Timing is very important in riichi mahjong. When you call riichi could be the difference between not winning and getting a haneman. How you discard a block could be the difference between dealing in and getting to tenpai. In the 9th week M-League 2022-23, players showed us what perfect timing looks like. An ippatsu tsumo turned a cheap hand into a haneman. Waiting to call riichi, even with a worse wait, turned out to be the optimal move. A fortuitous ron was enough to overtake by 100 points. Also this week, we had back-to-back-to-back big wins, a late win and a shortcut to haneman. With all that, let’s get right to it, shall we?
High Definition
On Thursday, December 1, M-League introduced a new beginner-friendly feature to their broadcasts: definitions. Whenever the commentators say an uncommon mahjong term, the term and its corresponding definition are shown at the top of the screen.
After asking the public for suggestions on which M-leaguers should defend the Earth against alien Ooi Takaharu, Nissin Foods has chosen their three defenders. Though their identities have yet to be revealed, they did say that the game will be broadcast at a later date.
Challenge, in all senses of the word, is prevalent in riichi mahjong. Players overcome difficult scenarios to come out on top. Players confront those who get in their path to win. Players going against the textbook and do plays that work out in the end. In the 8th week of M-League 2022-23, all of that was on full display. Also this week, we had a yakuman tenpai, expensive quick hands and a very interesting multi-sided wait situation. With a lot to cover, let’s get right into it, shall we?
No lead is insurmountable. No deficit is too big to overcome. When you think that a team is out of the running, they surprise everyone and make a comeback. In the 7th week of the M-League 2022-23 season, these comebacks and reversals were plentiful. Players that were 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 behind 1st place were able grab 1st place. With great South 4 timing, players move up in the standings. One of the teams lingering near the bottom of the standings moved above a team that used to be at the top. Also this week, we had a birthday win, a dama haneman and lots of uradora nonsense! With all that, let’s get right to it, shall we?
On November 15, Nissin Foods announced that the world needed saving! The invading alien is Ooi Takaharu, member of the Shibuya Abemas. In a call on Twitter, they asked fans which three M-Leaguers should be the ones to save the Earth. (Deadline November 30)
M-League’s Biggest Fans
Back in September, M-League was looking for submissions for M-League illustrations that would be part of M-League’s official goods. On November 17, M-League announced that they have chosen illustrations made by “Mincha” (みんちゃ) for how they showed the M-Leaguers in a lovely and friendly way.
These illustrations are available for purchase as stickers and fans designs (fans not included) through their sponsor Lawson Print.
Records are usually few and far between. They come maybe once a season and then everything goes back to normal. But what if I told you that 7 different records were either tied or broken in a single game? In the 6th week of M-League 2022-23, that’s exactly what happened. In one game, M-League changed forever. Also this week, we had two redemption games, a perfectly-timed riichi and a yakuman tenpai. With so many records and highlights to get into, let’s get right into it, shall we?
Sometimes this game is filled with madness. The unexpected is expected. The worse wait always wins. This is the craziness of this game we love. In the 5th week of the M-League 2022-23 season, this craziness was on full display. This week we saw a huge sanbaiman, a yakuman chance and an big call to intentionally give someone else a win! We also had a bad wait win, an unusually fast win and a tsumogiri riichi! With all this insanity to get through, let’s get right into it, shall we?
Riichi mahjong requires a lot of skill. But sometimes, the wheel of chance takes control. In the 4th week of M-League 2022-23, we saw a lot of luck and chance. From riichi roulettes to ura bombs to a yakuman chance, anticipation and suspense filled the air, waiting to see who would win and with how much. We also had a great rivalry, tense all last rounds and player dominance! With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?
Scores can be close. Bonus points can be up for grabs. A single wrong move could be the difference between 1st and 4th. With every draw, the tension grows. In the 3rd week of M-League 2022-23, there was a lot of tension. Half of the games weren’t settled until South 4, there was a furiten riichi that could have failed at any moment and there was a hand where 5,500 bonus points were in limbo. There was also a big dora 3 hand, an expensive dama and cool haitei! With a lot to get into, let’s get right into it, shall we?
On October 18, 2022, AbemaTV Mahjong sent out a Tweet acknowledging that the issue is related to copyright and that they are working on getting it fixed. For now, viewers may watch the game starting at 19:00 JST the next day on Abema’s M-League 2022-23 page. The VOD will only be available for free for 24 hours, after which it will be locked behind premium.
Last week was a success, so now we get a dealer repeat! In the 2nd week of M-League 2022-23, we had a lot of dealer repeats! The honba count reached 3 at least nine times this week, with multiple different players taking great advantage of their dealerships. Also this week, we had a shortcut to baiman, a lot of different tankis and an Ura 3! I don’t want to repeat myself too much, so let’s get right to it, shall we?
The Overseas Struggle: An Update
On October 13, 2022, M-League was suddenly region-locked on AbemaTV, meaning that viewers could no longer watch live broadcasts of M-Leaguer or past broadcasts. This led to M-League Watch’s article “M-League: The Overseas Struggle“.
On October 14, 2022, there was an update to the geolocking situation. Gemma, a pro with the Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML) and the president of the World Riichi Championship (WRC), took the issue directly Abema and they are now “looking into it”.
M League fans! I escalated up that some of you guys were now no longer able to view the M League streams. Abema are now looking into it and hopefully there will be a solution! #mleague#riichimahjong
It was a regular Thursday around the world. It may have been the evening in Japan, but people were waking up to their alarms in the Americas, on their lunch break in Europe and finishing up dinner in Australia. But when 7:00PM in Japan hit, everyone got their phones out or turned on their computers and went to Abema TV in anticipation for M-League. But as 1900 JST turned into 1901 JST the screen was still dark. No “Glorious Day!”, no nothing. Only the AbemaTV mascot and the message「お住まいの地域ではご視聴できません」 (“Not available in your region”) was on screen.
Was really looking forward to watching today's @m_league_ game, but today's game on @abema_mahjong seems to be region-blocked, meaning overseas players aren't able to watch it (this is the first time this has happened). Hopefully they can fix this as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/yJtzWjnsSF
We checked with each other on Discord. No, it’s not just you. We checked on Twitter. No news from AbemaTV, CyberAgent or M-League, but multiple people were reporting the same thing.
So, how did we get here?
M-League Philosophy
In M-League’s mission statement, there are four things listed under the league’s philosophy
Creating awareness of mahjong as an advanced mind sport
Dispelling the negative image of mahjong
Promoting inter-generational exchange and contribution of social development through mahjong
Contributing to international exchange and goodwill through mahjong
To overseas fans, the fourth one is the most important. With M-League’s international outreach, riichi mahjong can become more and more popular around the world.
M-League and the International Community
On April 18, 2019, CyberAgent announced that AbemaTV would now support worldwide viewing for certain channels, including M-League on their AbemaTV Mahjong channel.
This was a major breakthrough for all overseas viewers, whether Japanese or not. This meant that starting in the M-League 2019-20 season, western viewers could watch and follow their favourite teams, as well as watch mahjong with some of the best players in Japan.
The Pond’s front page
At the start of the 2019-20 season, Ozball and SBT created The Pond. It was the first site in English that followed M-League, though only a few games were covered.
In March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. Countries had stay-at-home orders and lockdowns in place, leading to people staying at home more. With more time in the house, more people started to learn how to play mahjong and caused more people to watch M-League.
M-League Watch’s front page
In late May 2020, Jellicode created M-League Watch with Ozball and SBT to provide a larger site with weekly M-League updates and player pages, as well as various other M-League related articles. Since then, interest for M-League has grown.
In August 2022, the 3rd World Riichi Championship took place in Vienna. It was the first opportunity for many overseas M-League fans to meet M-Leaguers, with Nikaido Rumi (二階堂瑠美), Nikaido Aki (二階堂亜樹), Honda Tomohiro (本田朋広), former player and commentator Fujisaki Satoshi (藤崎智) and commentator Hiyoshi Tatsuya attending the event.
Even after the event, Aki reminisced how many overseas players told her that they watched M-League.
The Overseas Struggle
Watching M-League as a foreigner, one of the biggest struggles is the fact that the broadcast is Japanese. Some key points, such as the number of tiles left for a player’s wait and strategy choices, are only found in the commentary. Especially for those who are just learning mahjong, the broadcast can be quite confusing. With it being a program with a primarily Japanese audience, the fact that the broadcast is in Japanese is understandable and unavoidable. And even though we understand very little of the commentary, we can still feel the excitement from the tone of the commentators’ voices (especially Hiyoshi).
A portion of the M-League Official Supporter registration page. Near the bottom, it requires you to put your prefecture and your address
For people who want to up their support, they were out of luck. Those who want to be official supporters of their favourite team are unable to because you need a Japanese address to become one.
Likewise, those who wanted to buy goods and merchandise couldn’t because items could only be shipped to Japan. When the Pop-Up Shop opened in April, overseas fans tried to get their Japanese friends (if they had any) to go and buy things for them so they can have it shipped.
Which brings us to today. On October 13, 2022, the M-League live broadcast was no longer available to viewers overseas. Some overseas fans resorted to using a VPN, while others resorted to illegal streams of the games.
The Future
Right now, the future of M-League for overseas fans remains unknown. If viewers can’t watch it, fans will have a hard time following it. If M-League would like to follow their own philosophy, then they should have all live M-League broadcasts be viewable to everyone around the world. The same applies to the YouTube videos on their official channel.
The next thing that M-League may be able to do is let overseas fans get in on the excitement. Maybe they can allow international shipping so fans can buy merchandise and uniforms. Even if they can’t get international shipping, overseas players should be able to become official supporters, have their membership card mailed to them and have access to member-exclusive content.
Conclusion
I really like M-League. I’ve been covering the league since the 2019-20 Finals when my favourite team, the U-Next Pirates, won the championship. Since then, I have seen the league improve with each new season. Even at the start of this season, they improved the beginner-friendliness of the broadcast by adding the waits and the yaku (in Japanese).
If the geoblocking that started on Thursday becomes permanent, I think M-League will have gone a step backwards. Even if we are a minority, we are still a community that can help spread mahjong to the world. I hope M-League and Abema TV/CyberAgent can fix this situation quickly and continue to improve the league for local and overseas viewers alike.
Come on, let’s bring in a new era of mahjong!
Update 1: On October 14, 2022 at around 2000 JST, Gemma, a pro with the JPML and president of the World Riichi Championship, was made aware of the situation got in contact with Abema. Abema is now “looking into it”.
M League fans! I escalated up that some of you guys were now no longer able to view the M League streams. Abema are now looking into it and hopefully there will be a solution! #mleague#riichimahjong
Update 2: On October 18, 2022, Abema acknowledged that the issue is related to copyright issues and that they are working on getting it fixed. For now, viewers may watch the game at 19:00 JST the next day on Abema’s M-League 2022-23 page. The VOD will only be available for 24 hours.
Update 3: On December 9, 2022, ABEMA announced that starting on Monday, December 12, 2022, overseas viewers will again be able to watch M-League broadcasts live.
After months of waiting, we are finally here at the start of a new M-League season! Back to setting our alarms (for some people, very early in the morning!) and cheering on our favourite teams and players! This week, we had three players making their debut, some new looks, and big wins. We also had comebacks, dora-filled hands and even more big wins! With all that, let’s get started, shall we?
Before the first games, the season started with an opening ceremony. Fans packed the Bellesalle Roppongi to watch the ceremony and the first games live.
At the start, each team, going by reverse order of last season’s standings, went onto the stage. When the team arrived on stage, each player would be named and the team would do their pose.
Uchikawa Kotaro (right) returning the M-League Championship Plate to Fujita Susumu (left)
After all eight teams were on stage, Uchikawa Kotaro, the captain on the championship-winning Kadokawa Sakura Knights, was invited to step forward to ceremoniously return the championship plate back to Fujita Susumu, the M-League founder and chairman.
After each team captain gave a short message, the senior advisor of M-League, Kawabuchi Saburo, went onto stage to officially start the M-League 2022-23 season. With the “Ganbare!”, the new season begins!
This season, Nissin announced that their yakisoba promotion will be returning this season, but now the stakes have doubled! This time, the first player to win chiihou will receive TWO lifetime supplies* of Nissin U.F.O. Yakisoba.
*Lifetime supply being defined as starting from the time the player wins until the player reaches the Japanese average life expectancy
M-League calculated that if Okada Sayaka (the youngest player in the league) were to win a chiihou, she would receive 43,070 bowls of yakisoba!
New Graphics
U-Next Pirates team graphic
Before the start of the game, they feature a new graphic before they reveal who will be playing that game.
Graphic indicating that Uotani Yuumi is waiting on the 7p and Suzuki Yu is waiting on the 7s
This season, M-League added a major upgrade to their overlay. Whenever a player is in tenpai, they now display the player’s waits.
Matsugase winning with Riichi(リーチ)/Ippatsu(一発)/Tsumo(ツモ)/Chiitoi(七対子)/Aka 1(赤１)/Dora 2(ドラ２)/Ura 2(裏２)
In addition, they now display the winning yaku after a hand is won. With these two additions, it allows beginners to understand more of what is going on.
Orange-tinted background for the Sega Sammy Phoenix winRed-tinted background for the Konami Mahjong Fight Club win
At the end of the game, the studio background lights will be to match the colour of the team that won.
M-League Watch 