Game 5
U-Next
Pirates
Sega Sammy
Phoenix
Shibuya
Abemas
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
Ippatsu and Tsumo are my Friends
In E2-2, Asakura’s starting hand was 2-away from tenpai, heavily focused on ryanmen waits. Asakura reaches tenpai early maintaining a 47s ryanmen wait. Asakura calls riichi, guaranteeing a mangan if he wins with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1. He ends up drawing it himself on the very next turn to add Ippatsu and Tsumo, bringing it up to a haneman for 3000+200/6000+200.
Winning is the Best Defence Against Riichi
In E3-0, Ooi, Asakura and Kondo have very nice hands. Ooi has a dora ankou, Kondo’s hand has a few ryanmens and Asakura’s has a dora and a red dora with sanshoku potential. All three of them get to iishanten near the end of the first row. Kondo is the first one in tenpai, but decides to stay dama for just pinfu. Asakura gets to tenpai for Sanshoku/Dora 1, also staying dama and waiting on the 4s. Ooi breaks the silence and calls riichi with his 3 dora hand, waiting on the 3p. Both Asakura and Kondo keep dama and it was eventually Kondo who won the hand off Ooi for pinfu nomi.
A Well-Timed Riichi
In E4-0, a lot of plays were happening. Kondo had an ankou of the 4m dora and a red 5p in hand by turn 2. Okada was iishanten for White Dragon/Aka 1 on turn 5. Ooi had a hand that had the potential for sanshoku with tanyao and a red dora at turn 6. Ooi was able to get to tenpai, though he had a choice. He could stay dama in order to try to upgrade the hand with a sanshoku, or he could call riichi for a Riichi/Tanyao 2600 hand. Ooi decided to call riichi, waiting on the 36s. Okada then drew the next tile to advance her hand. to tenpai. Unfortunately, her riichi discard was the 6s. Ooi wins the hand, getting Ippatsu and ura dora for 8000.
Something Big is Happening
Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p521
In S1-0, Asakura’s haipai started out with 3 pairs of dragons. Early on, Asakura calls pon on the green dragon discarded from Kondo. As he draws some souzu, he starts to discards some of the manzu he has in hand, allowing him to at least have honitsu if the daisangen effort failed.
On turn 5, he is able to call the red dragon from Okada.
Asakura then discards the 5s from a 133557s group. Though an odd discard, there is some logic behind it. A 5s was already discarded, making it more difficult to pon, it allows him to use the 1s in case it comes, and it leaves the possibility to shift the 57 kanchan to a 78 or 45.
Asakura didn’t need to do any shifting, drawing the 6s himself to put him tenpai on a 3s/White Dragon shanpon wait.
When Kondo draws a white dragon, he is forced to retreat. As the game continues and nobody sees any white dragons, they begin to bail. Draw after draw, Hiyoshi’s commentating voice got louder and louder with more and more anticipation for a possible daisangen.
On Asakura’s 9th draw while in tenpai, his second last draw, he manages to draw the white dragon to win the daisangen. As dealer, he wins 16000 from all, giving him the lead and puts his score up to 83600.
In the Pirates’ room, we got a view of how his teammates celebrated. You could see that they were excited to see it happen, but because of social distancing rules, they couldn’t give high fives or say much to reduce the chances of spreading any viruses.
Bigger Isn’t Always Better
In S2-0, Kondo rushes out of the gate with a pon of east on turn. The other players don’t pay much mind to this, since they are building their own big hands. Okada, who gets to tenpai on row 3, calls riichi on her Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 hand. Shortly after, Asakura chases with a Riichi/Dora 3/Aka 1 hand. However, it was Kondo who ends up being victorious, winning with an East/Aka 1 hand for 2600 points.
Okada’s Comeback
Going into S3-0, Okada was in last place, being negative after Asakura’s daisangen. Her team had already lost 4 games in a row and their team needed some points in order to have a chance to win the championship. Her hand develops quickly, with the hand being iishanten by turn 4. By turn 10, she has the chance to be tenpai. However, she chooses to go bigger, discarding the 9s to go for tanyao and the possibility for a better wait. She is faced with a threat from Kondo, though she pays no mind and continues her hand. Her hand eventually reaches tenpai and calls riichi, waiting on 14p. Okada ends up winning the hand off Kondo’s 4p for Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1 and 8000 points.
Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p522
In S4, Okada was the dealer and it was finally her time to shine. In S4-0, her haipai is 2-shanten, with a dora and aka in hand. The next turn, she draws to get to iishanten. Okada eventually draws a 6m and calls riichi with a very wide 23568s wait. Sure enough, with a large wait like that, she drew the ippatsu tsumo, making her hand mangan to get her into 2nd place.
In S4-1 her starting hand is yet again incredible, holding a pair of easts, two dora and a red 5p. She calls pon on the east and discards a dora on turn 3 to get to a quick tenpai with a 47s wait. Ooi put some pressure on the table by calling riichi with a 3p/9p shanpon, though it ends up backfiring when he deals into Okada a few turns later. Okada wins the hand with East/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 5800+300 points, plus Ooi’s riichi stick
Final Scores
| Players | Score | Final Score | |
| 1st | Asakura Koushin | 74440 | +94.4 |
| 2nd | Okada Sayaka | 24200 | +4.2 |
| 3rd | Ooi Takaharu | +3300 | -36.7 |
| 4th | Kondo Seiichi | -1900 | -61.9 |
Standings after Game 5
With the big boost from the yakuman, the U-Next Pirates shot up to 1st place. With Okada’s 2nd place, this is the first time the Kadokawa Sakura Knights have gained points.
Page 1: Before the Games
Page 2: Game #5
Page 3: Game #6
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