M-League 2021 Week 7: Legendary

Have you ever watched a mahjong game that changed your perspective on mahjong forever? Have you ever seen a play that you thought was impossible come true? In the 7th week of M-League 2021, some legendary mahjong took place. From the perfect draw to a record-breaking game, from high honba counts to high hopes, this week was a week to remember. I don’t want to spoil too much, so let’s get right to it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2021 Week 6: Multiplication

Winning one hand can bring your score up a bit. Winning multiple hands can multiply your score and put you out of reach of your opponents. In the 6th week of M-League 2021, multiplication was all around. From multiple hands won to double a player’s starting score to multiple uradora multiplying the value of the hand, it was a high-scoring affair. We also had a big losing streak broken, a new streak started and a big dora hand, it was truly a great week. With all that, let’s get right to it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2021 Week 5: Challenge Accepted

Riichi mahjong is a challenging game. What separates good and great players is their ability to take on and push through these challenges. In the 5th week of M-League 2021, we saw many players accepting the challenges set before them. From a direct challenge by the EX Furinkazan to the Konami Mahjong Fight Club, to chasing riichi calls in South 4, each challenge and the overcoming of these challenges were on full display.

Also this week, he had some amazing chiitoi wins, some incredible dealer turns and some incredible discard reading. With so much to get into, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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EX Furinkazan Issues Challenge to Konami Mahjong Fight Club

On the eve of their next battle, EX Furinkazan, via their Twitter account, issued a challenge to Konami Mahjong Fight Club.

Roughly translated it reads:
“By chance,
yesterday,

in the waiting room
while considering our strategy

suddenly,
we thought,
everyone is expecting Rumi and Aki!

So we asked
their thoughts

and they were
raring to go

Will we
be able to have
a head on fight?”

However, if one were to read the tweet vertically, taking only the first character from each line, a different message becomes apparent.

“Shall we have a match between TakiHisa and RumiAki?”

TakiHisa referring to Takizawa Kazunori, and Hisa referring to Sasaki Hisato, both Konami players. On top of that the “TakiHisa” combination is actually common nickname used to refer to the pair who are quite close friends even outside of M-League and regularly get up to hijinks. RumiAki is a bit easier to decipher, referring to the Nikaido sisters from EX Furinkazan.

The Response

Konami, not ones to take this lying down, responded in kind, with their own tweet.

The message read horizontally reads:

“In such a short time we have,
received many proposals from many families
Surely we are blessed.
They are strong opponents.
We would like to go against them, truly
Give us some time to think about it.”

However, as expected, when read vertically, we get a different message.

“We will crush the opposition!”

A Pirate wades into the fray

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Ishibashi from U-Next Pirates, decided to join in the fun… sort of.

Not wanting to bother with the fancy poetic message to hide the true meaning, he just responds with a vertical message.

“Come at me, TakiHisa and RumiAki!”

Will these battles play out tomorrow when the teams meet? We’ll have to wait and see, but from some of the replies, it does seem to be a popular setup, with many people wanting to see it happen.

This isn’t even the first time EX Furinkazan and Konami have exchanged challenges in this way. During last season, the teams attempted to match up Takizawa (who was playing for EX Furinkazan at the time) and Sasaki in a match, early in the new year.

At that time, both teams did field their respective players, however, both had a hard time dealing with the Akasaka Drivens supremacy on the day.

How will things play out this time? Will we see TakiHisa or RumiAki triumph? Will Ishibashi take all the glory? Or will Team Raiden’s members play spoiler and run away with everything? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Addendum

As I was writing this, the official M-League twitter account tweeted out an expectant image for tomorrow, with the message:
“It looks like we might see RumiAki and TakiHisa! I’m looking forward to it!”

So we might actually see these matchups happen!

Unlucky Morpheus Changes Its Name to Unlucky Murakami

The band “Unlucky Morpheus” has decided to keep up with the times and change its name to “Unlucky Murakami”

The band, known to M-League fans for their M-League inspired songs Top of the ‘M’ and ‘M’ Revolution, made the announcement on Tuesday, a day after Murakami Jun registered his 4th last place in a row.

At the time of writing, the 2nd round pick for the Akasaka Drivens had a record of 0/0/1/4 and a score of -316.0, almost 200 points less than the next player. Murakami hadn’t won any of his last 39 hands, dealt in with 13 of them and he went into the negatives in all 4 of his lasts.

When we contacted the band about the name change, Shiren (the artist who wrote the lyrics of the two songs) sent us this:

To lose 1 or 2 games can mean that you are a bit unlucky. To lose 4 games in a row means that you have truly angered the mahjong gods.

Take a look at it this way: Morpheus (whoever that is) probably has never played mahjong and currently holds a score of ±0.0. Murakami has played 5 games and has a score of -316.0. In order to preserve the accuracy of our band name, we decided it was appropriate to change it.

Shiren also added, “Our song ‘Top of the M’ now has new meaning. The ‘M’ now stands for ‘Murakami’ and is indicative of how all players are now above him in the standings.”

In other news, Cy the Rhino and Murakami are bonding well and Cy is now providing Murakami with emotional support.

M-League 2021 Week 4: Streaks

Momentum, whether positive or negative, is a strong force. In sports and mahjong, momentum gives rise to streaks. In the 4th week for M-League 2021, we had streaks continue and new streaks created. From a positive Konami streak to a negative Drivens streak, from a continued yakuman tenpai streak to players going on winning streaks, it was certainly a great week to watch. With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2021 Week 3: Yakuman Tenpai

Yakuman are always exciting. When a player gets to tenpai, you sit at the edge of your seat, hoping to see the rare yakuman be won. Even for people on opposing teams, you can’t help but congratulate them.

In the 3rd week of M-League 2021, there were not one, not two, but three yakuman tenpai! There were also some big South 4 comebacks, a big turn 2 riichi, another perfectly timed riichi and many more! With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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Akasaka Drivens Adopt Rhino, Uses It For 4th Place Punishment

On October 15, 2021, the Akasaka Drivens finally had a chance to use their newest punishment for players who get 4th place.

In the first game on October 15, Murakami Jun dealt in 4 times and lost points in 7 of the 10 hands. These deal-ins caused Murakami placed 4th and scored -1,900, the first 4th place for the Akasaka Drivens. During the interview, he seemed quite disappointed and was quite fidgety. When the interview was over, he went the opposite direction that he was supposed to and started to run.

Murakami has been trying to lose weight this year, so we initially thought that he wanted to get some extra exercise in.

However, when we asked the coach of the Akasaka Drivens, Koshiyama Go, he gave us another explanation, “Last season, the EX Furinkazan management put a severe punishment for their team: If the team didn’t make it to at least 3rd, then at least one player will be removed from the team. With that threat, the EX Furinkazan won the championship plate. We decided to try our own penalty in true Akasaka fashion”

He then showed us a picture of a rhino, “This is Cy, a newly adopted rhino by the Akasaka Drivens. Every time a player gets a 4th, they have to face the rhino while doing the interview. Let’s just say that you better hope the rhino is in a good mood that day.”

We could not catch Murakami for comment.

M-League 2021 Week 2: Comebacks and Upsets

Excitement and suspense are some of the biggest draws for watching mahjong. In the 2nd week of M-League 2021, there was certainly no shortage of heart-pumping action. This week, we saw a double riichi, a successful late riichi and a big ura win. We also had a three-way riichi battle, some big comebacks and an even bigger ura win! With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2021 Week 1: A New Season Begins

The first week of M-League 2021 has just finished! After months without M-League, it’s nice to return back to cheering on our favourite teams and players. This week, we had the debut of 4 new M-Leaguers, a killing dama and an unexpected team that’s off to an unexpectedly good start. We also have some new graphics, comebacks and everything else you can expect with any M-League season. With all that, let’s get started!

Opening Ceremony

  • EX Furinkazan comes on stage and poses
  • Nikaido Aki returns the M-League Championship Plate

At the start, the ceremony started with the entrance of all of the teams. One by one in reverse order from last season’s standings, the teams entered and posed. After all of the teams had entered, EX Furinkazan’s Nikaido Aki had the opportunity to return the championship plate to chairman Fujita Susumu who returned it to the stand. Afterwards, each team (in the same entrance order) had their team captain make a short speech. After the speech, a higher up in the league board came in and wished the teams good luck (with a short “Ganbare!” as well).

After the ceremony, all 32 players were introduced with their own short clip and then the season began!

What’s New

AMOS REXX III

New this year is the brand new AMOS REXX III. The AMOS REXX III automatically brings the initial 13 tiles in the proper orientation, as well as having a slot that on the side to quickly move sticks from the table to the points slot.

Overlay

The overlay is generally the same, but the player pictures have been updated.

“Reach” Animation

The most clear change this year the change in the riichi animation. The new animation shows the team’s logo and a riichi stick, with the stick changing to the word “Reach”.

Graph

A new addition at the end of the the game is a graph showing how the game progresses via a graph.

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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