M-League 2025-26 Preseason: Late May Update

It’s only been 2 weeks since the end of the M-League 2024-25 season and there has been a lot of exciting news released! Today, we’ll go over all the news and the tournaments coming up during the offseason.

Table of Contents
  1. New Team: Earth Jets
  2. Contract Statuses
    1. Beast X
    2. EX Furinkazan
    3. Kadokawa Sakura Knights
  3. M-League 2025-26 Outline and Draft Date
  4. EX Furinkazan New Member Audition 2025
    1. Semifinals
    2. Finals
  5. Beast X Member Replacement Audition
  6. M-Tournament
    1. Format
      1. 36 M-Leaguers
      2. 24 Selected Pros
  7. M-League Official Shop Online Store

New Team: Earth Jets

On May 26, it was announced that a new team, sponsored by Earth Corporation, would be formed.

Earth Corporation To Sponsor 10th M-League Team

On May 28, the team’s name was revealed to be “Earth Jets”. Their logo and social media were also revealed.

Earth Corporation Team Named “Earth Jets”, Team Logo And Social Media Revealed

Contract Statuses

At the time of writing, only three teams have announced the status of their players.

Beast X

On April 4, 2025, the Beast X announced that they would be renewing the contracts for Suzuki Daisuke and Nakada Kana, but Sarukawa Masatoshi and Sugawara Hiroe will have fight for a spot on the team in the Beast X Member Replacement Audition.

Daisuke And Nakada Contracts Renewed, Sarukawa And Sugawara To Play In Member Audition

EX Furinkazan

On April 16, 2025, the EX Furinkazan announced that they will be dropping Matsugase Takaya (松ヶ瀬隆弥) and Nikaido Rumi (二階堂瑠美) as players, with Rumi taking on a new role on the team. They also announced that they will hold a draft audition to determine who will fill one of the vacant spots on the team.

Matsugase Dropped By EX Furinkazan, Rumi Taking On New Role, Audition To Be Held

Kadokawa Sakura Knights

On May 19, 2025, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights announced that they will be dropping Uchikawa Kotaro from the team. It was also revealed that Uchikawa is the “Mister X” who was teased for the EX Furinkazan Audition.

Uchikawa Kotaro Dropped By Kadokawa Sakura Knights, Will Play In EX Furinkazan Draft Audition

M-League 2025-26 Outline and Draft Date

On May 26, the league announced that the M-League 2025-26 Draft would be on June 30. They also put out some details about the upcoming season, including an increase to the grand prize from 50 million yen to 70 million yen.

M-League Announces Draft Date, Outline For 2025-26 Season

EX Furinkazan New Member Audition 2025

To determine one of the spots to fill in the vacancies left by Matsugase and Rumi, the EX Furinkazan will be holding a player audition.

Semifinals

The audition semifinals will take place on June 15 and June 21 and will involve the following players:

As well as six recommended players:

The first four games will be played on June 15 starting at 12:00 JST and there will be a live broadcast on the EX Furinkazan YouTube channel.

The following eight games will be played on June 21 starting at 10:00 JST and there will be a broadcast on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel.

Finals

The finals will be on June 22 and will involve

The finals will be three games long and will be broadcast on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel starting at 15:00 JST.

Beast X Member Replacement Audition

Starting from May 22, 2025 until June 15, 2025, the Beast X will be holding an audition to determine one of their draft picks for the upcoming M-League 2025-26 Draft.

Six players, including two Beast X members at risk of being dropped, will be competing in the audition.

On May 18, May 25 (going from 2:30PM to 7:00PM on both days) and June 1 (going from 2:30PM to 8:00PM), the six player will play a total of 6 games each (9 games total) across the three days. The top four players will advance to the finals.

Carrying half of their score (rounded up) into the finals, the four finalists will play a total of 5 more games to determine the winner. The first three games will be on June 8 (going from 2:30PM to 7:00PM) , while the final two games will be on June 15 (going from 7:00PM to 11:00PM)

All games will be broadcast on the BS10 channel.

M-Tournament

On June 2, 2025, the third edition of the M-Tournament will begin.

The M-Tournament is a competition lasting around 2 months which will feature the 36 M-Leaguers and 24 selected pros. These competitors will compete individually for the championship.

Games played on Monday can be watched for free on the ABEMA Mahjong channel, while games on Fridays will require ABEMA Premium.

Format

  • 1st Round: June 2, June 6, June 9, June 13, June 16, June 20, June 23 (15:00 JST)
    • 56 players (14 tables)
      • 32 M-Leaguers (all except the four members of the championship-winning Sega Sammy Phoenix [Kayamori Sayaka, Daigo Hiroshi, Takeuchi Genta, Asai Takaki])
      • 24 selected pros
    • 2 tables per day
    • 2 hanchan per table, top 2 advance
  • 2nd Round: July 7, July 11, July 14, July 18 (15:00 JST)
    • 32 players (8 tables)
      • 28 players who advanced from the 1st round
      • 4 members of the championship-winning team
    • 2 tables per day
    • 2 hanchan, top 2 advance
  • Quarterfinals: July 21, 25 (15:00 JST)
    • 16 players (4 tables)
      • 16 players from the 2nd round
    • 2 tables per day
    • 2 hanchan, top 2 advance
  • Semifinals: July 28 (15:00 JST)
    • 8 players, (2 tables)
      • 8 players from the quarterfinals
    • 2 hanchan, top 2 advance
  • Finals: August 1 (19:00 JST)
    • 4 players (1 table)
      • 4 players who advanced from the semifinals
    • 2 hanchan, winner wins it all

36 M-Leaguers

Sonoda Ken (園田賢)
Suzuki Taro (鈴木たろう)
Asami Maki (浅見真紀)
Watanabe Futoshi (渡辺太)
Sarukawa Masatoshi (猿川真寿)
Sugawara Hiroe (菅原千瑛)
Suzuki Daisuke (鈴木大介)
Nakada Kana (中田花奈)
Nikaido Aki (二階堂亜樹)
Katsumata Kenji (勝又健志)
Matsugase Takaya (松ヶ瀬隆弥)
Nikaido Rumi (二階堂瑠美)
Uchikawa Kotaro (内川幸太郎)
Okada Sayaka (岡田紗佳)
Hori Shingo (堀慎吾)
Shibukawa Nanba (渋川難波)
Sasaki Hisato (佐々木寿人)
Takamiya Mari (高宮まり)
Date Arisa (伊達朱里紗)
Takizawa Kazunori (滝沢和典)
Ooi Takaharu (多井隆晴)
Shiratori Sho (白鳥翔)
Matsumoto Yoshihiro (松本吉弘)
Hinata Aiko (日向藍子)
Hagiwara Masato (萩原聖人)
Setokuma Naoki (瀬戸熊直樹)
Kurosawa Saki (黒沢咲)
Honda Tomohiro (本田朋広)
Kobayashi Go (小林剛)
Mizuhara Akina (瑞原明奈)
Suzuki Yu (鈴木優)
Nakabayashi Kei (仲林圭)

2nd Round seeded Sega Sammy Phoenix

Kayamori Sayaka (茅森早香)
Daigo Hiroshi (醍醐大)
Takeuchi Genta (竹内元太)
Asai Takaki (浅井堂岐)

24 Selected Pros

M-League Official Shop Online Store

On May 22, 2025, the M-League Official Shop Online Store was officially launched.

Not to be confused with the M-League Official Online Store (which offers some M-League goods through the M-League website), the M-League Official Shop Online Store sells products that were perviously only available at the in-person M-League Official Shops in Maruken Junkudo Bookstores.

Earth Corporation Team Named “Earth Jets”, Team Logo And Social Media Revealed

On May 28, 2025, the Earth Corporation revealed that the 10th M-League team’s name will be the “Earth Jets” (アースジェッツ). They also revealed their team logo and social media.

The Earth Jets logo is a crest with the main colours of red and green. A grid pattern is featured on the green segments, representing a bug net. The word “EARTH” is written on the top of the crest and “JETS” in the middle of a globe in the centre. A red chamelon with its tongue out lays on the top side, while a green one lays at the bottom of it. The symbols on the crest represent the “flexible offence and defence” that the team aims to play with, as well as “defeating opponents quickly and sharply”.

The team name and colour scheme are borrowed from the Earth Corporation product “Earth Jet” (アースジェット), a “fragrance-free, low-irritation” bug repellent.

On the same day, the team launched their official website. They also revelead their X (Twitter), Instagram and YouTube channel under the handle @EarthJets.

The team will have an opportunity to draft their first players at the M-League 2025-26 Draft on June 30.

M-League Announces Draft Date, Outline For 2025-26 Season

On May 26, 2025, M-League released the outline for the upcoming season, as well as the date for the M-League 2025-26 Draft.

Player Replacement

Maintaining the rule from previous seasons, a team that fails to make the semifinals two years in a row will be forced to change their roster. Players who are dropped will not be able to be drafted by the same team during the draft.

Playoff Structure

With the addition of the new Earth Jets team, there will be 10 teams competing this season. The top 6 teams will advance to the semifinals, with the top 4 teams in the semifinals advancing to the finals.

Prize Money

Starting this upcoming season, the championship-winning team will win 70 million yen, up from 50 million yen in the previous years. 2nd and 3rd place will still win 20 million yen and 10 million yen, respectively.

As with last season, the 1st place team at the end of the regular season will win 3 million yen.

The individual prizes will be announced at a later date.

M-League Off-Season Schedule

  • June 16: Deadline to confirm current players’ contract status
  • June 30: M-League 2025-26 Draft
  • July: Confirming all contracts and team rosters
  • September: M-League 2025-26 start date

M-League 2025-26 Draft

The M-League 2025-26 Draft will take place on June 30, 2025, starting at 17:00 JST. The draft will be broadcast on the ABEMA Mahjong Channel.

Being a new team, the Earth Corporation Team will have the opportunity to draft all four of their players first. Afterwards, the remaining teams that have vacancies in their roster will pick one player each, going in reverse standings order of the 2024-25 season. This process repeats until all vancancies have been filled.

Earth Corporation To Sponsor 10th M-League Team

On May 26, 2025, it was announced that Earth Corporation (アース製薬) would be sponsoring the 10th M-League team.

Tentatively called the “Earth Corporation Team”, the company will announce the team’s official name on May 28.

Earth Corporation is a company that manufactures and sells a variety of health and wellness products, from cleaning and hygiene products, to gardening and pest control supplies. This year, the company is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

This will be the 10th M-League team and the league’s third expansion team, after the Kadokawa Sakura Knights in the 2019-20 season and the Beast X (then known as Beast Japanext) in the 2023-24 season.

Uchikawa Kotaro Dropped By Kadokawa Sakura Knights, Will Play In EX Furinkazan Draft Audition

On May 19, 2025, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights announced that they will be dropping Uchikawa Kotaro from the team. It was also revealed that Uchikawa is the “Mister X” who was teased for the EX Furinkazan Audition.

In a post on Twitter and through a video on YouTube coach Morii Takumi explained that the decision was made on April 7th and was related to his performance (as opposed to health or other reasons). The team was not able to use Uchikawa in the way that they wanted, especially in important situations. As a result, the team management decided not to renew his contract.

In a separate post, the team also announced that they will be renewing the contracts for Okada Sayaka, Hori Shingo and Shibukawa Nanba.

In a note, Uchikawa thanked fans and staff for their support over the past six years. Uchikawa explained that he wanted to announce his departure as soon as possible, but he was required to do it after the season ended due to contractual obligations. He also apologized to fans for not being able to answer sincerely to fans that told him to do his best next season.

Uchikawa was drafted by the Kadokawa Sakura Knights as their 1st draft pick when they first joined the league in the 2019-20 season. As team captain, he helped the team advance to the finals in 4 of their 6 years, including a championsip win in the 2021-22 season. However, he has also had negative results in 4 of his 6 seasons, including the most recent one where the team missed the playoffs for the first time.

However, Uchikawa also expressed his desire to continue competing in M-League as a player. At the same time that his contract expiration was announced, he announced that he would be competing in the EX Furinkazan Draft Audition. Previously, the mystery player had only been known as “Mister X”

In a note, it was explained that Uchikawa’s inability to announce his deparutre from the Kadokawa Sakura Knights caused delays in announcing the players for the EX Furinkazan Audition. As a solution, they made him Mister X. Uchikawa expressed his joy and excitement in seeing all the buzz about the true identity of Mister X.

The M-League Watch would like to wish Uchikawa well in his pursuit to become an M-Leaguer once again.

M-League 2024-25 Finals: Games #15-16 and the Awards Ceremony

This is it. This is the final day of the M-League 2024-25 season. It’s the last chance for these players to get the best result for their team. By the end of the day, only one team can be crowned champions.

Everything came down to the last day, the last game, the last hand. I don’t want to spoil too much, but it was truly an exciting finish.

Let’s get right into it, shall we?

Before the Games

For the final day, we had the irreplaceable commentary duo of Hiyoshi Tatsuya and Tsuchida Kousho.

At the Bellesalle Shiodome, fans packed the venue to watch the the final games live on the big screen.

One last time, we looked at the highlights from yesterday and took a look at the standings going into today.

The Sega Sammy Phoenix hold an 87.1pts lead over the 2nd place U-Next Pirates, with the 3rd place Akasaka Drivens not that far behind them. A big 1st place by either the U-Next Pirates or the Akasaka Drivens could put them on top. Team Raiden in 4th place and 268.7pts behind 3rd will need get a big win as well and do some targeting.

Intro | Game #15 | Game #16
Awards Ceremony | Final Thoughts

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M-League 2024-25 Finals: Games #13-14

For fans and players alike, adrenaline rushes through the body with every second of the game. Facing fierce opponents and rivals, a big win could mean a big shift in the standings.

In Games #13-14 of the M-League 2024-25 Finals, we witnessed one of the biggest games ever to be played in the finals. As a result, we had that a big shift in the standings.

Let’s get right into it, shall we?

Before the Games

For the penultimate day of games, we had Kobayashi Misa and Saikouisen’s Kouno Naoya doing commentary.

After a recap of Tuesday’s results, we took a look at the standings.

The Akasaka Drivens are in the lead, but it is far from a safe lead. The Sega Sammy Phoenix sit right behind them, just 26.6pts shy. The U-Next Pirates have a lot of work to do at 211.0pts behind, as do Team Raiden in the negatives.

Intro | Game #13 | Game #14

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M-League 2024-25 Finals: Games #11-12

Teams have been through a lot to get to this point. They’ve gone through a gruelling regular season, an intense semifinals and are more than halfway through the competitive finals. With six more games to go, everything is on the line. And believe me, they will fight like hell to get that championship.

In Games #11 and 12 of the M-League 2024-25 finals, we had big swings all around. From a big dealership win to an Ura 3 win to a houtei, we had quite an interesting day of games.

Let’s get right into it, shall we?

Before the Games

Commentating in their final games of the season are Matsushima Momo and former Akasaka Drivens player Murakami Jun.

After a review of Monday’s action, we looked at where the teams stood going into today.

The Akasaka Drivens have their biggest lead of the finals so far. Going down the list, each team is just over 100pts behind the next with six more games left to go.

Intro | Game #11 | Game #12

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M-League 2024-25 Finals: Games #9-10

Each game is critical in the finals. With a big win, they may rise like the sun in the morning. But if they lose, they may be left high and dry and the sun might set on their championship chances.

In the 9th and 10th game of the M-League 2024-25 finals, we had some spectacular comebacks and a lot of proof that no lead is safe.

There was a lot of cool action today, so let’s get right into it, shall we?

Before the Games

The commentators of the day were Hiyoshi Tatsuya and former Konami Mahjong Fight Club player Fujisaki Satoshi.

After looking at the highlights from Friday’s games, we took a look at the standings.

The Sega Sammy Phoenix have a very slim lead over the Akasaka Drivens. The U-Next Pirates are still within range of 2nd place, but are also in danger of dropping down to 4th place with the competitive Team Raiden.

And with that, we were off!

Intro | Game #9 | Game #10

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M-League 2024-25 Finals: Games #7-8

With every game, every team has a chance at great wins and great wounds. There’s no deciding on the result in advance. Anything can happen in mahjong.

In Games #7-8 of the M-League 2024-25 finals, teams continued to bounce around. We had standings shifts, a rare yaku chance and a team finally getting a win.

There’s no denying it, these are some exciting finals. Let’s get right into it, shall we?

Before the Games

Commentating today is the formidable Hiyoshi Tatsuya and former U-Next Pirates player Ishibashi Nobuhiro.

After seeing the menu delivery promotion and book release from yesterday, we again took a look at the standings.

After a lot of flip-flopping, the Akasaka Drivens is the leader going into today. Though, the Sega Sammy Phoenix are down by just 41.7pts. The U-Next Pirate are more than 200.0pts away from the top while Team Raiden is in the negatives.

Intro | Game #7 | Game #8

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