Riichi Mahjong in Singapore

 Background

As our database is down and while QL is working on reviving it, why not have a league with a new performance indicator? We will only conclude a winner only after 10 league sessions have been organised. This will make things flexible in terms of organising impromptu events without disrupting the league progression.

This league is designed not just for competitive players but even the non-competitive players and newcomers will also not be too disadvantage from joining. This will be explained in detail below.

League Points (LP)

To win the league, a player has to acquire as many LP as possible in 10 sessions.

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Sit-out	Absent/Session
3	2	-1	-3	0	-1 (up to only -3)

The player who acquire the most number of LP at the end of 10 sessions will win the league. As seen from the above table, any players in lead can have huge downswing in their league points so never give up trying to take the top place!

The rationale behind having a minus LP for absence/session is to prevent players from being too luck for like winning too much for the first few session and then decide to not to attend the session anymore in order to protect their lead. A maximum of only 3 LP will be deducted i.e attending 5 session out of 10 will means deduction of 3 LP, not 5. Also bear in the mind that a player who has a mean table position of 2.5 (Equal probability of getting 1st/2nd/3rd/4th) will acquire an average of 1 LP per game. These 2 factors make it very difficult to execute the strategy of winning the league through buying time by not attending the session. A more skilled and committed player in general naturally stands a higher chance to win.

Attendance Points (AP)

The attendance points system will still be used as a deciding factor on players’ priority play (higher priority to play first).

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Sit-out	Absent/Session	Spectator	Capped at
8	7	6	5	5	-5	0	100

To reach 100 AP takes about 15 games, around 1.5 months assuming you attend every session.Having this system in placed caters to non-competitive players that the league do not appeal to. So for players who play recreationally who may not be too particular with the results will still be given the priority to play as long as they stay committed in attending session regularly. Any players who committed regularly regardless of skills will eventually reached the capped level of 100 AP and acquire the highest possibly priority to play. But definitely getting 1st will earn you more AP in a faster manner so we still encourage recreational players to try their best to win and achieve the best result they can.

• You only need to attend two out of four sessions per month to climb the AP ranking steadily.

This AP system has been in used since January 2016. If you would like to read the details which we cover the definition of sit-out, absentees and spectator, you can click – https://sgriichimahjong.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/the-new-attendance-points-system-good-news-for-new-players/

Re-adjustment of current players’ AP 

Current players’ accumulated AP will be reduced to 10% at the start of every league. So players with 100 AP as per last session will start with 10 AP. A 10 AP lead is approximately 1.5 games in lead. This is to be fair to the veterans yet not have an overwhelming advantage over new players. New players can overtake veterans in around 3 sessions but can take only 1-2 session if veterans miss any session while newcomers attend all 3.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment on this thread of you can also do it on Facebook. This will be published on our facebook group – Singapore (Reach) Mahjong group as well. Do join if you have yet to!

Feng