Thank you to all who have done the feedback forms or those who have complained about SMCRM to me so that I can address them.
During the period from Sept to Dec, we will be testing out our proposed system and rules. If the response is good, we will continue with it. At the end of December, there will be a final feedback form to confirm/make any amendments before we start anew for 2015.
Based on the feedback forms, it is apparent that there are more players yearning for the club to be more competitive and more professional. We will hence focus less on playing Richii Mahjong recreationally.
Aim
To provide an environment to train players for World Riichi Championship (WRC)
Rules
We will be following the WRC rules so you might want to download a copy of the WRC rulebook here – http://www.wrc2014.com/docs/wrc_rules.pdf
Highlighted below in gold are the changes.
| Atozuke (Claim a winning tile that gives a yaku to a yakuless hand) |
Yes | Agari Yame (Last dealer get to choose to end han-chan upon topping the game) |
No |
| Kuitan (Open Tanyao) |
Yes | Kuikae | No |
| Aka Dora (Red Dora) |
No | Shanyu (West Round) |
No |
| Kazoe Yakuman (Counted Yakuman) |
No | Nagashi Mangan (Discards of terminals/honours till exhaustive draw) |
No |
| Daburi Riichi (Double Reach) |
Yes | Tochuu Ryuukyoku (Mid-game draw) |
No |
| Furiten Riichi (Discard Foul Reach) |
Yes | Open Riichi (Open Reach) |
No |
| Multiple Ron (Dealing into 2/3 players) |
No | Multiple Yakuman (Score of >48,000) |
No |
| Sekinin-barai (Pao for Daisangen and Daisuushii ONLY) |
Yes | 7,700 = 8,000 or 11,600 = 12,000 |
No |
| Renhou (Winning on a discard in the very first un-interrupted set of turns, before the player has had his first turn) |
5 Han | Buttobi (End of han-chan once a player goes <0) |
No |
Why do competitions generally favour the absence of Aka-Dora?
Some players argue that the introduction of Aka-Dora made the gameplay less focused on hand-making (aiming for specific yakus) which means to say less skill is required. With the removal of 3 out of 7 Doras from the game, it puts emphasis on the importance of keeping your Dora (regardless how useless you think it is, in your hand). For example, if the Dora is a Wind tile that is not your round nor seat wind, the discard of this Dora reveals a lot to opponents that your hand is likely to be low in value. It is difficult to make a Mangan Hand without any Doras. This forces players to be extra careful of their decision of discarding a Dora. This is just a brief explanation of how different the gameplay can be with or without Aka-Dora. Kuitan lovers have to think twice if the Dora is a terminal/honor tile.
Ranking
As of now, we will still continue with the Table Points system. A rating system, like Tenhou, will be used for ranking next year.
Priority Play
Priority play will be based SOLELY on ranking. This means we will function the same as MCR section. Only for the first session, priority will be determined by drawing of lots. Although some players prefer a hybrid system (Determine by FCFS + ranking), I would like to experiment during this trial period whether this system will encourage players to commit to attending the sessions regularly. An exception to this will be the organisers. Organisers will have highest priority to play.
Ladder system
Every game, the player from table 1 who get last in position will switch place with the player at table 2 who get first. The same will be done for table 2 & 3 and so on. For the last table, those will get the last x positions will sit-out. X is the number of players waiting to play the next game. This means that as long as you commit for sessions regularly, it is possible that you can be excused from sit-outs!
Recording of score
During this trial period, there is NO RECORDING of scores. Only the end result of scores, net scores and table points will be recorded. Reason is because, QL will be focusing on preparing the database for the rating system and rules update as well as to fix up the current problem of unable to generate the data out.
Dankai System
There will be no Dankai system. A player’s skill will be determined by rating next year.
Next post will be on behavioural etiquette, its penalty and game penalties. As of now, I think I have addressed what I need to. Feel free to ask if you have any question about the new rules and/or new system.
Feng
Riichi Mahjong in Singapore 