M-League 2019 Finals: Games #11-12 and the Awards Ceremony

Game #12

E1-0

Sawazaki’s hand is very fast, having an iishanten hand at haipai. Ooi has a very fast hand as well, having two red dora to be iishanten on turn 3 with decent value. Calling pon on his south wind, Ooi got to tenpai waiting on the 14s. When Sawazaki discards the 4s, Ooi surprisingly passes on it, maybe because he missed it or because he wanted to target someone. Whatever his reason, he manages call ron on Uotani’s 1s discard later, giving him 3900 and increases his team’s chances to win the championship.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
25000	28900	21100	25000

E2-0

There was a small break to fix a table malfunction, but the next hand started shortly after. With the Sakura Knights out of the running, Sawazaki discards the middle tiles from his poor starting hand to look like he’s going for kokushi, though it’s more likely that he wanted to stay out of the hand and have some safe tiles when the others reach tenpai. As expected, Sawazaki confirms that he’s not going for kokushi by discarding some of the honours. Uotani is the first player to get to iishanten, doing so in the middle of the 2nd row. This is followed by Ooi who gets to iishanten at the end of the 2nd row (also interesting to note that he was also 2-shanten from suuankou tanki). When the 3rd row came, Uotani managed to get into tenpai calling riichi withe a 25m ryanmen wait. With the new threat, all three of her opponents start bailing. Uotani wins the hand two turns later, drawing the 2m for Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao for 1300/2600

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
23700	26300	26300	23700

E3-0

Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p538

Everyone starts out with good hands for E3-0. Uotani starts off the hand as dealer with an ankou of easts and a red dora. Kobayashi, Sawazaki and Ooi are all 2-shanten by turn 2. The first to get to iishanten is Sawazaki at the end of the 1nd row, followed right after by Uotani when she completes her 2nd ankou. When Uotani drew her third ankou, she was now tenpai with 47p ryanmen wait for Sanankou/Double East, and iishanten for suuankou tanki. When Sawazaki gets to tenpai, he calls riichi, waiting on the west tanki for Chiitoi/Dora 2. Ooi, who wants to defend, sees the 4p in Sawazaki’s discard pile and throws his own. This deals into Uotani’s dama mangan for 12000, bring the Phoenix up to 1st and giving the Abemas a hard time to catch them.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
22700	14300	39300	23700

E3-1

Kobayashi gets to iishanten early on turn 3, with Sawazaki soon following with honitsu iishanten in his hand. Ooi gets to iishanten at the end of the 1st row, trying as best he can to stay in contention. Kobayashi has the first chance to be in tenpai, but declines it for a better wait than a 5p kanchan. As Kobayashi tries to improve his hand, Ooi calls riichi for Riichi/Pinfu, waiting on the 14s. Though Sawazaki has an expensive iishanten, he starts to bail to avoid dealing in. Kobayashi, on the other hand, continues to push his hand. Kobayashi eventually gets to tenpai, waiting on the 6p tanki with no yaku. To the surprise of everyone, Kobayashi drew the 6p to win the hand with Tsumo/Dora 1 for 500+100/1000+100, plus Ooi’s riichi stick.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
22100	12700	38200	27000

E4-0

Kobayashi starts out with with the worst hand with 9 unique terminals and honours, while Uotani starts out the hand in the best position of the four, being in 2-shanten. Sawazaki and Ooi both build their hands quickly, getting to iishanten by the end of the 1st row. Kobayashi somehow manages to convert his hand into a pinfu hand, getting to iishanten soon after Sawazaki and Ooi. Kobayashi is the first to get to tenpai for Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 1, waiting on the 36p. Ooi has a chance to get to tenpai, but chooses to go safe and bail with the 9p. Sawazaki soon bails along Uotani. As everyone bails, they hold on to Kobayashi’s winning tiles. The hand end with Kobayashi the only one in tenpai, giving him 1000 from all.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
21100	11700	37200	29000

E4-1

Ooi’s hand starts out with 2 dora, while Kobayashi’s starts with 2 red dora. Ooi struggles with his hand early, having penchans in hand which he has to get rid of. Sawazaki gets to 2-shanten for closed honitsu at the end of the 1st row, also having a chance for chiitoi. Uotani gets to iishanten with a few ryanmen at the start of the 2nd row, making it easier to get the hand moving if she managed to win. When Ooi gets the chance to be tenpai, he instead takes the chance to improve his hand by getting rid of his kanchan. Ooi later improves his hand and gets a better tenpai, calling riichi, waiting on the Red Dragon/4m shanpon. Uotani is forced to bail since she has the red dragon in hand. Kobayashi bails as well to avoid falling into 3rd, while Sawazaki maintains iishanten for chiitoi without needing to bail. The hand eventually ends in ryuukyoku with Ooi the only one in tenpai.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
20100	13700	36200	28000

S1-2

In order to get the game to advance while she’s in the lead, Uotani starts it off by calling pon on 8m to go for tanyao. Kobayashi starts off the hand with pairs, naturally leading to chiitoi iishanten. Uotani is the first on get to tenpai, holding a 4p/7s shanpon wait for tanyao. Kobayashi gets to tenpai as well, staying dama and waiting on the south dora tanki. Uotani, focused on winning her hand, discards the south, possibly not realizing that it was the dora. Kobayashi wins off the south from Uotani for Chiitoi/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8000+600+2000 to take the lead. This would turn out to be the pivotal moment in the game, changing the strategy for the rest of the game.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
20100	13700	27600	38600

S2-0

Kobayashi’s hand is fast again, getting to iishanten on turn 3. He gets to tenpai on the 4th turn, but opts to try to get a better wait with yaku instead of having to wait on a 6p kanchan. In order to do this, he discarded the 5p to try get a ryanmen wait for pinfu. Breaking the 5p from his 57p group actually became the start of a trap, as Kobayashi draws the 9p later to get back into tenpai. Kobayashi decided to call riichi with a 8p kanchan suji wait, despite there being risks doing it with the lead. Ooi, who wanted to win the hand since he was dealer and in last, tried his best to stay safe while advancing. However, it was the suji trap that got him as he called pon on the green dragon and discarded the “safer” 8p. Kobayashi wins the hand with Riichi/Aka 1 for 2600

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
20100	11100	27600	41200

S3-0

Everyone starts off with very poor hands. Ooi attempts to get kokushi despite having few terminals and honours. Uotani calls pon on the 9m, without having any yaku in hand. The call was possibly a trap so her hand looks dangerous, or an attempt to get to tenpai while she was dealer. Kobayashi calls chii to try to push for tenpai, but ends up drawing the red dragon, which could be (but isn’t) Uotani’s yaku. With that draw, Kobayashi started to bail. Uotani struggles to get into tenpai, being 2-shanten at the start of the 2nd row. Despite the bail attempt, Kobayashi manages to get into iishanten. When Uotani got to iishanten, Sawazaki got a chance take tenpai. However, he opts deny the tenpai to stay safe. Ooi had trouble deciding what to do since he needs to defend against his two opponents, but is also 1 away from tenpai. He decides to push, but in the end, neither Ooi nor Uotani were able to get to tenpai. Everyone is noten at ryuukyoku to keep the scores the same going into the last hand.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
20100	11100	27600	41200

S4-1

Highlight video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-4_s30_p540

Uotani starts off the hand with an ankou of south and a red dora in hand. She needs a direct hit off Kobayashi or a haneman tsumo to win the game and the championship. Kobayashi, on the other hand, is standing back and letting the game go its course, keeping some safe tiles for himself. With a poor hand, the Abemas accepted their fate of 4th place. Uotani gets a pair of green dragons, which helps bring her hand value up. The next turn, she draws a 4m to complete her 456m group. Completing another ankou, Uotani draws the 3s to be tenpai with a 2p/Green Dragon shanpon. If she wins by tsumo, it would give her Riichi/Tsumo/Sanankou/South/Aka 1, which would be enough to win the game. Uotani calls riichi, waiting on 2p and green dragon for a chance at haneman tsumo or a Kobayashi direct hit for the win. Kobayashi takes a while to decide what to discard, seeing that he doesn’t have any 100% safe tile in hand. After taking some time to decide, he trusts the suji and discards the 7p. Kobayashi, again put into the same situation just a turn later, throws his chun pair, running very low on safe tiles. However, with every discard from Uotani, Kobayashi’s tiles become safe. The room is tense, with Uotani just waiting to tsumo to win. With every draw, you can see Uotani’s frustration in her face. The viewers see where her winning tiles are as the wall becomes shorter and shorter. As Ooi draws the last 2p, everyone watching realizes that the Uotani comeback dream is dead. The hand ends in ryuukyoku.

Uotani is the only one in tenpai, and the Pirates win the game and the championship.

Sawazaki Makoto	Ooi Takaharu	Uotani Yuumi	Kobayashi Go
19100	10100	29600	41200

Final Scores

	Player	Score	Final Score
1st	Kobayashi Go	41200	+61.2
2nd	Uotani Yuumi	29600	+9.6
3rd	Sawazaki Makoto	19100	-20.9
4th	Ooi Takaharu	10100	-49.9

Standings

With the win, the U-Next Pirates take the championship. Following in 2nd is the Sega Sammy Phoenix, while the Shibuya Abemas take the 3rd spot.

After the Game

When the game was over, Kobayashi’s teammates came in to celebrate the win with him. Mizuhara started to cry tears of joy while everyone else couldn’t stop smiling.

Page 1: Before the Games
Page 2: Game #11
Page 3: Game #12
Page 4: The Awards Ceremony
Page 5: Final Thoughts