The M-League 2024-25 season is just a week away! Today, we’ll take a look back and check out my picks for the top 5 plays of the M-League 2023-24 season!
Continue reading “Top 5 Plays of M-League 2023-24”M-League Reveals Uniforms For 2024-25 Season
On August 25, 2024, M-League revealed the uniform designs for all nine teams for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
Mizuno, the official producer of the M-League uniforms, will also be producing replica uniforms which will be available for sale on a date yet to be announced.
The M-League 2024-25 season is set to begin on September 16, 2024.
Akasaka Drivens
2023-24
2024-25
The Akasaka Drivens design is a much more intense tartan pattern with the green being slightly lighter and more prominent. They continue to be the only team without sponsors on their uniform.
Beast X
2023-24
2024-25
The new Beast X uniform reflects the team’s new name centrally on their uniform.
The Beast X uniform is brighter than last season and features a more colourful camoflage design with light blue and green splotches on gold. The left sleeve of the uniform is all white. The design also removes the team mascot, Beat-kun, and features more sponsors at the bottom (including the pants).
EX Furinkazan
2023-24
2024-25
The EX Furinkazan uniform is mostly an inverted version of last season’s uniform, switching the positions of the black and the red (which is slightly duller this season). The “FU-RINKAZAN” word is more centred and sponsor logos cover much of the uniform. The pants feature white and red diagonal stripes.
Kadokawa Sakura Knights
2023-24
2024-25
Going much darker this season, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights uniform is now mostly black with pink on the collar, a white right sleeve and some sakura flowers on the right side.
Konami Mahjong Fight Club
2023-24
2024-25
The Konami Mahjong Fight Club uniform goes back to basics, featuring a white uniform with the logo in the middle. New this season is the red collar and the blue and red on the sides. The pants are black and have a red and blue stripe on the side as well.
Sega Sammy Phoenix
2023-24
2024-25
The Sega Sammy Phoenix has chosen to make their uniform mostly black with wisps of fire-like orange behind a glowing phoenix silhouette. There are also more sponsors on the shoulders of the uniform.
Shibuya Abemas
2023-24
2024-25
The Shibuya Abemas return to a simple design, featuring black on the top and bronze at the bottom with a white stripe in the middle and side. The Shibuya Abemas logo on the uniform returns to the bronze version last used in the 2020-21 season uniform. They also have some more sponsors in the middle.
Team Raiden
2023-24
2024-25
The Team Raiden design places the team name much more centrally, similar to their 2021-22 and 2022-23 season uniforms. In the background are small, thin parallel lines (as opposed to the triangular pattern from last season). Different this year is a large lighting bolt going down the middle and what appears to be the word “Raidentity” below the team name.
U-Next Pirates
2023-24
2024-25
The U-Next Pirates uniform is mostly unchanged, save for replacing the green highlights on the uniform with light-blue and some new sponsors on the shoulders.
Unhappy Fans Now Calling Former Beast Japanext Team “Beast Twitter”
After the former Beast Japanext announced on August 23, 2024 that they will be changing their team name to “Beast X”, many unhappy fans are now calling the team “Beast Twitter”.
We received various comments from fans, including:
- “I refuse to use the letter. It is and always has been Twitter.”
- “What’s X? I only know Twitter.”
- “I’m very disappointed that the Beast will be changing their name ne’Twitter’t season. I E’Twitter’pect that a lot of backlash from the changes.”
- “I won’t let Elon Musk take over my M-League team. He can go ruin something else.”
Some people seem to have major trauma from the letter. “No, not X! Please, I don’t want to think about algebra class!” pleaded one university student. “Please don’t remind me of them…” begged a recently-divorced single man.
Others are complaining about the inaccuracy of the name change. One religious scholar told us:
Everyone knows that the Number of the Beast is 666, not 10
Similar criticisms are being by placed by sports bettors. “If they are trying to predict their placement this season, I don’t think they are doing a very good job. I’d be really impressed if they manage to be correct”.
Parents are also showing major concern for the name change. “We are taking education back almost 3,000 years. ‘X’ is not ’10’ unless you lived in ancient Rome and wear a toga” one parent complained. Another parent sounded the alarm after they found their child searching for “BEAST X Videos” online.
Some fans seem to be a bit more understanding. “Maybe they took the kanji 十 (the number 10) and tilted it for design purposes”, one fan guessed.
When we asked Japanet Broadcasting, BSJapanext’s parent company, about the change, they simply replied:
Hey, at least we didn’t call it “Beast BS” or “BS Beast”
In other news, it is reported that BSJapanext will be creating a new anime called “Beast 10”. It will feature a boy with a high-tech, extraterrestrial wristwatch called the “Ponmitrix” that can turn him into a mahjong-playing wolf.
Beast Japanext Changes Team Name To “Beast X”
On August 23, 2024, it was announced that the Beast Japanext will be changing its team name to “Beast X“.
The change to Beast X (pronounced “Beast Ten”) comes as Japanet Broadcasting announced that BSJapanext and Star Channel will be merging and that they will be rebranding its own channel name to “BS10” to reflect its new channel position starting in January 2025.
In addition, the team will be changing its logo. The new logo keeps the same wolf base with the letters “BS” in the mane, but now features an X (the number 10 in roman numerals) with the word “TEN” on it. According to the news release, the gold colouring of the “B”, “S” and “X” represent “the connection with viewers and fans through the broadcast of BS programs and team activities, and spreading the fun and wonder of mahjong throughout Japan”.
The team has also created a new slogan: 「反撃の狼煙-頂点を目指して-」(“Signal the Counterattack – Aiming for the Top”)
For official supporters from the 2023-24 season who wish to receive updated goods with the new name and logo (such as a new membership card and muffler towel), they must cancel their membership by September 30, 2024 and join again under the new Beast X name on or after October 1, 2024. Doing so, however, will deny them from the renewal bonus calendar and give them a new membership number. Supporters who do not need updated goods can simply renew their membership as usual. New supporters will automatically receive goods with the new name and logo when new official supporter memberships open on September 1, 2024.
The Beast X is the ninth and newest team in M-League, joining the league last season (2023-24), consisting of members Sarukawa Masatoshi (猿川真寿), Sugawara Hiroe (菅原千瑛), Suzuki Daisuke (鈴木大介) and Nakada Kana (中田花奈). They finished their first season in 7th place with a final score of -378.7pt.
M-League In English: Our Interview With Nicolas-Pro
On July 16, 2024, it was announced that NPM pro Nicolas will be doing live simultaneous translations of M-League broadcasts with U-Next Pirates player and fellow NPM pro Nakabayashi Kei starting next season.
We had a chance to get in touch with Nicolas-pro to tell us more about the project.
Continue reading “M-League In English: Our Interview With Nicolas-Pro”M-League 2024-25 Schedules and Calendars
In a news release published on July 24, 2024, M-League revealed the schedule for the 2024-25 season.
The M-League 2024-25 regular season will start on September 16, 2024 and end on March 28, 2025. Games will be played each week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 19:00 JST, with the exception of the week straddling the end of December and the start of January (when no games will be played).
Like last season, the regular season will consist of 216 games (108 days, 96 games per team). With the top 6 advancing, the semifinals will be 30 games long (15 days, 20 games per team). The top 4 teams will then play in the finals which will consist of 16 games (8 days) for the championship.
For your convenience, I have created a Google Calendar of the schedule (with times in JST), as well as one for each team. There is also an iCalendar (.ics) file that you can download to put the schedule on your computer’s calendar.
Any mistakes are purely my own. If there is any discrepancy between the calendar and the official M-League schedule, the official M-League schedule is correct. For those wondering, the featured image above with the nice format was released in an official M-League press release with the image being found here.
Nicolas, Nakabayashi Kei To Do Live Simultaneous Translation Of M-League Broadcasts
On July 16, 2024, U-Next Pirates player Nakabayashi Kei (NPM) announced in a Tweet that he and fellow NPM pro Nicolas (also known as xkime) will be doing live simultaneous translations of M-League broadcasts starting next season.
This will be the first time that M-League content will be explained live in English by mahjong pros.
As a preview, they will be translating the M-Tournament Semifinals on July 27th, which is set to start at 15:00 JST. According to Nicolas, the live simultaneous translations will be done on Nakabayashi Kei’s YouTube Channel. On ABEMA, much of the broadcast will be behind ABEMA Premium.
In a Tweet, Nakabayashi clarified that he will be doing commentary while Nicolas will be doing the translation.
Previously, two months before this announcement on May 4, Nakabayashi had posted a video of Nicolas saying the names for all the M-League teams in English.
More details will be announced when they become available.
M-League 2024-25 Preseason: Early July Update
Over the past month and a bit, there has been a lot of action happenning in the world of M-League. Today, I’ll be going through all of it, from the draft to the off-season tournaments.
Table of Contents
Continue reading “M-League 2024-25 Preseason: Early July Update”
Takeuchi Genta, Asai Takaki Drafted in M-League 2024-25 Draft
On June 28, 2024, the Sega Sammy Phoenix drafted Saikouisen player Takeuchi Genta and Nihon Pro Mahjong (NPM) player Asai Takaki during the M-League 2024-25 Draft.
Sega Sammy Phoenix 1st Pick: Takeuchi Genta (竹内元太)
Professional organization: Saikouisen
Pro League: A1
Titles: 47th・48th Saikoui, 22nd BIG1CUP
The current back-to-back winner of the Saikouisen league, Takeuchi Genta is the top pro in the Saikouisen organization. He is a familiar face to M-League fans, being a commentator twice (February 2, 2023 and February 6, 2024), two-time M-Tournament player and one of the finalists in the Beast Japanext Draft Audition.
Immediately, Takeuchi put out a celebratory Tweet with a lot of exclamation marks.
On June 28, 2024 at 22:30 JST, Takeuchi will be doing a livestream on his YouTube Channel reacting to himself being drafted.
Sega Sammy Phoenix 2nd Pick: Asai Takaki (浅井堂岐)
Professional organization: Nihon Pro Mahjong (NPM)
Pro League: A1
Titles: 21st Mahjong King, 7th Champions Road
The previous NPM league title holder before Nakabayashi Kei, Asai Takaki is another top player in his organization.
Like Takeuchi, Asai has also made a few appearances in M-League events. He helped out with commentary on February 21, 2023, was a player in both M-Tournaments and was also a finalist in the Beast Japanext Draft Audition.
Streaming during the draft, fans got to see Asai reactions of joy and disbelief as his name was called.
Congratulations to our two newest M-Leaguers! How will they fare against the M-League veterans? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
M-League 2024-25 Draft
The M-League 2024-25 Draft has been announced and will be coming in just a few days! Today, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about the upcoming draft and check out some potential draft picks.
The Draft
On Friday, June 28, starting at 19:00 JST, the M-League 2024-25 Draft will be broadcasted on the official M-League YouTube channel and will last around 30 to 40 minutes. At the time of writing, the livestreamed is geoblocked, so fans outside of Japan will require a VPN to watch it.
Drafting Order
With the dropping of Uotani Yuumi and Tojo Rio being the only roster change during the offseason, the Sega Sammy Phoenix will be the only team to draft this time around. They will have to pick two players to fill in their empty spots.
- Sega Sammy Phoenix (1st pick)
- Sega Sammy Phoenix (2nd pick)
Potential Candidates
Drafting 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.
Sega Sammy Phoenix
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This draft, the Sega Sammy Phoenix have two spots to fill.
With Saikouisen signing a sponsorship contract with Sega MJ, it is heavily favoured that the Sega Sammy Phoenix will be signing players from Saikouisen. The favourites would be current and former title holders in the league:
- Takeuchi Genta (竹内元太) (Current Saikouisen title holder)
- Aikawa Marie (相川まりえ) (Current Saikouisen Women’s title holder)
- Arai Keibun (新井啓文) (2013 Saikouisen title holder)
They also have the option to draft former M-Leaguers who already well-known and have a strong following:
- Murakami Jun (村上淳) (Former Akasaka Drivens)
- Maruyama Kanako (丸山奏子) (Former Akasaka Drivens)
- Asakura Koushin (朝倉康心) (Former U-Next Pirates)
- Ishibashi Nobuhiro (石橋伸洋) (Former U-Next Pirates)
If the team wishes to keep their female-majority composition, they may choose also choose other top female players from Saikouisen:
- Nishijima Chiharu (西嶋千春) (4-time Saikouisen Women’s title holder)
- Komiya Haruka (小宮悠) (2019 RMU Open League, 2021 Saikouisen Newcomer champion, Women’s A-Leaguer)
And that’s all you need to know about the upcoming draft! Who will be drafted? WIll they be newcomers or familiar faces? How will they and M-League fans react? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see!
M-League Watch 
