M-League 2020 Week 19: Sasaki Hisato, Demon King

13. 36,000. 100,400. 94,000. 114.0. 169.2. 460.6. All these numbers represent one man: Sasaki Hisato. In the 19th week of M-league, Maou (魔王, also known as the “Demon King” or “Devil”) made one of the greatest spectacles of M-League history. In one game, he made records, broke score barriers and sent two players into the shadow realm. With a single kan, Sasaki etched himself into M-League history.

Though Sasaki is undeniably the star of the week, there are a few other things that happened this week. This week, we had a surprise houtei, an unfortunate houtei and a game won with one hand. We also had a yakuman chance facing against a sanbaiman chance, another rare yaku and an intense South 4. With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 18: Jostling for Position

Points are being exchanged. Teams are fighting for positions. Nasty plays are being made. Pain and suffering is in store for all teams. Everyone in putting in hard work and effort to get to where they want to be.

In this 18th week of M-League, all the teams know that the playoffs are coming up next month. But in order to do that, they have to be in playoff position. This week, we saw a team put in many 12,000 point hands, another had a double riichi and yet another took advantage of the 4,200 points on the board. We also had a yakuman iishanten, a yakuman iishanten, a big baiman hand and a revenge hit. We even saw that the 1m is the Pirates’ least favourite tile! With all that, let’s get right to it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 17: Full of Surprises

The playoffs are fast approaching. Teams are working hard to get their spot in the playoffs. With this desperacy, players are making some unexpected and often exciting plays. In the 17th week of M-League, a week full of surprises. On multiple occassions, we had players moving placements at the very last second. We had a player go from 4th to 2nd, another from 2nd to 1st, and yet another from 3rd to 1st. We also had a player push a live dora against two riichi calls, a player winning a chinitsu and a player winning a haneman off the very last tile. With all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 16: Back to Madness

After a relatively tame week last week, the 16th week of M-League 2020 gave us some crazy events. This week, we had an intentional haneman deal-in, back-to-back haneman, an unexpected haneman, a shortcut to haneman that turned into baiman and a hidden haneman (you could call it hane-mania!). We also had a big shift in the standings, the first double-top by a player this season and the return of our favourite commentator, Hiyoshi Tatsuya! With all that, let’s get to it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 15: Back to Basics

Riichi? Check. Tanyao? Check. Pinfu? Check. Yakuhai? Check. Honitsu? Check. In this 15th week of M-League, the playoff hunt continues. But instead of the fancy “Kan twice to give yourself 9 dora” or “Rinshan Suuankou” or “Dama Pinfu Ryanpeikou“, we went back to the basics. We saw hands geared toward those five basic yaku. With these yaku, it helped players catapult from last to first, take big early leads and made some very exciting riichi battles and South 4’s. So with all that, let’s get right into it, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 14: Believing What You Don’t See

Do you ever get the feeling that something is just not right? Do you ever feel like even though you cannot see it, that you should be careful? In this 14th week of M-League, we had an invisible threat make its way into the league, an unseen hand that was avoided and a confident discard that an unseen hand isn’t waiting on a certain tile. We also saw an almost unnoticed penalty, a crazy S4-0 and an interesting chiitoi battle. With all that, let’s get right into the news, shall we?

COVID-19 Infiltrates the Ranks

It was announced on Wednesday that Maruyama Kanako (丸山奏子) of the Akasaka Drivens has tested positive for COVID-19. She had reported that she was feeling fatigued on January 11 and started to show symptoms on January 12. She took a PCR test and tested positive later that day.

With the news, M-League has released a statement and their guidelines regarding the positive test. They have stated that since Maruyama did not have any contact with any of her teammates or any other M-League staff since the infection, they are not considered close contacts and things will go on as planned. They also stated the following regulations:

  • Anyone who is ordered by the government to stay home (due to being a close contact with someone who is infected) cannot play
  • If 1 player in a 3-player team cannot play, or if 2 players in a 4-player team cannot play, then that team’s games will be postponed for a certain period of time

Due to the Akasaka Drivens being a 4-player team, things will continue as planned for the team.

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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January 12, 2021 (Game #1): A Game for the History Books

Have you ever seen 7 ippatsu wins in a single game? Have you ever seen a game last 21 rounds? Have you ever seen a hand with 9 dora? Have you ever seen a player get to 82,500 with the game not even a quarter of the way finished? Have you ever seen a game where a player has gets to below -25,000 and manages to work their way back up to 2nd place? Have you seen all that in a single game, plus a furiten riichi, plus a player who calls riichi 11 times? On January 12, 2021, Game #111 of the season, we witnessed a game that had all these elements and made for some exciting fun! Today, I will go through every single hand so you can see how this whole game went down.

Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-7_s1_p111 (Note that the video will only be available for free for 72 hours after broadcast. After 72 hours, it will only be available to users with Abema Premium.)

Continue reading “January 12, 2021 (Game #1): A Game for the History Books”

M-League 2020 Week 13: Rare Events

After rare weekend matchups with a suuankou win and a new season record, the rare events continued in this 13th week of M-League 2020. This week, we saw a rare yaku, two rare calls from a player who rarely calls and a big dora collection. Also this week, we saw a high honba count, a closed chinitsu and even a dora kan and riichi being chased by a 1 han hand! With all that, let’s get straight to the news, shall we?

M-League News

Despite Japan declaring a state of emergency in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic, M-League decided to continue their activities. Along with the already existing measures they have put in since week 1, all new staff members entering and exiting the M-League Studio will now be required to take a PCR test.

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Weekend Special

Welcome to 2021 and welcome to more games of M-League! For the first games of the year, we had two special days of weekend games! And boy, it did not disappoint!

During the weekend special, we had a highly-profitable kan and a very costly kan. We had greedy players, gutsy players and grumpy players. We even had a top level play where not winning was the best move! With that, let’s begin, shall we?

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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M-League 2020 Week 12: Holiday Miracles

The holidays are here and M-League is here to help us celebrate! In this 12th week of M-League we had holiday miracles, from close to yakuman, come from behind wins and a player who we have been cheering for finally getting a win! With many holiday celebrations throughout the week, I thought I’d keep the introduction short and get right into it!

An Update on Hiyoshi

On December 23rd, Hiyoshi had his surgery. Being a bit frustrated with the 3-day “no talking” requirement after the surgery, he reassured us and that he will be back in around 4 weeks.

Intro | Highlights | Results | Standings

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