The third week of the M-League 2022-23 Semifinals has just finished and things and getting even more heated! In Games #19-24 of the semifinals, we saw joy, excitement, pain and suffering. Lots of suffering. From hopes of uradora and furiten riichi calls, hopes that luck would come had fans at the edge of their seats. With failed riichi calls and continuously dealing in, things got emotional for some. We even saw some M-League records broken, for better or for worse. With a lot to go through, let’s get right into it, shall we?
It’s no surprise that there are many surprises in the semifinals. From uradora to winning on a tanki, the one tile that a player needs shows up at the right time. From a sudden rise from an unlikely suspect to historically strong teams hitting a patch of bad luck, the wall controls fate. In the past 6 games of the M-League 2022-23 Semifinals, these surprises were out in full force. Also this week, we saw and the return of a celebrity. With so much to read about, let’s get right into it, shall we?
— キンマweb＠竹書房公式 – 麻雀ニュース・情報サイト (@kinmaweb) April 24, 2023
On Tuesday, it was announced that there will be an M-League special match will be taking place on May 28. The top 8 players in the regular season will be facing off against each other, with the winner of the mini-tournament qualifying for the Mahjong Saikyousen main tournament.
Every post-season game is a rollercoaster. The exciting moments, the great falls and never knowing what’s coming around the corner. And once it’s over, you can’t wait to see the next one. In the past 6 games of the M-League 2022-23 Semifinals, every game and even the graphs were a wild ride. We saw deadly damas, hands taken to the limit and hidden treasures. We also saw the blessed 3 sou do its fine work, players rising from the dead and even a yakuman chance! With so much to see, let’s get right into it, shall we?
After over two weeks of waiting, the M-League 2022-23 Semifinals have finally begun! With teams vying to get a spot in the finals and keep their teams intact, the competition was fierce. These past six games, we saw an explosive start, a lot of ura bombs and a four-way riichi battle. We also saw expensive ippatsus, some tricky waits and a lot of last tile nonsense. With an exciting start to the playoffs to discover, let’s get right into it, shall we?
The M-League 2022-23 Semifinals begin on April 10! Today, we’ll take a look at which teams will be playing, how they got here and what they will need to do to succeed.
There will be 30 games (up from 24 games in previous years) played in total for the semifinals, with each team playing in 20 of those games (up from 16 games in previous years).
Scores
Each team carries over half of their score from the regular season (rounded up to the nearest tenth)
Games will take place every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from April 10 to May 4. All games will start at 19:00 JST.
Week 1: April 10, April 11, April 13, April 14
Week 2: April 17, April 18, April 20, April 21
Week 3: April 24, April 25, April 27, April 28
Week 4: May 1, May 2, May 4
Qualification for the Finals
The top 4 teams with the highest score after the semifinals will move on to the 16-game finals (up from 12 games in previous years), where they will compete to win the 50 million yen grand prize and the M-League championship plate.
A petition to ban the west wind has gained support across the mahjong world.
The petition states that the west, which sounds like the word for death, should be abolished from mahjong.
One of the petition’s biggest supporters is Uchikawa Kotaro, who dealt into a suuankou tanki waiting on a west.
Nothing ever good has happened with the west. It sits in your hand as a tile worth nothing and when you do discard it, you end up dealing in! We don’t even play the west round! If the west was banned, I would have at least 32,000 more points.
Bubble tea establishments are scrambling to meet demand as M-League fans try to get the winning edge.
This craze comes after Matsugase Takaya, a member of the EX Furinkazan, won his game after preparing a dish made from salmon roe, known in Japanese as ikura (いくら).
A few days later, Takamiya Mari of the Konami Mahjong Fight Club had a meal with Matsugase’s ikura and won her game.
After this overwhelming evidence, fans were scrambling to get a hold of some salmon roe to have some good luck themselves.
For a premium price, they are mixing the salmon roe with another guaranteed winning ingredient: M-League water.
Date Arisa drinking M-League water and winning with 105,500
“It’s expensive and tastes like wet fish eggs, but it’s guaranteed to give me good luck,” one fan said. Another customer said, “It sure beats studying.”
Critics of the fad call it a marketing ploy and a useless pursuit. “When everyone’s super, no one will be…”
The future of the Akasaka Drivens remains unclear while an interview with Sonoda Ken keeps him occupied indefinitely.
With the Akasaka Drivens being forced to changed their roster after failing to make the finals two seasons in a row, M-League Watch tried to get an interview with on of their members. We were able to get Sonoda Ken, the team’s captain and first round pick, to give one for us.
When we started, he gave us a lot of insightful information about the teams and the challenges they faced. But as the interview continued and hit the one hour point, it was clear that Sonoda wasn’t going to stop talking.
As we reached the one week point, our other writers went to the team’s coach, Koshiyama Go, to ask what is going to happen. As he spoke, we found a glimpse of what could be Sonoda’s master plan.
We’ve tried waving to him, putting up signs, nothing is working. If he doesn’t stop soon, we won’t be able to choose which player will be replaced.
Koshiyama Go
Sign telling Sonoda to wrap it up
This isn’t the first time Sonoda’s interview has gone long. On November 17, 2022, Sonoda’s interview went on so long that they had to put up a sign to tell him to hurry up. On January 30, 2023, his interview lasted a record 6 minutes, 48 seconds.
It is current day 10 of the interview. If anyone is reading this, please send help.
Angry crowds have taken to the streets to fight against headbump.
Headbump, known as atamahane in Japanese, is a mahjong rule that states that when multiple people call ron on the same tile, only the next player in turn order gets the win.
According to studies, headbump causes lost wages (known in the mahjong world as “points”) and emotional damage to players who experience it.
One such player to experience headbump is Nakabayashi Kei of the U-Next Pirates, whose Kokushi Musou was lost after Murakami Jun called ron on the 9m that he was waiting on.
Why would Murakami kill Thirteen Orphans!?!
Nakabayashi Kei
Fans of Takizawa Kazunori from Konami Mahjong Fight Club (the player who discarded the 9m) are planning counter-protests. It is expected that they head out to bump heads with those who hate headbump.
M-League Watch 