On June 10, 2024, the Sega Sammy Phoenix announced on their Twitter and through their news releases that they will be renewing the contracts for Kayamori Sayaka, Daigo Hiroshi and manager Kondo Seiichi, but they will not be renewing the contracts for Uotani Yuumi and Tojo Rio.
The news caused so much traffic to the Sega Sammy website that their servers crashed.
Uotani Yuumi was the 1st round pick for the Sega Sammy Phoenix back in the inaugural 2018-19 M-League season, making her the first member of the team and team captain. In the 2019-20 season, she won two yakumans in the span of less than a week, won the Highest Hanchan award with a score of 94,400, and was the league MVP with a regular season total of +451.4pts. With her two individual awards that year, she is the only player in M-League history to win two individual awards in a single season.
As the team captain, she led the team to the finals in the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons, helping the team finish in 2nd in both years.
Unfortunately, Uotani had been unable to finish in the positives for the past 4 seasons and the team wasn’t able to make the finals in the past three.
With Uotani’s departure, she is the first team captain to be dropped from a team.
In the official news release, Uotani said that she is grateful for the support from management and the company, and is also grateful for all the fans that supported her. She also said that she will use the experiences from the past six years as a stepping stone towards a new path. Uotani also published a note where she says that she will be increasing her study time so she can get even stronger.
Shortly after the announcement, Uotani created a new YouTube channel where she will post new videos and live broadcasts, including an upcoming video about her current feelings on the situation.
Tojo Rio was drafted by the Sega Sammy Phoenix in the 2021-22 season, joining her fellow JPML member and YouTube partner Uotani Yuumi on the team. In her first season, she was able to get positive results in every phase of the season, had the 4th highest scoring game in the league and helped the team finish 2nd place overall. In the 2022-23 season, she was the team’s top player.
This past year, though, she finished in 34th out of 36 players with a score of -214.4.
In the official news release, Tojo says that her only regret was not being able to get the team a championship win. In a Tweet, Tojo says that she will be looking forward to what awaits her in the future.
M-League Watch would like to thank both Uotani and Tojo for their service in M-League and wish them well in their future mahjong pursuits.
M-League Watch 