Standings
The top performing team this fifth is the EX Furinkazan. The team’s top strong performance during these semifinals continues. On Friday, the team had back-to-back wins thanks to Aki (with the biggest win so far this semifinals) and Katsumata. On Monday, another 1st place was added by Matsugase who won almost half of the hands that game and let the EX Furinkazan end the fifth with a 3/0/1/0 record and a +164.4pts gain. After starting the semifinals in 5th place, they are now in 2nd place and just a good session away from moving into 1st place. They will have a chance to have a direct confrontation with the Pirates next week Monday.
Next is the Kadokawa Sakura Knights. This fifth was a solid and influential week for the team. On Monday, a big baiman by Hori helped give his team a 1st place and made them the team the winners of the day. After a marathon 33 hand between the two games on Tuesday, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights were again the day’s winners. By the end, the team went 2/2/0/0 with a +149.1pts gain, springing them up from 6th place to 3rd.
The last gaining team is the U-Next Pirates. The team is still the only team without a 1st place, but at least they had a positive gain this fifth. With three respectable 1sts, the team slowly and surely gained points, even though some games were close. By the end of the fifth, the U-Next Pirates gained +24.3pts and had a record of 0/3/1/0. It is a positive, but the EX Furinkazan and quickly sneaking up. They will need to defend their turf on Monday if they want to stay in 1st place.
Going into the droppers, we have the Akasaka Drivens. There was a big positive during these past three game days when Sonoda won his Tuesday game with 72,100 (+92.1), the 10th-highest postseason game in M-League history. Unfortunately, a loss by him on Friday and negative results from the rest of the team meant that the team went 1/0/1/2 and dropped -40.1pts, bringing the team down to 4th place.
Sitting 5th is the Konami Mahjong Fight Club. It was not the best fifth for the team. On Friday, Hisato dealt into two mangans while in riichi to put him into last place, ending with just 900. He did manage to make a bit of a redemption on Tuesday, however. After going into the negatives, Hisato managed to make a small comeback with a dealer haneman and then a non-dealer mangan later to finish close to his starting score. Though, he was still negative and the team ended up 0/1/2/1 and lost -77.7pts. The team falls down to 5th place and now sits with -5.5pts.
Finally, we have the Shibuya Abemas. This was a disastrous fifth for the team. In all of their games, all four of the Abemas players dealt in 3 times. On Tuesday, Hinata was unable to win a single hand in the 16-hand game and ended up with a deep -30,500 score, the 3rd lowest post-season score of all time. By the end of the fifth, they were down -220.0pts with a record of 0/0/1/3. The great fall caused them to go from 3rd to 6th and they now sit with -95.8pts.
This Fifth’s M-League Stats
3-0-1-0
▲+164.4
2-2-0-0
▲+149.1
0-3-1-0
▲+24.3
1-0-1-2
▼-40.1
0-1-2-1
▼-77.7
0-0-1-3
▼-220.0
And that’s all for this fifth! By the end of this week, we will be more than halfway through the semifinals! Can the EX Furinkazan and Kadokawa Sakura Knights keep it going and overtake the 1st place U-Next Pirates? Can the Shibuya Abemas come back and have a chance at defending their championship title? When will the U-Next Pirates get their first 1st of the semis? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
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