Previous League
I think the previous league was a success. It seems to garner more excitement, more responses and commitment. It was our 1st proper league with prize and conducted over a short period of time – 10 weeks. It was rather experimental and therefore there were room for improvement. Some problems we can see is that, generally speaking it is good to aim for 2nd instead of 1st. This makes players to remain at status quo when they achieve 2nd position. Another problem is towards the end of the league, response dwell down because some players give up competing for the league. So the new league will have some things planned out to see if these problems are resolved.
For the benefits of some newcomers who may not fully understand how the league runs, i’ll post everything again with some edited information.
Prize
$40 Gift voucher/card for League Champion
$10 Gift voucher/card for Consolation prize (N/A for Feng)
The consolation prize is meant for 2nd tier winner who has gotten around 10 LP at the end of 10 sessions. This number is a range of number, for example, the highest between 8~14. This range of number will be decided after 7/8 sessions after I see the LP distribution amongst players. Basically, the idea is that players should only be allowed to compete for either of the prizes and there is no case of intentionally losing. Perhaps more rules might be implemented to prevent players from rigging their results at session 9/10. For example, announcing which players to be no longer qualified for the consolation prize after 8 sessions.
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 |
| 4 | 2 | -1 | -4 | 0 | -1 (up to only -3) |
Note: The LP allocation to 1st and 4th has been altered. This place higher emphasis on getting 1st and equal emphasis on avoiding 4th.
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 | 80 |
Note: For this league, the cap has been decreased from 100 to 80 since the period of time is now fixed at 10 sessions instead of 1 year.
To reach 80 AP takes about 12 games, around 5 weeks 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 commit 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
Riichi Mahjong in Singapore 