Standings

As is tradition around the end of the season, I will be going through the teams in standings order

The team currently 1st in the standings is the EX Furinkazan. It’s the end of the season and they have strong results all around. Katsumata is currently in 1st place for 4th place avoidance, guaranteed to take the spot if he doesn’t play in either of the games on Tuesday. Even if Katsumata loses one and Yu doesn’t play, he will be tied for 1st. Katsumata and Matsugase are also in contention for the MVP award, both sitting about 75pts away. With the EX Furinkazan playing on Tuesday after most of the top contenders finish their season, Katsumata and Matsugase will know exactly how many points they need. I expect the team to send out one or both of them to fight for it. If the U-Next Pirates don’t send Yu out on Monday, then Katsumata can afford one loss and have a chance at the MVP award. If the Pirates do, Katsumata may want to stay on the sidelines to guarantee his award and give Matsugase a chance at MVP.

Currently 2nd in the standings is the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. Being positive for the whole season and having their best season ever, they have no worries about making the semifinals. The team’s focus is now on Date, currently sitting in 1st place in the individual standings. She has some strong competition, facing off against last year’s MVP Mizuhara and 12-win Honda. With teh three of them likely to face off on Monday, she will have to defend the spot if she wants to keep it. If she gets good enough results, she will take the MVP title and the Konami Mahjong Fight Club can finish 1st in the standings.

The Kadokawa Sakura Knights are 3rd in the standings. Reigning champions usually don’t do too well the season after they win, but the Kadokawa Sakura Knights seem to be proving us wrong. After struggling for much of the season, they have their first week staying in the positives since November. None of their players are currently in contention for individual awards, so they should focus on getting the most points in time for the semifinals. Every point counts, so they should take advantage of the desperate plays of their opponents to pick up points. Other than that, they should look forward to the semifinals and figure out how to fend off both the teams fighting against them and the champion’s curse.

In the middle of the standings in 4th place is the U-Next Pirates. The team had a strong result this week, being the top performer on both days they played. Along with the team’s fighting spirit, we also see Mizuhara’s strong pursuit to defend her MVP title. With a 1st and 2nd this week, she gets herself extremely close to top spot, sitting just 0.8pts away. On Monday, the Pirates will be facing Konami and Team Raiden. Like Mizuhara’s battle against Sawazaki last season, she will have to fight against Honda and Date this season. She did it once before, it’s time for to do it again.

Shibuya Abemas are 5th in the standings. This will be first time the Shibuya Abemas dont’ place in the top 2 at the end of the regular season. However, there is still a lot of positive. They are the only team to make the semifinals (assuming they don’t deal into double yakumans) in all five years of the league’s existence and have a chance to make it into the finals a fifth time. On Tuesday, they will be playing against the Akasaka Drivens, EX Furinkazan and Kadokawa Sakura Knights. With Matsugase and Katsumata likely to be playing for the MVP spot, the Shibuya Abemas can take this to their advantage. Since both of them will be going for slightly bigger hands, the Shibuya Abemas can either go for multiple quick and cheap hands or mid-size mid-speed hands. If they can shut down the EX Furinkazan’s dealerships quickly, then they will be surely gaining points.

Team Raiden are in 6th place right now, the last semifinals spot. Being 481.0pts ahead of 7th place, they don’t have much to worry about. Still, they can’t be too careless. Dealing into a dealer double riichi can create a 200.0pts swing. More reasonably, they need to make sure that they get more points to start out the semifinals in a better position. This should be headed by Honda, who is sitting in 3rd place in the individual standings and 23.8pts away from top spot. With Honda likely fighting 1st place Date and 2nd place Mizuhara on Monday, it will be an exciting match.

7th place in the standings are Akasaka Drivens. They are 481.0pts away from the 6th place Team Raiden. Unfortunately, they won’t be facing Team Raiden and cannot control whether or not they get 4th. Instead, they may have to directly target the Shibuya Abemas, sitting 511.2pts away in 5th place. Both games will need to be record-breaking games, getting about 200,000 each game. Sonoda is 6th in the individual standings, 77.7pts away from 1st place Date. Playing on Tuesday, he has the advantage of knowing exactly how many points he needs to over take Honda, Mizuhara and Date. Though the team would like to be optimistic, they all know that they will likely have to say goodbye to one of their members after Tuesday because they failed to make the finals two years in a row. It is going to be an emotional end to the season for the team and its fans.

And finally, in last place in the standings, we have the Sega Sammy Phoenix. The team is currently 500.2pts away from the 6th place Team Raiden. The only way that they can conceivably make the finals is to have a 170,000 difference between them and Team Raiden in both games. Though extremely unlikely, it’s technically not impossible. More likely, Tojo has a chance at the MVP award. She is 153.8pts away from 1st place Date, which is the equivalent of about two 60,000 1sts. Alternatively, she can break Kurosawa’s record and get one game of 133,800. It’s not out of the question for the Phoenix to send her out for both games on Monday. Other than that, the Phoenix should enjoy the rest of their season and figure out how to reorganize before their fresh start next season.

This Week’s M-League Stats

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That’s all for the last full week of the regular season! On Monday and Tuesday, we will see the last four games of the regular season. Who will take the MVP award? Will we see one more yakuman to close of the regular season? Will the Phoenix and Drivens surprise us and make the playoffs? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!

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