M-League 2020 Finals: Games #7-8

Game #7

Haneman, Mangan, Haneman, Haneman, Mangan

May 4, Game 1

With the finals being halfway through, the teams will be fighting harder to get more points. In E1-0, everyone except for Hinata holds a single red dragon dora. With Hinata’s unrestrained freedom, Hinata is 2-shanten by the end of the 2nd row. Even though Hori has his hand advancing well, even getting to iishanten before Hinata, he does sacrifice some efficiency by holding onto the red dragon. The red dragon standoff eventually gets broken by Hori in the middle of the 2nd row, but it’s too late as Hinata calls riichi on a 58s nobetan wait soon after. If Hinata wins on the 8s, she would add sanshoku to her hand to give her a mangan. Sure enough, she ends up drawing the 8s in the middle of the 3rd row to win the hand. Hinata wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Iipeikou/Sanshoku/Dora 1 for 3,000/6,000.

In E2-0, Hinata has quite an interesting hand, holding pairs of the red and white dragon, as well as a singleton of the green dragon by turn 3. When the red dragon comes out, she calls pon to get to iishanten. Soon after, Taro gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 47m ryanmen wait. Hinata does get to tenpai after Taro, but is forced to start discarding her white dragon pair when she draws the dangerous 4m dora. The very next turn, she draws the 3m to change her wait to a 25m ryanmen wait. Near the start of the 2nd row, Hori also get to tenpai on a 36m ryanmen wait and making the manzu a very dangerous suit. In the end, Taro ended up discarding the red 5m to deal into Hinata. Hinata wins the hand with Red Dragon/Dora 2/Aka 1 for 8,000 points.

In E3-0, Katsumata and dealer Taro battle it out, with Katsumata holding value and Taro holding good wait shapes. Near the start of the 2nd row, Katsumata calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait with three dora in hand. Immediately after, Taro calls riichi on a 369p sanmenchan wait, with the 6p being the ideal tile to get him to mangan. On Katsumata’s ippatsu turn, he draws the 5p to win with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 3/Ura 1 for 3,000/6,000, plus Taro’s riichi stick.

In E4-0, everyone has pretty fast hands, with everyone being iishanten by the start of the 2nd row. The first player to get to tenpai is Taro, who calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen wait on turn 10. On turn 11, Hori calls riichi on a 14s ryanmen wait. A few turns later, Taro tsumo the 3p to win the hand. Taro wins with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 3,000/6,000, plus Hori’s riichi stick.

In S1-0, Hori the dealer has the fastest hand, holding an iishanten hand by turn 4. On turn 5, he widens his scope and guarantees himself a good wait on any of the 9 different tiles he is waiting for to get to tenpai. At the start of the 2nd row, Hori finds the tenpai and calls riichi on a 25p ryanmen wait, with the 2p giving him iipeikou. With Hinata bailing, she just ends up drawing more and more souzu, pushing her hand to chinitsu. Near the start of the 3rd row, Hinata gets to iishanten for Chinitsu/Dora 3/Aka 1, a big baiman chance. But in order to get there, she would have to discard the 2p or the 5p. With no safe tiles anyways, she pushes the 5p and deals into Hori.

Hori wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao/Dora 1 for 12,000, dropping Hinata to 2nd and bringing Hori up to 3rd place.

Fighting for the Top

May 14, Game 1, S4-0

In S4-0, the scores are very close near the top, with the gap between 3rd and 1st place is only 3,900 points away. With 2nd place Katsumata being only 1,400 from 1st place Hinata, he would only need a 1 han 50 fu or higher hand or any direct ron or tsumo to be in 1st place. With an ankou of red dragons and three pairs, his hand has a potential for a toitoi take 1st. Even an ankou of the red dragon would be enough to get to 50 fu. Challenging Katsumata is 1st place dealer Hinata, who has a quick hand that is iishanten by turn 2. Soon after Hinata’s iishanten, Katsumata gets an ankou of 1s, putting him two pons away from toitoi. Even if he weren’t to get toitoi, an daiminkan on the 1s or the red dragon would give him enough fu for 50. On turn 4, Katsumata calls pon and gets to iishanten. On turn 5, Katsumata calls an ankan on the red dragon, giving him enough fu to win on any hand. Even with a pon on the south dora by Hinata after the kan, Katsumata keeps going. At the start of the 2nd row, Katsumata gets to tenpai and waits on a 25p ryanmen wait. Soon after, Hinata gets to tenpai on a 58s ryanmen wait. In the middle of the 2nd row, Taro tries to call riichi to wait on the 4m kanchan by discarding the 5p. Unfortunately for him, he ends up dealing into Katsumata. Katsumata wins the hand with Red Dragon/Dora 1 for 4,500pts. With that hand Katsumata takes 1st place and wins the game.

Final Scores

Standings

With the 1st place from the EX Furinkazan, they make their way closer and closer to the top and widen the gap between them and 4th place. With another 1st and a 4th by the Kadokawa Sakura Knights, the EX Furinkazan could get to 2nd place. For the Shibuya Abemas, the 4th place from the Kadokawa Sakura Knights gives them some more breathing room. With the 3rd from the Akasaka Drivens, they continue to slip down. With only 5 more games to go, it is highly unlikely for them to get to 1st. The best they can probably do is 3rd place, but they would need to get some 1sts first.

EX Furinkazan Elimination Tracker

A first place by Katsumata is exactly what he needed and what the team needs. The +53.9pts 1st place gets him closer to the positives for the formula calculation. Though with how the Akasaka Drivens are playing, the EX Furinkazan stress levels can go down a bit, as they are currently 179.0pts ahead of them. Their next aim should be to get another 1st and try to aim for 2nd place.

Intro | Game #7 | Game #8