In mahjong, your wait is the tiles you need to win a hand. Sometimes, only a single tile will give the win. Other times, 3 or 4 different types of tiles can do the job.
This week, the 18th week of the M-League 2025-26 regular season, we had both wide and narrow waits. In a few hands, we had players taking the narrower wait and unexpectedly winning. In others, a wide wait was the key to success, giving them an immediate win with no waiting involved. All I know is that every moment, I can’t wait for M-League to start!
Uchikawa Kotaro is a mahjong pro with the Japan Professional Mahjong League. He has played in M-League since 2019, joining the EX Furinkazan at the M-League 2025-26 draft. And right after that, he won the 2025 World Riichi Championship.
This week, the 17th week of the M-League 2025-26 regular season, Uchikawa did something quite incredible, breaking records and reaching scores that only half a dozen players have ever gotten.
The former Mahjong Live channel had previous been used when an M-League game went longer than its scheduled broadcast slot, or when two live games were happening at once. With the implementation of simultaneous games starting this season, the channel was used regularly to broadcast the second table.
This change is in line with the naming conventions of ABEMA’s other channels and also allows the possibility for more channels in the future (Mahjong 3, Mahjong 4, etc.).
The first event will be held in Las Vegas from June 26 to June 28, while the second event will be in New York from June 29 to June 30. (There will also be a 2026 FIFA World Cup Round of 32 game at MetLife Stadium in nearby New Jersey on June 30)
The events will feature a 2-day tournament, fan meetings and exhibition matches. More details and registration to come.
World Riichi is the host of the World Riichi Championship, the next of which will be held in New York in 2028. Last year, the organization launched World Riichi Professional Mahjong (WRPM), an opportunity for “dedicated riichi mahjong players to grow their game, promote riichi mahjong and contribute to the wider community”.
USPML was established in 2010 and hosts meetups in the New York City area. In 2017, they hosted the World Riichi Championship in Las Vegas.
This will the second time an official M-League will be held in the United States. In June 2025, M-League players participated in fan meetings and tournaments at the AMOS Festival held in Las Vegas.
The calendar may have changed from 2025 to 2026, but the exciting M-League action hasn’t changed at all! In the 16th week of the M-League 2025-26 season, we watched as players won flushes and baimans and some incredible comebacks. And all this fighting is done for a chance to makes the semifinals, the finals and the championship.
Even as 2025 winds down, it doesn’t mean that the M-League action winds down! In Week 15 of the M-League 2025-26 season, we had a lot of exciting surprises. From a bunch of baimans to comebacks to a player getting their first 1st of the season, everyone made sure that 2025 ended with a bang!
Though skill is a large part of mahjong, there is always the element of chance. From chance uradora to gambling on the chance at an uradora, sometimes you have to hope that the mahjong gods are smiling down on you to give you the best result.
In the 14th week of the M-League 2025-26 season, players were smiled down up with yakuman chances and uradora wins . And in an interesting case of chance and bad luck, we had a table breaking down quite a bit on Friday.
We’re just past the halfway point of the season and the fight for the top 6 is really hot! Today, we’ll look at how each team is doing and figure out what each team can do to find success.
Addition is fundamental to mahjong. With the numbers, you need to combine them to get your final total. When you keep adding and adding fu and dora and yaku and han and points, it equals a big result and a big score.
In the 13th week of the M-League 2025-26 season, we had a lot of yaku and dora to combine for big baiman wins. In addition (pun intended), we also hit a big milestone for the season.
Let’s get right into it, shall we?
The Hospitalization Of Asai Takaki
On December 4, 2025, after the second game on the black table, Sega Sammy Phoenix player Asai Takaki was seen getting out of his chair and sitting on the floor. Soon after, both tables went to a commercial break. The next day, the Sega Sammy Phoenix posted on Twitter that Takaki had been brought to the hospital.
On December 10, Takaki’s mother posted on Takaki’s account that he had been hospitalized with a cerebrovascular disease, but he is conscious and is taking steps towards recovery. His employer, Bullet Group Inc., also put out a statement saying that they will not be answering questions or releasing information about his condition to respect his privacy.
Mahjong is a game of numbers. The numbers 1 through 9 are the basic building blocks (or tiles, I guess) of the game. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands are points that are exchanged. Probabilities are behind every single decision. And all with four people around a table of 136 tiles.
We have just started the 12th month to start the 12th week of the M-League 2025-26 season. And in this week, we had a number of big wins and close calls. We had a player winning and winning and rising higher in the individual standings, and teams gaining point sto rise in the team rankings. And all these numbers are gearing them up for a big 70,000,000 yen grand prize.
M-League Watch 