Though the M-League season ended in late April, a lot of M-League activity has happened since then! From a special match to rule changes to qualifiers, we were treated with a lot of M-League news since the end of the season. With a lot to go over, let’s get right into it, shall we?
Noodle Noodle Deciding Match
On April 28, just two days after the Kadokawa Sakura Knights won the championship, the Noodle Noodle Deciding Match (麺麺位決定戦) sponsored by Nissin Foods was played. This pre-recorded event featured
- Sasaki Hisato of the Konami Mahjong Fight Club
- Kobayashi Go of the U-Next Pirates
- Hori Shingo of the Kadokawa Sakura Knights
- Maruyama Kanako of the Akasaka Drivens
These four players played one hanchan to see who would become the Noodle Noodle Champion!
For this game, they used a special set which featured elements related to Nissin Foods
- The “Manzu” (萬) were replaced with “Menzu”(麺), meaning “noodles”
- The “Pinzu” were replaced by “Donzu”, named after Nissin’s donbei udon bowls
- The “Souzu” were replaced by “Sauce”, pertaining to the sauce on the Nissin UFO Yakisoba
- The 1-Sauce tile that is normally a bird now features Hiyoko-chan, the Nissin Mascot.
- The winds were replaced by the the four characters that make up the Nissin Foods (日清食品) name. These are also used for seat positions and round winds as well.
- 日 (nichi) replaces the east
- 清 (shin) replaces the south
- 食 (shoku) replaces the west
- 品 (hin) replaces the north
- The characters for ”Hungry” (ハングリー) are put together to create the green dragon
- The Nissin foods logo is used to create the red dragon
There was a lot of fun in the match, from Maruyama bringing a small plush of Hiyoko-chan to Kobayashi Misa and Shibukawa Nanba trying to stay on script and use the proper Nissin suits and tiles. The game was quite close until the end of the game, but Kobayashi managed to win the game due to tenpai payment in Shin 4. With the win, Kobayashi became the Noodle Noodle champion!
M-League Team Documentaries
M-League has released documentaries for all eight M-League teams, showing the daily life and game preparations of each team member. Though the documentaries require Abema Premium to watch, you can view a 15 minute preview going over all the documentaries for free.
Four Player Requirement
In an announcement released on June 1, the M-League released a small but significant update. Starting in the 2022-23 season, all teams must have four players. This differs from the previous two season, where each team is allowed to have either three or four players. This means that if any team drops a player, they must fill that spot.
Saikyousen 2022: M-League Special Match
At the end of the regular season, the Saikyousen 2022: M-League Special Match was announced. Each team will send one player to the special match and the winner of the competition will go to the finals of the Mahjong Saikyousen 2022, a big mahjong tournament in Japan with a 3 million yen grand prize and 16 players playing in the finals.
For the Konami Mahjong Fight Club, they played two hanchans to figure out who they would send. After the winning both hanchans, Takizawa Kazunori came out on top and booked his ticket to the special match
The Sega Sammy Phoenix played a single hanchan to determine who they would send. Kondo Seiichi won the match and was
The other teams chose who they would send without a match and announced it on Twitter.
- Sonoda Ken for the Akasaka Drivens
- Maruyama Kanako already qualified for the Saikyousen finals through “Saikyousen Strongest Female Champion” tournament
- Okada Sayaka for the Kadokawa Sakura Knights
- Shiratori Sho for the Shibuya Abemas
- Hagiwara Masato for Team Raiden
- Setokuma Naoki already qualified for the Saikyousen finals by winning the 2021 Saikyousen
- Kurosawa Saki already qualified for the Saikyousen finals by winning the “Saikyousen Mister Mahjong Cup”
- Mizuhara Akina for the U-Next Pirates
At the time of writing, the EX Furinkazan have not yet chosen their player, but they will be playing one hanchan on June 2 at 1300 JST to determine who they will be sending.
Contract Signing
During the off-season, all teams will have to determine who will stay on the team and who will be leaving. The deadline to announce a player’s intention to re-sign or allow the contract to expire is June 10.
On April 11, the EX Furinkazan announced that they will be keeping all their players.
On May 12, Team Raiden tweeted that they will be fighting with the same crew next season
On May 17, the Sega Sammy Phoenix announced that they will be keeping all their players as well
That leaves the Akasaka Driven, Kadokawa Sakura Knights, Konami Mahjong Fight Club, Shibuya Abemas and U-Next Pirates to decide who will stay and who will go.
For the U-Next Pirates, they are forced to replace someone because they failed to make the finals two season in a row.
Upcoming Schedule
- June 5: Saikyousen 2022: M-League Special Match (Requires VPN)
- June 10: Deadline to announce contract continuation and/or expiry (with the exception of Sawazaki Makoto, where the deadline is June 30 due to Sawazaki’s hospitalization)
- Early July: M-League 2022-23 Draft
- August: Contract signing and team composition finalization for the 2022-23 season
- October: M-League 2022-23 Season begins
And that’s all the M-League action since the end of the season! Which players will stay in the league? How will the M-League Special Match turn out? Who will be drafted? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
M-League Watch 