Standings

The top team this week is the Akasaka Drivens. They needed to bring it this week and they brought it. After starting out the week close to even, team captain Sonoda was sent out to get the points. Through his first game, he played very well and was over 50,000 in South 4. Even though he had an overwhelming lead, he still chose to go for a yakuman and won the team’s second-ever yakuman. Murakami was sent right after and he managed to win his second game of the season and give the team back-to-back wins. By the end of the week, they gained +142.7pts with a record of 2/1/1/0. If they have another week like this, they can move into playoff position.

Next in the performance rankings is the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. They were already in a good position at the start of the week, but they wanted to take 1st place in the standings. On Friday, the TakiHisa duo were the team’s reps. In the first game, Hisato was in a close match with Hinata for top spot and had a potential hand going into the last hand, but missed it by one uradora. Takizawa took over the next game and was able to overtake Katsumata late in the game to win. With a +44.0pts gain and 1/2/0/1 record, the team is now just 41.0pts from the top of the standings.

3rd place in the performance rankings is the Kadokawa Sakura Knights. Other than the yakuman that Hori dealt into, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights had a suprisingly good week. At the start of the week, Okada and Uchikawa were the competitors of the day. Okada won big during her south round to finish her game above 50,000. Uchikawa also had a strong game, but did stumble in the middle of the game. He was able to get back on his feet and finish the game in 1st place, making it a double top day. The team finished the week with a record of 2/0/1/1 and a gain of +25.2pts, slightly widening the gap over the chasing teams.

The last gaining team this week is the EX Furinkazan. They didn’t need to gain more points, but they did it anyways. They avoided losing points through avoiding 4th this week. They were close a few times in winning big (including Matsugase’s yakuman tenpai), but just missed each time and settling for second three times. With a 0/3/1/0 record and +6.1pts gain, the team still sits atop the leaderboard. If they play their tiles right, they may get a wide enough gap to basically guarantee a spot in the finals.

Going into the negatives, the Sega Sammy Phoenix are 5th in the performance rankings. The team didn’t quite get to make gains this week, but they were able to do the next best thing and avoid big losses. Kayamori was able to avoid dealing in and even managed to win a ryanpeikou, but she also went yakitori in her second game and finished 4th. Kondo and Uotani were both able to win more games than dealing in, but ended with middling performances. It will be exciting to see if Tojo can make it 5 wins in a row next week and if the Phoenix can push their way into 6th. This week, they went -1.8pts with an even 1/1/1/1 record.

Team Raiden is 6th in the performance rankings. It’s not quite the positive result they wanted, but they have managed to stop the freefall. At the start of the week, Setokuma was able to win a big hand early on and win his second game in a row. Kurosawa and Hagiwara were unable to do much in runaway games and Honda just missed getting his twelth 1st place. With an even 1/1/1/1 record and -10.5pts loss, the team still sits in 5th place, but is actually closer to 4th place than before.

Next is the Shibuya Abemas. The team is still dropping, but they’re actually up to 3rd place now. The Abemas guys didn’t have such a good week, but Hinata was able to show some strong results. As Hisato tried to overtake her each hand, Hinata was able to keep him at bay and stay above. With a lucky last hand, Hinata was able to win the team’s first game in about three weeks. With a -15.4pts loss and a 1/0/2/1 record, the team falls down to the negative but rises back into the bronze position.

And finally, coming in last in the performance rankings, we have the U-Next Pirates. Always drawing the worst tiles at the wrong time. Drawing deal-in tiles while in tenpai, getting dora during ippatsu turns, discarding teh safest tile while still dealing in. Despite Mizuhara killing a yakuman, she ended up losing big and have a rare negative finish. Team captain Kobayashi was sent to help fix the situation, but he finished negative as well for a tobi-tobi day. With their big -190.3pts drop and 0/0/1/3 record, the team has their fourth negative week, drops down to 4th place and is getting closer to danger, reminiscent of their drop in the 2021-22 semifinals.

This Week’s M-League Stats

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That’s all for this week! By this time next month, our six semifinalists will be decided! There are currently six teams in a dangerous position. Which four teams will advance? Which team will finish on top? Will we see a third yakuman in as many weeks? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!

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