Ah, the new M-League season is almost upon us! Let’s take a look at some of the changes that are taking place in M-League this year.
New Players
On August 2, 2021, the M-League 2021 Draft took place. Four teams had an opportunity to draft players. All four of these teams drafted players to fill their team roster to 4 players.
Sega Sammy Phoenix: Tojo Rio (東城りお) [JPML]
JPML rank: 3rd Dan
Home Prefecture: Tokyo
Pro since: 2013
Highest JPML League: C3
Current JPML League: D3
Gravure idol and one of the pros on the Konami Mahjong Fight Club arcade games, Tojo Rio was the Sega Sammy Phoenix’s choice to fill their roster after dropping Wakutsu Akira from the team at the end of the 2020 Season.
In 2021, she won two tournaments: The Yukan Fuji Cup and the 2021 Winter Ron2 Cup.
She also has a Youtube Channel that she has with fellow Sega Sammy Phoenix player Uotani Yuumi called the RioMin-Channel.
Team Raiden: Honda Tomohiro (本田朋広) [JPML]
JPML rank: 4th Dan
Home Prefecture: Toyama
Pro since: 2012
Highest JPML League: B2
Current JPML League: C2
After three straight seasons of poor results and a 3-player roster, Team Raiden decided to get a fourth player and chose Honda Tomohiro for the job.
Honda has been quite successful in recent years. At the EX Furinkazan Audition, he placed 2nd, just narrowly getting beat out because of a yakuman. Prior to that, he won both the 2019 and 2020 edition of the Grand Prix MAX, the 2019 Hokuriku Pro League and 2019 Hokuriku Pro-Amateur League. At the time of writing, he is currently in 1st place in the JPMl Special Promotion League.
Konami Mahjong Fight Club: Date Arisa (伊達朱里紗) [JPML]
JPML rank: 2nd Dan
Home Prefecture: Hyogo
Pro since: 2019
Highest JPML League: D2
Current JPML League: D2
An anime voice actor (notable for voicing Momose Narumi in Wotakoi and Ueshige Suzu in Saki Zenkoku-hen), Date Arisa has had good success, winning the first edition of the Cherry Bud Cup and quickly getting to A League in the Women’s Cherry Blossom League.
EX Furinkazan: Matsugase Takaya (松ヶ瀬隆弥) [RMU]
RMU License: S
Winner of the EX Furinkazan Auditions, Matsugase Takaya becomes the second player from RMU to become an M-Leaguer (The first one being Ooi Takaharu (多井隆晴)). Matsugase has won the RMU Climax League a few times, as well as being RMU’s best player in 2018.
Konami Mahjong Fight Club: Takizawa Kazunori (滝沢和典) [JPML]
JPML rank: 7th Dan
Home Prefecture: Niigata
Pro since: 2000
Highest JPML League: A2
Current JPML League: B2
After Takizawa Kazunori left the EX Furinkazan after their championship winning season, many people speculated that he would be chosen as one of the picks for the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. Turn out, the rumours were true! In joining the Konami Mahjong FIght Club, he becomes teammates with his longtime friend and rival, Sasaki Hisato (with the two of them nicknamed TakiHisa).
EX Furinkazan: Nikaido Rumi (二階堂瑠美) [JPML]
JPML rank: 5th Dan
Home Prefecture: Kanagawa
Pro since: 2000
Highest JPML League: B1
Current JPML League: C2
The older sister of the Nikaido sisters Nikaido Rumi joins her younger sister Nikaido Aki on the EX Furinkazan team.
Besides being one half of the Nikaido sisters, she is also known for being the 2013 Pro Queen and the winner of the 2006 Saikyousen.
Uniforms
Every year, each team releases a new uniform featuring new designs and new sponsors.
Akasaka Drivens
The Akasaka Drivens inverted their uniform, putting the tartan pattern on the torso and the darker portion on the sleeves.
EX Furinkazan
The EX Furinkazan chose to make themselves look more slimming, choosing a vertical black and red design this year, in addition to adding more sponsors.
Kadokawa Sakura Knights
Highlighting the cherry blossoms in their name, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights added cherry blossoms to their uniform design.
Konami Mahjong Fight Club
To make the dragon at the base of the Konami Mahjong Fight Club uniform more visible, they made the base of the shirt darker. They also changed the sleeves from green to red.
Sega Sammy Phoenix
Besides the addition of some more sponsors, the Sega Sammy Phoenix uniform is largely unchanged.
Shibuya Abemas
For more contrast, the Sega Sammy Phoenix have chosen to go for a black and white uniform with brown highlights on the sleeve and collar. Unlike last season, they have chosen to remove their logo from the sleeve and opted to have a sponsor there instead.
Team Raiden
Team Raiden has chosen to employ a second uniform featuring a new logo design (though they are still keeping the old one). This design features the same grey gradient along with four yellow stripes going along the chest.
U-Next Pirates
The U-next Pirates have chosen to go for a more striped approach this year having diagonal blue and white stripes going across, similar to the old design of some other teams. They have also added some new sponsors and removed the two white stripes going down from the collar.
M-League and the Competitive Spirit
M-League has added a new policy to in regards to the competitive spirit. The new policy states that a player or team should try to get as many points as possible, even if the team’s ranking won’t change.
This comes after a controversial situation occurred in the M-League 2020 Final, where Murakami Jun won a cheap hand in South 4 even though it didn’t change the team’s ranking.
The first game of M-League 2021 will start on Monday, October 4 at 1900 JST! I hope to see you there!
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