In this 3rd week of M-League 2020, there was a lot of sweat. From three riichi calls facing off, to a difficult final discard, to a double riichi, there were a lot of high-pressure situations. In this game where a single discard can cost you the game, fear and doubt has set in.
We also had a few big gains and big losses in the standings, showing some uncertainty of where things will end up by the end of the season. With all that in mind, let’s dive right into this!
With so many points on the mahjong table, the game gets very exciting. This week, we had big point games, big point hands and big shifts in the standings. Five players ended their games above 50,000 and the first baiman of the season was scored.
The newest M-Leaguer also had a big day this week, a rare yaku was won and a few comebacks happened this week! So, let’s take a look an what happened in this 2nd week of M-League 2020.
Ah, the day that we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived! M-League 2020 has finally begun, filled with action and excitement! Let’s get right to it, shall we?
Opening Ceremony
The championship plate being returned to its pedestal. Notice the U-Next Pirates logo engraved at the bottom.
As with every season, the first day started out with an opening ceremony. In reverse order of the 2019 season standings, each of the teams came onto the stage. The U-Next Pirates came on stage last, holding the M-League championship plate. With the new season starting, they returned the plate back to the pedestal. After a few words from each of the team captains and the M-League chairman Fujita Susumu, the opening ceremony finished and the new season had begun!
What’s New
There are a few new things this season, most notably that overlays have been updated to be more colourful and the lighting has been improved to see the tiles better. They also have a custom AMOS REXX II table that automatically puts all your starting tiles right-side up, meaning the players don’t have to flip the manzu and the winds to the proper orientation.
Left: 2019 overlay | Right: 2020 overlay
They have also started to interview the two players after each hanchan, in contrast with previous seasons where they only interviewed the 1st place player.
Due to the pandemic, a few new health and safety protocols have also been put in place. The tiles are new anti-microbial tiles that are wiped with alcohol after every hanchan. As well, the commentators are placed in different rooms and the interviewer must keep a certain distance between them and the interviewee.
We all have a favourite team. Some buy merch, others watch every single game. But sometimes we want to do more. As the new season starts next week, let’s take a look at the catchphrases and victory poses of the M-League teams so you can cheer along with them.
With the start of M-League 2020 fast approaching, we thought it might be a good idea to just recap what’s changed in the League since the 2019 season ended. Initially we wanted to do one focusing on the 2020 Draft, and all the changes occurring around it, however, all the teams decided to recontract their existing players (Yes, even Kurosawa, despite her being a new mother). So there were no big changes in team line ups.
A New Challenger Approaches
There is however, one NEW M-League joining the fray this year. Kadokawa Sakura Knights have signed Hori Shingo (https://twitter.com/elis0323) from the Nihon Pro Mahjong Association (NPM). Hori has been a pro for 10 years, and has two titles under his belt. He was the winner of the 12th Saikouisen Classic, a cross organisational tournament run by the Saikouisen, and the 18th Janou which is one of NPM’s internal league championships. With his signing, Sakura Knights now has 4 players, leaving only Raiden and EX Furinkazan as the two remaining teams with only three. Both have not signed any new players this season.
Rules are Rules
There is also a rule change coming in from the 2020 Season regarding teams and their members. Starting with the 2020 season, if a team fails to get into the top 4 at the end of the seasons for two seasons in a row, they will be required to drop at least 1 member, or pick up a new member to change up the teams composition. They will still be bound by the existing rules of needing 3-4 members, and at least 1 male and 1 female, so if the member they drop puts them in violation of these rules, they will be required to pick up a new member at the Draft, and it can not be the same member they just dropped.
M-League Runway
New season means new uniforms! And before we take a look at the individual teams, there are a few changes that are common for all the teams. First up, it seems as though M-League has partnered with Mizuno Corporation to produce the uniforms for all the teams this year, and it is their logo you can see on the (wearer’s) right breast. Also it looks like there is a shift from covered button polo shirts, to button down collars and white (except for U-Next Pirates who stick with blue) visible buttons polo shirts.
Akasaka Drivens
Akasaka Drivens have probably the most drastic uniform change, with a major colour pallet change from a light blue and white combination to a navy blue with green and blue chequer pattern on the sleeves and shorts.
EX Furinkazan
EX Furinkazan doesn’t seem to have made many major changes, just some alternations to the patterns on the shoulders. However they seem to have picked up a new sponsor, who’s logo you can see on the left breast, in the restaurant Nayansyuya (https://www.nansyuya.com/), which is located in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.
Kadokawa Sakura Knights
Kadokawa Sakura Knights seem to have opted mostly for a colour pallet shift this year. Moving away from the almost pure pink, to strike more of an even balance between the white and pink tones. They’ve also darkened the blue on their sleeves, which overall makes the uniform less blinding on the eyes.
Konami Mahjong Fight Club
Konami have also opted for a darker overall tone, using a darker green for their sleeves and collars. They’ve also added the logos of the current Mahjong Fight Club and Mahjong Fight Club SP games to the bottom of the shirts, under the team’s name.
Shibuya Abemas
Darker tones seems to be a bit of a general theme among a lot of the teams, with Abemas also opting to go for the darker look, losing a lot of their white/grey elements for a more uniform navy/grey colour. They’ve also have a minor sponsor shuffle, with 新R25’s logo moving to the right sleeve, and AWA and WinTicket dropping off, and being replaced by Hair salon little.
Sega Sammy Phoenix
Sega Sammy haven’t actually made much in the way of changes, mostly just a logo shuffle around the breast to accommodate the Mizuno logo.
Team Raiden
Team Raiden has muted the brightness of sunburst, going with the darker colour overall theme, but not much else has changed.
U-Next Pirates
The Pirates have made only minor changes. The dark blue stripe directly under the armpit is gone, and there seems to be slightly less dark blue triangles making up the upper half of the shirt.
Overall, a slight shift to darker tones, but the only major rework of the uniform seems to be from Drivens. What are you thoughts about the upcoming season? Do you think Hori will help get Sakura Knights to the top this year? Which of the uniforms is your favourite? Which do you hate?
On September 12, 2020, the M-League coaches and staff had the opportunity to play against each other in a preseason tournament. One coach or staff member from each team would compete to see which team was the best. Who was victorious? Let’s find out!
Format
Divided into two tables (Table A and Table B), each team would play one game. The top two teams from each table would move on to a one game final. Select merchandise of the winning team was made available for free for a limited time.
During the matches we also got a glimpse into the locker rooms of each team. You will see it in the bottom-right of the screen in each of the videos. The Drivens had the most fun with this, cheering and doing what I call the “Akasaka Swing”.
M-League 2019 was a very busy season with big and fast plays. In a season with yakuman and comebacks, let’s take a look at the top 5 plays of the M-League 2019 season.
Opening day is only one week away and the M-League Watch team is getting ready to watch every single minute! For this preseason week, we’ll have an article every day for the next five days! For today’s article, let’s take a look at some of the updates we’re making to bring you the best reporting.
M-League Watch Team
I keep using “we” when talking about the M-League Watch team. Well, let me introduce you to the other writers on the team.
Ozball
I’m Ozball, I’ve technically been playing mahjong since around 2013, however I’ve only really gotten back to playing seriously since the beginning of 2019. I’ve lived in Japan in the past, though am based out of Australia at the moment. I want to help bring more Japanese sources of Riichi Mahjong to the rest of the world.
SBT
Oo!~ I’m SBT. I’m based out of Australia and have been playing mahjong since October 2018. You may know me from the Australian Riichi Mahjong Association broadcasts. I have a passion for riichi mahjong and hope to bring it to a wider audience
Watch out for Ozball’s first article coming up this Thursday!
Weekly Updates
Watching every single game and writing an update is hard work. So, we will be bring you the standings and the top plays of the week every Saturday. If there’s a game that interests us, we may do a game review or a hand review from time to time, as well as anything of interest regarding M-League.
Mouseover Translations
To help make the blog easier to read, we have put in mouseover translation for those who are more familiar with the WRC terms. When viewing on desktop (sorry phone users), you will see some terms with a dotted underline below them, you can mouse over these terms to see the WRC translation or the definition of these terms. Not everything is translated though, so use the Arcturus Japanese Mahjong Wiki for anything you don’t know.
Discord Server
It’s M-League time! Also my attempt at the joke M-League “Watch”. It’s bad, I know.
We now have a Discord server! We have self-assignable team roles and team chats so you can chat with your fellow fans! For security, I have put it so that you must have the “M-League Fan” role in order to access the general channels, so make sure you give yourself that role. I’m new to Discord moderation, so please be patient and let me know any improvements you want to see in #server-improvement channel.
With the 2020 season just over a month away, M-League has released its schedule for the M-League 2020 season.
The M-League 2020 regular season will start on October 5, 2020 and end on March 12, 2021. Games are played each week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 1900 JST, with the exception of the last week of December, when the games will instead be played on Saturday, January 2, 2021 and Sunday, January 3, 2021, both at 1700 JST.
Of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule is not set in stone. Changes to the schedule may occur throughout the season.
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.
Over the next two months, AbemaTV will be featuring a series called M-League 2019 Re:mind. This series will consist of 29 episodes that are an hour long, with each episode featuring a different player. The video will go through the highlights of the season for each player.
M-League Watch 
