M-League 2023-24 Draft

The M-League 2023-24 Draft is this Friday! Today, we’ll take a look at the details of the draft and who could be potential candidates for each team.

The Draft

The draft will take place on Friday, June 30 starting at 17:00 JST. The draft can be viewed for free on AbemaTV’s Mahjong channel. The broadcast will last for around 90 minutes.

Drafting Order

With the Beast Japanext being the newest M-League team, they will have the privilege of drafting all four of their players first. With Hiroe Sugawara winning the Beast Japanext audition tournament, she will be one of the players guaranteed to be on the team. At least one of the other three players on the team as to be a male to comply with M-League’s mixed gender rule

The rest of the teams that have an incomplete roster will then have the opportunity to draft their players, going in reverse standings order of the 2022-23 season.

In this draft, the Sega Sammy Phoenix will draft their one player to fill in the spot left by Kondo Seiichi after he dropped out as a player and became the team’s manager. Due to the mixed gender rule, they will have to draft a male player.

After the Phoenix, the Akasaka Drivens will then draft the two players to fill in the spots left over after Murakami Jun and Maruyama Kanako were dropped from the team. With Maruyama Kanako leaving the team, the team will have to choose a female player.

In summary:

1. Beast Japanext (1st pick)
2. Beast Japanext (2nd pick)
3. Beast Japanext (3rd pick)
4. Beast Japanext (4th pick)
5. Sega Sammy Phoenix (1st pick)
6. Akasaka Drivens (1st pick)
7. Akasaka Drivens (2nd pick)

Potential Candidates

All teams have the option to draft from any of the five supporting professional mahjong organizations:

• Japan Professional Mahjong Federation (JPML)
• Nihon Pro Mahjong (NPM)
• Saikouisen
• Mahjong Union (Mu/μ!)
• Real Mahjong Unit (RMU)

Note: M-League Watch predictions to follow. Teams are not limited to the players listed below, nor are they guarantees of any player being drafted.

Beast Japanext

One of the spots has already been confirmed with Hiroe Sugawara winning the tournament, so the team has three players left to choose.

The other seven players that were chosen for the tournament are all good candidates to been on the team. Fans of the team have seen them play and their chemistry with each other. In particular, members of the final table (Asai Takaki, Arai Keibun, Uchida Miko) were seen congratulating Hiroe right after the final hand.

Other than the eight chosen for the tournament, the team will almost certainly pick from the pool of players that applied to the tournament. This includes:

• Current and former title holders like Kihara Koiichi (NPM) and Hiro Shibata (JPML)
• Tenhoui such as Saito Go (JPML), Ibaraki Keita (NPM) and Yamada Doppo (Saikouisen)
• Other well known pros such as Nakata Kana (JPML) and Tomozoe Toshiyuki (Saikouisen)

There is also some speculation that shogi 9-dan and new mahjong pro Suzuki Daisuke (JPML) may be chosen as well.

Sega Sammy Phoenix

Due to Kondo leaving as a player, the team will be forced to choose a male player to conform to the league’s mixed-gender rule.

In an interview with Kindai Mahjong, former player and new team manager Kondo Seiichi says that the choice will not be him choosing his successor. He did provide player suggestions, but the decision will ultimately be up to the company. Personally, Kondo said that he would like a player with a good personality and to maintain the 2:2 balance of JPML : Saikouisen that they had the last two seasons.

Some top male players from Saikouisen include M-Tournament participants Daigo Hiroshi, Arai Keibun, Sakamoto Masashi and current Saikoui Takeuchi Genta.

Akasaka Drivens

With Maruayama’s departure the team has to choose a female player. With the rest of the team composed of players from Saikouisen, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to choose another player that is part of the organization.

In an interview with Kindai Mahjong, team manager Koshiyama Go said that the one player will be one that the team has wanted to get for a while, but couldn’t due to the four-player limit. There has been a bit of speculation online that Daigo Hiroshi. Daigo did not apply to either the EX Furinkazan IKUSA tournament or the Beast Japanext audition, making people think that his appointment was already discussed previously when the Drivens were forced to change someone. No matter who it is, any choice they have may fail if the Sega Sammy Phoenix choose that player first.

Koshiyama also discussed the female player requirement (furthering the thought that his dream player is a male). For this position, the team invited 20 female candidates to take a test with questions created by him, Sonoda and Taro. The questions ranged from mahjong waits to winning condition probabilities to a variation of the Monty Hall problem involving spicy curry. From these 20 candidates, one will be chosen.

Not much is known about these female candidates, but the test questions make it seem like they would be a strong and well-known female pro, such as Nakata Kana (JPML), Nishijima Chiharu (Saikouisen), Yamawaki Chifumi (JPML) or Shirogane Saki (JPML).

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And that’s all you need to know! Who are the other six unknown players who will join the league? Will they be new faces or returning after an absence from the league? How will these new recruits react? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!