MahjongNews.com if you want to read the conflicting opinions. It’s very interesting.
Forgive me if I sound excited about that aspect. But I am. It means people are caring about this awesome game.
One of the ‘controversies’ that did surprise me was that players are requested to be able to score without a score sheet. I actually did not anticipate this request to be as revolutionary as it seems to be.
The main crux of the problem seems to be that people don’t think it’s possible for mere amateurs to learn that scoring sheet. Let me dispel that myth. Of course it’s possible. You just need to put a little bit of time in to it.
If you think it’s unreasonable that you’re asked to learn the scoring table… I’m sorry but you’re wrong. If you want to play a game to any proficiency, you have to know the basic rules of that game. Scoring is fairly basic. It is not unreasonable.
The other complaint I’ve heard is that people don’t think there is any value in learning this. I’m afraid I vehemently disagree with you. There is so much value and it will improve your game.
If you’re looking to jump a place towards the end, there is no point risking your neck to make a 3 yaku 50 fu hand when a safe 2 yaku 40 fu hand will achieve the same end. How will you know this? By having a good understanding of the scoring sheet.
So… Now I’ve pushed my unsolicited opinion, how do I think you can do this? I don’t have a hard and fast rule. It depends how your brain works. I’ve heard some people like to know the math behind it. Others just brute force it into their heads. I’m the latter.
What I would recommend is starting by learning the 20, 30 and 40 fu lines. You’ll be able to score the vast majority of hands then. Once those are in your head, the rest will start to follow a pattern of sorts. And if you do get a 90 fu hand in the meantime, no decent person is going to roll their eyes if you want to check.
I guarantee it will improve your game and when we finally welcome Japanese players to our shores, they will appreciate the level that we’re playing at.

What Mahjong Fans are Still (just barely) Talking About

jenn — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 12:00:09 +0000

Nearly three weeks after the JPML’s 10-tier tournament crowned its winner, the hype and tweets of disgust have died down a bit and in the latest issue of Kindai Mahjong ran a cheerful report on the final table, which was broadcasted live on Niconico. In a not so distant future, the only name remaining of the 30th annual Judansen will be Naoki Setokuma, who won the event for the third year in a row.

The day before it was announced that Masato Horiuchi had lost his privilege of continuing in the event as well as participating in any other professional events for the next year, for reasons which will be laid out below. The debate surrounding this punishment is about fairness. It seems the most fair thing we can do at RM.com is report the events and hope that this episode is not simply lost in history.

The 10-tier (Judansen) tournament is a JPML closed event. Each level players participate and move on or lose out depending on which dan (grade) they are. The final table includes 4 players who have won their spot and the previous year’s winner for a total of 5 players.

The players on this year’s final table were:
Naoki Setokuma
Takeo Kojima
Makoto Sawazaki
Masato Horiuchi
Tsuyoshi Nakamura

The first 2 days consisted of 8 games and games on November 16th, the games were delayed. Before play began a special video was played featuring the official: Takahiro Fujiwara and the president of JPML: Shigekazu Moriyama. Fujiwara explained what Horiuchi did, explained that it could not be confirmed in the video, but promised that all who were present noticed that Horiuchi slammed the 3b he drew, making it look dangerous, and sighed on the discard, making it look like he folded the hand. He apologized for not stopping the game at that point, explaining that he thought he could not stop something being broadcast live. You can see the video, in which you can’t see anything, here: 1384591266

President Moriyama went on to read an official decree of the unanimous decision by the committee to disqualify Horiuchi.

The article on JPML’s website dubs this event an “unprecedented accident.” It reads:

“Those who watched the broadcast already know that in the East-4 hand Horiuchi was set on winning the hand and even though he drew a 3b, which was a safe tile for Kojima’s riichi, he made it look as though he drew a dangerous tile and discarded the other 3b from his hand with a sigh, as if he were folding. This was shamisen*-like unfair trick play. (Horiuchi was waiting on a safe 1b for a 7700 point hand)

Earlier Setokuma drew Horiuchi’s winning 1b and even though it was safe to Kojima’s riichi he kept it, giving up his tempai (ready). But, after seeing Horiuchi’s actions he discarded the 1b, dealing into Horiuchi’s hand.

The game was not stopped at that point for the this ill-intentioned and against the rules play and it was reviewed the next day. There was a bit of confusion but after a careful review by the committee, Horiuchi was disqualified and the remaining 4 players finished the event.

It is unfortunate that this completely unexpected and unacceptable situation occurred, but from now on all JPML members must re-acknowledge their awareness and honor as competition professionals and make sure something like this never happens again.”

Horiuchi followed up this video with 3 tweets:

Nov. 16
There was a problem with the hand I won in the East-4 hand of the 8th game in the Judansen final and I was disqualified and suspended from public tournaments. I apologize to everyone who supported me and all those involved. I do not plan to quit JPML. During my probation period I will reflect on this and I will do my best to compete for a title sometime again in the future.

Nov. 16:
I don’t want to be misunderstood so I would like to add something. I did not sigh when I drew 3b and I have never considered shamisen-type tactics to deceive my opponents. No matter what I have always hoped for pure mahjong competitions based only on skill. The hand in question was a critical moment and I was breathing heavy and put too much strength in my drawing hand.

Nov. 19
At Judansen I had no ill-intentions but I apologize for causing trouble and inviting misunderstanding. I will take preventive measures to make sure it doesn’t happen again and start over. My official punishment will be determined at the January committee meeting. I will let you all know when I am able to resume my activities as a pro.

Despite his numerous fans, Horiuchi has been chastised in the past by professionals in the committee for his play, but not for his table manners. Some higher-ups have been unhappy with his recent success, but because the JPML systems reward past winners with “seeding”, once a player has won a tournament he’s all the more likely to appear on future final tables. With this incident Horiuchi has also lost all seeding privileges he once held for his multiple titles.

It is true that this is an unprecedented accident. However, the “unprecedented” part is certainly in the punishment, and not the crime. JPML has now set a precedence for penalizing sighing. It will be interesting to see if this continues.

As a perhaps interesting footnote, the members of the JPML committee mentioned above who unanimously decided this punishment changed this year. There is now only 1 female member and a number of younger members were dismissed at some point in time. After the event was over, one of the officers of the committee also tweeted that he heard about Horiuchi’s situation, but had not yet heard who the winner was. That tweet was later deleted.

If I were to voice only one opinion here, with Setokuma’s superior skill level and strong discard of the 1b, it seems unlikely that he thought 1b was still safe to Horiuchi and even more unlikely that any part of his decision was based on Horiuchi’s table manner.

*”Shamisen” is a bluff or lie about your hand

Instead of a Podcast…

jenn — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 18:00:30 +0000

This week Garthe was working on a movie, so we couldn’t record a proper podcast.

It’s tough to be in demand.

Instead how about saving up for our book.

The print version will be available by the end of the month. Someone actually bought 30!

There are still copies left, so e-mail or PM one of us (Jenn, Garthe, Gem) if you’d like to reserve a copy.

We’ll be back with a proper podcast next week.

Hurrah!

Jong-cast #90 –November 21, 2013

admin — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 07:57:59 +0000

Lots of buzz in the Mahjong world in Japan about a controversial JPML decision and Garthe and Jenn are a-buzzin too.

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Ozball did something awesome!

Gemma — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:15:40 +0000

In case anyone hasn’t seen the post on the forums yet…

http://reachmahjong.com/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=53211

Read it and be impressed!

Jong-cast #89 –November 14, 2013

admin — Wed, 13 Nov 2013 18:00:55 +0000

OMG! A weekly edition!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

Korea!

Gemma — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 11:55:10 +0000

Does anyone remember that report I wrote about the European Championship? Nope… Neither do I! But I’ll be on a plane tomorrow heading for the Korean Open in Seoul! So perhaps being forced to not have the internet for a few hours will mean I can write a report on the ERC rather than browse the internet for cat pictures.

Anyway! This is an update about the Korean Open. I’ll be going and playing. It’ll be my first time in Korea so I’m fairly excited. It’ll be interesting to see the style of the Korean riichi players. Also, if I can get internet access that doesn’t involve bankrupting myself with roaming charges, I’ll update progress on @MahjongGem.

Wish me luck!

Jong-cast #88 –November 6, 2013

admin — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 12:00:44 +0000

Somewhat on the ball…

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Jong-cast #87 –October 24, 2013

admin — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:00:35 +0000

We may be back on schedule… Tune in next week to find out!

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

A Riichi Mahjong Study Book on Sale Now!

admin — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 08:00:06 +0000

ReachMahjong.com’s brand new (and first-ever) published title is now available for your Kindle!

It’s about 50 pages of What Would You Discard scenarios and some drills to keep your Mahjong mind sharp.

The digital copy of the book runs for about $10 USD (it’s showing as $10.23 right now) or 8 Euro. Prices differ depending on your Amazon account so be sure to search for “Riichi Mahjong” on the Amazon store and you’ll be sure to find it.

We will also be offering a limited number of print copies of the book around the end of November, so reserve yours now by emailing jenn@reachmahjong.com and/or gemma@reachmahjong.com. The print version will be available for 11 Euro or $15 USD, plus shipping, through our new online shop (opening in November). If you’d like to order it as a package with my old book Reach Mahjong: The Only Way to Play, we’ll give you a discount.

Enjoy and let us know what you want to see for future publishings!

2014 Furiten Tournament: Riichi in Holland

admin — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:00:02 +0000

ON January 19, 2014 the Furiten Tournament will take place in Bussum, a suburb of Amsterdam.

You can get all the details and sign up at riichi.nl

It’s a 1-day event and your entry fee of €17.50 includes coffee and lunch! (a way better deal than any tournament you’ll find in Tokyo).

For all details and inquiries contact the Dutch Riichi Mahjong Club. Registration is open at 9:30 and awards will be announced by 18:00.

Good luck everyone!

Jong-cast #86 –October 20, 2013

admin — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 18:00:42 +0000

Extra update this week to make up for past non-updates. Forgive us?

Subscribe on iTunes (search for Reach Mahjong) or download here

A Riichi Mahjong Study Book (without a clever name)

jenn — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 14:00:44 +0000

ReachMahjong.com’s first book will go on sale next week!

Starting on October 23rd, 2013 you will be able to purchase the Kindle version of this short intro to Riichi strategy.

It starts out with some common drills to get you in the training mode and then you can read how Garthe and I reason through about 20 hands.

For anyone that prefers good old paper and ink, we will also offer a print-version of the book, available for pre-order by e-mail, and in the future maybe even an online form.

If you’d like more information, please e-mail myself at jenn@reachmahjong.com or Gem at gemma@reachmahjong.com. Feel free to e-mail garthe@reachmahjong.com too!

Jong-cast #85 –October 18, 2013

admin — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 18:00:16 +0000

We’ve been recording and not updating… Half points?

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WWYD October 14, 2013

admin — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 12:00:18 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

WWYD October 7, 2013

admin — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:00:26 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

WWYD September 30, 2013

admin — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:00:43 +0000

Click to enlarge…

Discuss your answer on the RM.com Forums. And look for Jenn and Garthe’s answers on the ReachMahjong.com Podcast

ERC 2013: A Terrible Thing

Gemma — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:39:17 +0000

I was very lucky that all my tables had run smoothly up until the last day. Everyone was pleasant and fun to play with, even in the very stressful and frustrating games. However, on my ninth hanchan, I had an awful experience.

I would like to stress that all of the players on that table are perfectly nice and reasonable people, and that the horridness was not as a result of their behaviour. I still don’t quite understand what happened, but I think it’s worth sharing as it opens up discussions on the way we currently score in EMA tournaments.

All of the players on my table were strong players and I have seen all but one play at previous tournaments. There is no doubt of their skill at riichi.

I am sitting in the North seat on this table. I am assigned score keeper (as I often was in this tournament). I hadn’t had any issues up until then. Sometimes my math can go awry, but I usually spot my own mistakes and correct them (or if the game is going fast, ask a ref to fix it for me).

When I score, I’m always careful to say out loud the score as I’m writing it down and also say from who to who. I will then, while people are washing the tiles, hold up the score sheet for everyone to see even if they haven’t asked for it. People usually glance or take it from me to check. I do this as a matter of principle as I think it’s important for people to check that I’ve written their winning score down correctly and that everyone agrees. Sometimes someone will notice a mistake, either in the scoring of the hand or I’ve written something in the wrong column. We’re all human after all and it’s a big responsibility. Plus it’s much easier to fix a mistake the moment it happens rather than later.

We’re playing and we reach the South round. I’m really losing right now. But it’s okay. I fed to others when I had reached on strong hands, and made one mistake when I really didn’t notice that the guy was tempai. However, it’s good to be in a game with strong players who are an excellent challenge.

Sometime after the start of the South round, the starting South player opposite me says that he thinks I didn’t write down his mangan. So I pick up the score sheet and we all take a look to discover where the problem is.

However, it really isn’t obvious where his mangan should have been. I’m starting to feel stressed as I don’t personally remember his mangan happening (this isn’t a total surprise as I don’t remember every hand perfectly like some do). We have to ask the other two players if they remember his mangan; unfortunately, they don’t either.

There has only been one mangan recorded and that was for the starting East player who I remember vividly feeding as I paid for it. He also remembers his mangan so I didn’t write it in the wrong column.

We then check the number of lines versus the number of hands played (taking into account the continuances) to check I didn’t neglect to record a game somehow, but there is no obvious issue there.

What do we do now? The referee was also looking at the score sheet to try and see something, but spots nothing. I called over the head referee and asked for her opinion. She said that if the other two players (excluding myself and the one claiming the mangan) do not remember and the hand was several hands ago, nothing could be done and we had to keep playing.

Of course, this was grossly unsatisfactory for the South player who feels he has lost his mangan. I am totally horrified that I could have made a mistake. In the end, we’ll never know what happened. Whether it was misremembered by the player or a mistake on my part…

However, it really upset me. I do my best to score correctly, but I can’t eliminate the possibility that I could score incorrectly. On the other hand, three other players were looking at the score sheet every round. Surely a missing 8000 points should have been spotted? It’s not the sort of score you miss (a smaller hand it’s more possible to miss). Either way, it couldn’t be fixed anymore.

And this is where the current scoring method allows for human error. We already have a system where all players are supposed to aid in scoring a hand correctly, but the responsibility for recording of that score is then not shared accordingly.

There are a few possible solutions to this that I can see…

(1) Having more than one scorer per table so that if there is a disagreement, it can be understood.

(2) Not having any of the players score and when a hand is won, have another party actually write down the scores. The logic being that then they would be fully focused on getting it correct rather than also trying to play. This is how it was done at the World Series. It might be difficult for the EMA to get the manpower for something similar.

(3) Using scoring sticks. This means that at least the paying player and the receiving player both agree on the points being exchanged. It does open up the game to cheating if players collude. Without automatic tables, it is also difficult to keep track of your placing on the table. And, of course, without the bankruptcy rule, how do you keep track of minus scores? (You probably end up back on paper…)

(4) Finally, and probably most likely, make it the responsibility in the rules for every player to agree a score between each hand. If they don’t check, it’s their fault.

Anyway, let my tale of woe be a warning to people. If you’re not scoring, make sure you check your scores on each hand, especially if you win. A cursory glance is enough to check that everything is in order usually, and certainly should be enough to see if you’re missing 8,000.

I can’t tell you how bad I still feel about that table, and how I keep replaying the game in my head to try and find that missing mangan. So make sure if you’re scorekeeping that you say out loud the score, the payer, and the receiver. Even if people don’t want to look at the scores, hold it out to them. It ensures that people know you are being transparent and not trying to cheat them out of points. In the end, we are human and there’s only so much we can do…

[Edited: This was actually the first MERS tournament for the Starting South player. (26th Sept)]

ERC Team Tournament Report

Gemma — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 14:30:22 +0000

The first European team tournament was held this year.

The premise was simple – to have players in country teams battle it out.

The ten teams were split into two groups to play four hanchan and then for the fifth and final hanchan, the teams would be seeded to fight it out for final placings.

I was part of the UK team which consisted of myself, Martin Lester, Ian Fraser and John Duckworth.

The first two of my games didn’t go very well, but I avoided last place and the uma.

The second two games went much better.

The UK team finished in the top two and so went into the finals.

Unfortunately, only Ian managed to score us any points with the rest of us each finishing in third. But Ian did secure us a third place in the team championship.

It was definitely a worthwhile experience and one that I would repeat. However, I do think some element needs to be incorporated to actually allow us to play as a team somehow. Otherwise we were just individuals who added our scores up in the end.

That was not the only story from the tournament though.

During the referee seminar the day before, slow play had been discussed at length. The EMA rules vaguely indicate that calls should be made within three seconds after a discard. In the first hanchan, Ian Fraser made a call after twenty seconds for a ron. Another player on his table called for the referee who ruled that the call was invalid. Ian and several other players protested that the rule was not included clearly in the EMA rules so an announcement was made in the second hanchan that this rule would be enforced.

A similar incident happened in the fifth hanchan with a Russian player, Oleg Erensov, who made a call allegedly six seconds after the discard. Another player on the table called the referee and the decision was made that the call was invalid. Oleg strongly contested that he didn’t see the discard immediately because of tile handling on the table. He strongly objected to the ruling so him and his teammates collected 200 euros to make a written objection and to request arbitration (a custom adopted from MCR). The results of the arbitration committee were not announced at the tournament but I think we can expect an update from the EMA, and also a clarification of the rules.

Plenty of people were objecting to this three second rule. Those who have opinions on this should definitely start expressing them so an open discussion on this matter is possible. I think I was loud enough in the referee seminar about it… I believe there are plenty of other places where time is unnecessarily lost, and I’d rather focus efforts on fixing those before we start declaring calls as too late by a matter of seconds. The rules and table etiquette are generally fairly lax in EMA so it seems inconsistent to make it so strict here. Plus we’re going to waste infinite amounts of time as I can imagine a lot of people are going to be calling for the referee on this.

This rules dispute was the only blemish on an otherwise very well organised tournament. The UK team members got to take a trophy home each and I got a toy for getting the highest points on one of the hanchan. He’s sooo cute!