Standings

As with every season, I’ll be going down the standings instead of the usual performance rankings order for the last week of the regular season

Finishing in 1st place in the league and 2nd place in the performance rankings are the U-Next Pirates. In previous seasons, the U-Next Pirates have been unable to do better than 5th place in the regular season. This year, with the help of this season’s league MVP Mizuhara Akina, the team was able to finish the season with +377.1pts and a record of 22/30/19/19. The journey to MVP went down to the wire, with the title being contested even in S4-0. But with a single noten declaration, Mizuhara won the title with a score of +440.6 and a record of 7/11/1/2.

Finishing 2nd place in the league and 1st place in the performance rankings are the Shibuya Abemas. They have finished every regular season in the top 2 of the league. This season was no different. They ended the season with a score of +328.2pts and a record of 21/26/32/11.

In 3rd for both the performance rankings and the regular season standings are the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. In the very last game of the regular, Sasaki Hisato, last season’s MVP, was able to get an important win to push the team into 3rd place and away from the lower group as he handed over the MVP title to Mizuhara. With a positive end to the season, the team looks forward to the semifinals and hopes to make the finals for the first time since the 2018 season. This season, they had a total score of +249.0pts and a record of 29/16/17/28.

EX Furinkazan take 4th in the standings and 5th in the performance rankings. Being the defending champions, they wanted to make sure that they had a chance to defend it. They did well at the start of the season and though they slipped near the end, they held on to take 4th place at the end of the regular season, the same placement they had at the end of last season. By making the semifinals, they are the first team to make the playoffs in the season after winning the championship. This season they scores +184.4pts and had a record of 25/25/16/24.

In 5th place in the standings and last in this week’s performance rankings are the Sega Sammy Phoenix. They were within 1.0pts of the lead at the start of the week, but fell to 5th by the end. The good news for the team is that they have made the semifinals and, with the points cut in half, are only 0.1pts away from moving into 4th place. With some solid play, they can move into the finals in a good position. This season, they finished with +184.2pts and a record of 25/19/23/23.

Taking the last spot in the playoffs are the Kadokawa Sakura Knights. Though Hori had some difficulty and ended up losing both his games, the team’s focus was on Sawazaki. With a big 1st place in the first game of the week, he was very close to getting the MVP title. In the last game, Sawazaki kept getting close, but just wasn’t quite able to get the few points that he needed. Even with this small disappointment, the team makes the playoffs with a score of +177.0pts and a record of 24/23/24/19. Even though 6th is not the best spot, the 2019 win from the U-Next Pirates gives precedence for 6th place teams winning the championship.

In 7th place in the standings and 4th in the performance rankings are the Akasaka Drivens. The team tried so hard to get into the positives this season. But every time they got close, they just couldn’t get through to the positives. Even as time was running out, they kept trying, but it wasn’t enough. They ended the season with a record of 21/22/24/23 and a score of -263.8pts. By missing the finals, they receive one strike. If they don’t change their team and miss the finals again next season, then they will be forced to replace at least one player.

And finally, in last place in the regular season and 6th in the performance rankings is Team Raiden. The team struggled with another season. They have been unable to get better than 5th in the regular season, and they came out with their worst performance yet with -1256.1pts and a record of 14/20/23/33. There’s always next year. As with the Akasaka Drivens, they now have one strike and are one strike away from being forced to replace someone if they choose not to change their lineup.

This Week’s M-League Stats

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For the Akasaka Drivens and Team Raiden, this week was their last week of playing for the 2021 season.

After their last game, they spoke about their 2021 season performance during the public viewing and thanked the fans for their support.

Team Raiden also thanked their fans and finished with their signature pose, with Honda making a separate video while in self-isolation due to a positive PCR test

Through 180 games and 22 weeks of games, players fought hard to help get their team to the semifinals. For the players with the Akasaka Drivens and Team Raiden, their journey to the championship is over (but may still make an appearance as a guest commentators!). For the other 24 players, they will get to rest for a week and then fight to get their team into the finals. 16 games for each team and the finals will be decided! Who will advance and who will be sent packing? Will we see a yakuman in the semis? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see! See you on March 21!

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