Standings

The top team this week is the Shibuya Abemas. The Shibuya Abemas had been doing well since the start of the season and were sitting at the top of the standings for a while, but they have only finished as the top performer only once. After their recent slip, they have finally started to recover and have gotten their second top performer title. Both Shiratori and Matsumoto were both able to get their first 1sts since November. For Matsumoto’s win, he was able to make a huge comeback to go from 4th to 1st. This week, the team went 2/0/1/1 with a score of +53.8pts.

2nd in the performance rankings is the EX Furinkazan. The EX Furinkazan continue their rise by gaining points for the sixth week in a row. On Thursday, Rumi was in the low positives with her individual score, slowly improving after a difficult start of the season. During her east dealership, she dominated the table, going to 6 honba and bringing her score over 80,000. After finishing the game with +93.8pts, she now sits in the top 10 of the league. This week, the team went 1/1/1/1 with a net gain of +47.3pts.

Akasaka Drivens are next in the performance rankings. Though the team only gained +21.6 this week, it’s the start of a turnaround. After 23 games without a win, they were able to get their first 1st since December 13 thanks to Sonoda on Monday. With another 1st by Sonoda at the end of the week, the team ended the week with a 2/0/0/2, the same number of 1sts this week as the last two months. If they can build off this momentum and fight the Sakura Knights next week Monday, they may be able to move into playoff position before the end of the month.

Sega Sammy Phoenix take 4th in the performance rankings. Generally, the team has improved. They were able to get a positive results this week after losing over 100.0pts last week. Tojo and Uotani were both contenders for top spot in both their games, but they had to settle for 2nd place. Kondo had a big start this week with an uncontested 1st place, his first 1st since November 29 (unfortunately, he placed last in his next game and ended net negative). With a +16.3pts gain and a record of 1/2/0/1, they are making small gains on the 6th place Kadokawa Sakura Knights. With the two teams facing off on Monday, the team could cut the gap significantly.

Konami Mahjong Fight Club is next. After not having a 1st since December 2, Hisato is finally back. Winning two big hands in his south round, he was able to secure a first for the team. The rest of the team still had some struggles, but the team was able to end the week with a net positive. With an even 1/1/1/1 record and a +9.5pts gain, the team was able to move up from 3rd to 2nd in the standings.

The last gaining team this week is Team Raiden. It a small gain, but a gain nonetheless. We saw strong efforts by both Setokuma and Hagiwara, but the real hero of the week is Honda. Being 3rd going into the last hand of the game, Honda needed as series of perfect draws to have a chance at first. With a double south draw, an ankou and a tsumo, Honda was able to win his 11th game of the season, a feat only a half-dozen players have done. This week the team went 1/2/0/1 to gain +3.9pts.

Going into the negatives, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights are 7th in the performance rankings. The team is just above the border of elimination and they are now in a much more precarious situation. Every time they were in a decent position, they got passed at the last second. Matsumoto passed Uchikawa to steal 1st place, Sonoda passed Hori to leave him in 4th, Honda passed Hori to be stuck at 2nd. Next week, they will be facing both the Phoenix and the Drivens. If the team wants to stay in playoff position, they will have to defend their territory. This week, the team had a record of 0/2/1/1 and a net loss of -58.3pts.

And finally, placing last in the performanince rankings, we have the U-Next Pirates. After their 5-game winning streak last week, the team went on another streak this week. Unfortunately, it was a 4-game 3rd place streak with a net loss of -94.1. The team didn’t really deal into any big hands, but they didn’t win any big hands either. The number of wins and losses were about the same, they were hit with a bunch of tsumos and were stuck around the middle of the pack. As a result of these losses, they ended up dropping quite a bit, moving down to 3rd place.

This Week’s M-League Stats

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That’s all for this week! February has begun and the end of the season is coming soon. How will the fight on Monday between the bottom three teams turn out? Which team will challenge the EX Furinkazan for top spot? Will Murakami and Maruyama get their first 1sts? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!

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