South 4 is the final hand in a typical hanchan. For the final dealer, they have control of how long the game goes on for. For everyone else, it’s their final chance to fight for position. With the value and the right tiles, a player can fly up to 1st place.
In the 11th week of the M-League 2024-25 regular season, many players stepped forward to try to take the top spot. From gathering a lot of yaku to putting all their hope in a single dora, each chance was a moment of excitement for fans all around the world.
Enough with the introduction. Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Precision is an important strategy aspect in mahjong. Making the right decisions of what to discard, what to wait on and who to hit can result in great rewards. When a players fail to have precision, it can result in missed chances and knocked tiles, maybe even resulting in penalties.
From the precise to the imprecise, both were on display in the 10th week of the M-League 2024-25 season. As always, we also had challenges, comebacks and close calls.
Now is precisely the time to learn more, so let’s get right into it, shall we?
M-League Fans and Bromides
Starting on November 19, 2024, M-League 2024-25 bromides and fan designs will be available to be printed at Lawson Print stores.
36 designs for both the fan designs and bromides are available, one for each M-Leaguer. Fan designs cost 350 yen, L-size bromides cost 300 yen and 2L-size bromides cost be 500 yen.
Mahjong, with all its chance and variance and rules, can be frustrating. It takes a lot of energy to figure things out and sometimes mistakes are made. How one handles these challenges and frustration is what separates to good players from the great players.
In the 9th week of the M-League 2024-25 regular season, we had some frustrating moment, but we also saw how players overcame them. From a dead hand to good waits being beaten, we watched as players pushed through to succeed.
Just relax and sit back and let’s get right into it, shall we?
Premium Night
On November 11, M-League announced that they will be hosting their next M-League Premium Night on February 10, 2025.
The Premium night will take place at Tokyo Dome City Hall and will have all 36 M-Leaguers in attendance.
The match of the day will feature:
Akasaka Drivens
Konami Mahjong Fight Club
U-Next Pirates
Beast X
Tickets range from 9,800 yen to 16,000 yen, and will be sold on the Lawson Ticket website starting on December 1 for official supporters and December 4 for the general public. There is also a suite room costing 300,000 yen that can accommodate up to 15 people and includes a light meal and a team meet-and-greet.
Staff Yakuman
Before each game, the M-League staff usually play a hand to make sure that all the equipment and graphics are working.
During the rehearsal on November 12, 2024, the staff member sitting in Watanabe Futoshi’s seat won a suuankou! Even if it was won on ron, the hand would have been worth Riichi/Toitoi/Sanankou/Tanyao/Dora 6/Aka 2 for a 14-han sanbaiman.
Ippatsu is a yaku won when you win within one uninterrupted go-around of riichi. It may take a bit of luck, but you are rewarded with an extra han if you manage to get it.
In the 8th week of the M-League 2024-25 season, we had about a dozen wins by ippatsu. In one game, we had five. We also had quite a few big wins and big comebacks, including a big dealer baiman!
Let’s keep this unbroken tradition of articles going and get right into it, shall we?
Fans always love to root for the underdog. A player who is against the odds and seems to be out of the running always has a chance to come back and win. And when that happens, excitement grows even more.
In the 7th week of the M-League 2024-25 regular season, surprising and unexpected comebacks were of full display. In one case, a player was down by almost a yakuman and managed to come back in just two hands! We also had some cool yakuman tenpais!
We’re glad that you came back for another week of M-League, so let’s get right into it, shall we?
M-League Official Trading Cards
On October 28, 2024, M-League announced that they will be launching their own line of online trading cards.
The trading cards feature different players with different rarities, as well as teams and highlight cards.
The online trading cards are available on the M-League Official Trading Cards website (which uses ORICAL, created by ventus inc.), though can only be access through a smartphone. The website also features a trading system, missions, login bonuses and a friend system.
On October 28, 2024, M-League and CyberAgent (ABEMA’s parent company) announced that they have signed a distribution agreement with Shanghai Zhongxi Sports Co. (上海中玺体育有限公司) to broadcast live M-League games in China.
Live broadcasts will be available starting on Monday, November 18, 2024, and will be streamed on platforms such as bilibili, Douyin (TikTok equivalent in China) and Douyu. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are excluded from the agreement.
Shanghai Zhongxi Sports Co. is a broadcaster and organizer of mind sport competitions (including mahjong) and has been running a Japanese mahjong tournament for Chinese university students since 2022.
This is the first M-League international broadcast announcement since ABEMA announced that many of its mahjong broadcasts (including M-League) would be globally available starting April 19, 2019
In life, knowing how to count is fundamental. The same is true with mahjong. You have to count tiles, leftover riichi sticks and honba. You have to count han and fu, and then count to make sure that your opponents gave you the correct amount.
In the fifth week of the M-League 2024-25 season, there was a lot of counting, from sticks to fu to streaks. You can count on me to lead you through this week’s highlights, so let’s get right into it, shall we?
Sanshoku Doujun, often shortened to simply Sanshoku, is a yaku that requires the same sequence in all three suits. This simple yaku can easily be combined with many different yaku to create interesting and valuable hands.
In the 5th week of the M-League 2024-25 season, this yaku took centre stage, from its combination with the relatively uncommon closed junchan, to being the winning yaku in a very volatile furiten hand, to being the surprise yaku after a terminal pon.
Three paragraphs is enough for the intro. Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Denial is an important aspect of winning in mahjong. Stopping someone from doing what they want gets in their way both physically and mentally. Oftentimes, you can deny someone’s riichi by winning off their riichi tile. In some cases, you can deny someone a kan by winning off their added kan tile. In other cases, you can deny yourself a ron for a chance of an even bigger win.
In the fourth week of the M-League 2024-25 regular season, all of these fun and exciting cases happened and more! I can’t deny it, it was an exciting week. With that, let’s get right into it, shall we?
In mahjong, dealing in can be painful sometimes. You lose points and you are forced to fight hard to climb back up. It is especially painful when you are in riichi and have no control.
However, in rare cases, dealing in can be the best thing you can do. If done properly at the right time, feeding another player tiles that will help them win can be beneficial to both them and the feeder.
This week, we had an exceptional example of this in action. Also this week, we had players fed with actual food and a player winning enough vouchers to feed them for years to come! Let’s feed that hunger to learn more and get right into it, shall we?
Mahjong Food Competition 2024 Results
On September 29, 2024, Mahjong Food Competition was broadcasted on ABEMA. The competition had four special tiles (with the letters “m”, “e”, “n”, and “u”,) which acted as flowers, giving one han each to players who won with them.
After winning the first game, Suzuki Taro (鈴木たろう) would go on to win the finals and win the 1 million yen in menu food coupons.
The VODs for all three games can be watched for free on ABEMA. You can also watch a special behind-the-scenes as well where Matsugase made onigiri for the players and the commentary crew.
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