M-League 2021-22 Finals: Games #5-6

Game #6

Riichi Battle

April 21, Game 2, E1-1

In E1-1, Takamiya is the dealer and starts out 3-shanten with a red 5s. Filling in a penchan, drawing a 5p double dora and craeting good shapes, Takamiya gets to a ryanmen-ryanmen iishanten by the end of the 1st row. Right after, Tojo challenges Takamiya’s dealership with a riichi on a 14s nobetan.

In the ippatsu turn, Takamiya gets to tenpai as well, calling riichi on a 14m ryanmen for mangan minimum.

With two two-sided waits, it was anybody’s guess who would win. The 2nd row filled with more and more tiles, and they started going into the 3rd row. Then, on turn 17, Tojo draws and discard the 1m and deals into Takamiya. Takamiya wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Dora 1/Aka 2 for 12,000+300, plus Tojo’s riichi stick.

Open Against the Dealer Riichi

April 21, Game 2, E1-2

In E1-2, Tojo is in 4th place and trying to get back into the fight. She holds in her haipai a pair of red dragons that are also dora, an expensive start but slow at 5-shanten. In the first row, she pairs up the white dragon, calls pon on the red dragon and gets to 2-shanten by the end of the row. Soon after, she calls pon on the white dragon. Having already thrown two green dragons, the daisangen threat is dead, but the guaranteed mangan is still something to be wary about.

A few turns later, Takamiya tries to continue her reign by calls riichi on a 36p ryanmen for at least 7,700+600.

Having an iishanten hand for mangan, Tojo continues to push. A turn later, Tojo calls a chii to get to tenpai on a 7m tanki. Later, she switches to a 6s tanki. On her next draw, she draws another 6s to win the hand. Tojo wins the hand with Red Dragon/White Dragon/Dora 3 for 2,000+200/4,000+200, plus Takamiya’s riichi stick to put Tojo back into the game.

Sanmenchan

April 21, Game 2, E2-0

In E2-0, Takamiya is trying to get revenge after Tojo ended her dealership. Takamiya starts out iishanten, but has a kanchan and a penchan as her two remaining shapes. On turn 2, she has a choice to get to tenpai, but chooses instead to break her 3s penchan in search of better shapes. On turn 5, she returns to a decent chance at iishanten, with 6 different tiles giving her a multiple-sided open wait.On turn 8, Takamiya gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 368s sanmenchan. On her very next draw, she gets the 6s to win the hand. Takamiya wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu for 1,300/2,600, giving Tojo the dealer penalty and ending Tojo’s dealership.

Dora Tanki

April 21, Game 2, E3-0

In E3-0, Tojo is in 4th place and trying to catch up to Takamiya. Before she even gets her first draw, she is skipped by the dealer Shiratori, who calls pon on Takamiya’s white dragon discard. When Tojo gets her first discard, we see that she is 2-shanten with a ryanmen and a penchan. Inn the first row, everyone tried to win quickly, with Hori calling an ankan at iishanten on turn 3 and Takamiya being 2-shanten with a chance at sanshoku early on. By the end of the 1st row, Tojo was still sitting 2-shanten, but now has a red 5m. In the middle of the 2nd row, Tojo gets to tenpai and waits on a 69p ryanmen. However, in Hori’s 3rd row, Hori gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 4s kanchan for mangan minimum.

On the ippatsu turn, Tojo draws the 5p double dora, forcing her to break her tenpai and revert to iishanten. Two turns later, she gets back to tenpai and stays dama on a yakuless 5p tanki wait. A turn after that, she draws another 5p and wins the hand. Tojo wins the hand with Tsumo/Dora 2/Aka 2 for 2,000/4,000, moving into 2nd place.

Chase and Ippatsu

April 21, Game 2, S2-1

In S2-1, Shiratori is in 4th place, 3,000 behind 3rd and 10,200 behind 2nd. He starts out 3-shanten with an isolated red 5s and an isolated green dragon dora. In the first row, Shiratori pairs up the 5s to incorporate it into his hand, makes it an ankou and is 2-shanten by the end of the row. In the 2nd row, Takamiya is the first player to get to tenpai, calling pon on her north seat and waits on a green dragon dora tanki for haneman minimum.

A few turns later, Tojo gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 2m kanchan.

At this point, Shiratori is still 2-shanten. But when he pairs up the green dragon on the ippatsu turn, Shiratori charges forward. A turn after pairing up the green dragon, Shiratori draws to tenpai and calls riichi on an 8p kanchan for mangan minimum. On the ippatsu round, Tojo draws and discards the 8p, dealing into Shiratori. Shiratori wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Dora 2/Aka 1/Ura 2 for 12,000+300 (plus 3 riichi sticks) to overtake Tojo and Hori and move into 2nd place.

Closing it Out

April 21, Game 2, S4-1

In S4-1, Takamiya is in 1st place, but she still needs to defend against 2nd place Hori, who also happens to be the last dealer. Takamiya starts out the hand 3-shanten with a red dora. With a lot of middle tiles, her fastest route to a quick hand is tanyao. As such, she starts off by getting rid of her terminals and honours. At the end of the first row, Takamiya makes a chii to get to iishanten. Two turns later, she calls chii again to get to tenpai on a 1467p wait, with the 467p giving her tanyao. And though both Shiratori and Tojo try to stop her with riichi calls, Takamiya ends up drawing the 6p to beat both of them. Takamiya wins the hand with Tanyao/Aka 2 for 1,000+100/2,000+100 (plus three riichi sticks) to keep the lead and win the game.

Final Scores

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-12_s1_p211
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1517139291679301632

Standings

With a perfect performance by Takamiya her team finally has their first 1st of the finals and are on their way to catching up. The Sakura Knights gained points with a 2nd and the Phoenix lost points with their first 4th, but both teams are still sitting 1st and 2nd, respectively. The Shibuya Abemas, placed 3rd in this game and still sit 3rd in the standings.

And that’s all we have for Day 3! We are officially halfway through the M-League 2021-22 Finals! Right now, the teams are quite evenly spread apart, but no lead is insurmountable. Can Konami continue climbing? Can the Kadokawa Sakura Knights cling on to the lead? Will the Shibuya Abemas ever get out of 3rd place? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!

Intro | Game #5 | Game #6