Standings

The top performing team this week is the Sega Sammy Phoenix. As the number of games left become fewer and fewer, the Phoenix knew what was at stake. If they don’t act now, they might not advance. And so, they got to work. Tojo started the week off with a big win after a south round 4th to 1st comeback. Uotani close to doing the same, but just missed an uradora to take 1st. To end off the week, Kayamori was able to escape 4th in the last round and Tojo was able to get an uncontested win to put her top 5 in the individual standings. After a 2/1/1/0 record and a +145.7pts gain, the team is now just one 1st away from moving into 6th place.

Next is the Akasaka Drivens. It was a big week for the Akasaka Drivens. Like the Phoenix, the team needed to act now before it was too late. Murakami was so close to getting his first 1st of the season, but Tojo managed to ruin it. To finish Monday, Sonoda was able to stave off Uotani with a bit of luck to get his 8th win of the season. Friday was an even bigger day. Maruyama was sent for her 10th game of the season, looking for her 1st win since January 20, 2022. She did not disappoint. By the end of the east round, she was over 50,000. With the big lead, she was able to cruise through the south round and get her first win to the glee of fans from all teams. Even though Taro got a 3rd, the team still went 2/1/1/0 for a gain of +100.3pts. The gap between them and 6th place is down from 436.9pts to just 255.8pts.

3rd in the performance rankings is the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. It was a deadly week for any player facing Date. With two wins, she was able to win a game in the last hand, she killed a chinroutou and she killed a ryanpeikou. With the two big gains, Date provers herself to be challenger for the MVP title and moves herself into 1st place in the individual standings. For the team, they went 2/1/0/1 with a gain of +92.0pts, slightly closing the gap on 1st place.

The last gaining team this week is the EX Furinkazan. The team was able to stay fairly even through this week, edging the positive side. Rumi and Katsumata were able to get some 2nds against some strong opponents while Matsugase had a 1st/4th week to cancel out. Though they only gained +23.9pts with a record of 1/2/0/1, the team still remains in 1st place, setting themselves up to stay there until the end of the season.

Going into the negatives, the U-Next Pirates are 5th in the performance rankings. Not their best week, but not their worst week. Ther first three games weemed like an extension of the previous week. Going 3rd, 3rd and 3rd, the team extended their 3rd streak to 7 games. Kobayashi was sent in for the final game to break the streak, hopefully with a positive result. He was met with a tough challenge from Date after she got to over 60,000 near the end of the east round. However, he didn’t give up. He got two mangans in the game to get within a haneman tsumo fof 1st. Going into the last hand, he wanted to win big a passed a cheap win to aim for it. He came within one uradora of taking top spot, but he just missed. Still, it was an excellent effort to end the falling streak and get the second-highest 2nd of all time. This week, the team went 0/1/3/0 for a net loss of -36.3pts.

The Kadokawa Sakura Knights are next in the performance rankings. The rest of the team didn’t do so well, but Shibukawa (Nanba, 難波) did well in the south round (nanba, 南場). The team looked like it was heading for disaster with Shibukawa in 4th place going into South 3. With the team already going three 4ths in a row, Shibukawa needed to turn it around. In just 4 hands and a good dealership, he was able to go from 4th to 1st win the game. Unfortunately, the team did end the week with a net -80.8pts loss and a 1/0/1/2, record. They will need to keep the Phoenix below them on Friday if they want to stay in playoff position.

7th in the performance rankings is the Shibuya Abemas. They had some tough competition this week and had some point losses as a result. Hinata dealt in once and couldn’t win a hand. Shiratori was only able to win one hand. Even Ooi got extremely unlucky when he dealt the dora houtei while in riichi. The bright spot of the week was Matsumoto winning five hands in his game without dealing in, but that was unfortunately not enough to take 1st place. With a 0/1/2/1 record and a -92.7pts loss, the team is starting to get further and further away from the top 3.

And finally, coming last in the performance rankings, we have Team Raiden. Honda had a rare 4th, Hagiwara dealt into a classic once-cut honour tanki, Kurosawa had her yakuman chance killed and Setokuma was passed at the last minute. A lot of bad luck during a less than ideal time, causing a 0/1/0/3 record and a -152.1ptsnet loss. Though the team is still in 5th place, they are now in the negatives and getting closer to the cutoff. Facing the Kadokawa Sakura Knights on Monday, they will need to bring their best to not fall into 6th.

This Week’s M-League Stats

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That’s all for this week! Who will be in 6th by the end of next week? Can Team Raiden get back into the positives? Will Murakami gets his first win? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!

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