M-League 2019 Finals: Games #5-6

Game 6

Never Too Late

In E3-0, all of the players struggled to build their hands. None of the players were able to reach tenpai by the end of the second row. Then, on the third row, Wakustu finally drew to tenpai. Despite the number of draws to win, she declared riichi. With everyone else in difficult iishantens, they decided to play it safe against the dealer riichi. On Wakutsu’s last draw, the second to last tile, she drew the winner, giving her Riichi/Tsumo/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 4000 all.

Living in Fear

In E3-1, all of the players tried to develop their hands normally, discarding terminals and honour tiles. Though as much, they tried to advance their hands, nothing was coming together. Wakutsu held the dora 9s and was unable to throw it without heading into danger. The lack of souzu in his opponents’ discards stopped Kobayashi from going for a better wait. Sawazaki also had a lack of pinzu in his discards, which prevented Shiratori from throwing pinzu. Sawzaki was just unable to get to tenpai no matter what he did. Eventually the game ended in a draw with no one in tenpai, a rarity in M-League.

Sacrifices Must Be Made

In S4-1, Shiratori sat in the uncomfortable position of 2rd place. Sawazaki was just behind him by 5300 and Kobayashi was hot on his tail, only 1600 points away from overtaking him. Since Shiratori was dealer and dealer get penalized more if someone won by tsumo, a Sawazaki mangan tsumo would put him into last. With this fact in mind, he kept his hand flexible. He held on to a white dragon dora, which soon became a pair and then an triplet. With this ankou in hand, he just had to finish up the other groups. As he tried, Sawazaki was brewing up a plan to get out of last. Sawazaki eventually got to tenpai, calling riichi for a 58s wait. Shiratori, trying to avoid a tragic deal-in, had to make some decisions.

When Shiratori drew the 4p, he had to decide whether going for 1st is still worth it or if he should try to avoid 4th. If he keeps the 8m, he would have to discard the dangerous 4p or 7p. If he discards the 8m, he would be in furiten. Shiratori eventually discards the 8m. Then Shiratori drew the 3p and put him into tenpai. In a move to put the chances of winning higher priority over value, Shiratori cut the white dragon from his hand to break his ankou and have a 258p sanmenchan wait instead.

Right after Shiratori calls riichi, Wakutsu has to make a decision of what to discard. She has a 100% safe green dragon in hand, but she considered the fact that a Shiratori win would mean she could lose her 1st. What she needed to do is to discard something that was safe against Shiratori and can deal into Sawazaki. Wakutsu threw the 2s, which Sawazaki won off of for 3900+300 points. Wakutsu sacrificed some points to lose the hand but win the game.

Final Scores

	Players	Score	Final Score
1st	Wakutsu Akira	34200	+54.2
2nd	Sawazaki Makoto	23400	+3.4
3rd	Shiratori Sho	21500	-18.5
4th	Kobayashi Go	20900	-39.1

Standings after Game 6

With the win, the Sega Sammy Phoenix took back the lead. The U-Next Pirates did lose some points, but ended the day as the winner of the day. The Shibuya Abemas did lose some points today, but they stay within range for first place. Bit by bit, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights are gaining their points back.

We are 6 games into the finals, and 6 games until we see who is crowned the champion. Who will be the one to take the plate?

Page 1: Before the Games
Page 2: Game #5
Page 3: Game #6