HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We shall start the year with aka-ari league, with 1st place emphasis and ranking by total score! This year, we will place a bit more emphasis on total-score ranking instead of position. Only 1 aka-nashi league will use solely on position for league ranking. Other 3 leagues will be based on total score

Aka-Ari rules

League Summary

• There will be 3 Aka Dora (red dora) used for this ruleset.
• There will be no Kazoe Yakuman (counted yakuman). Any hand with 13 or more han is treated as a sanbaiman.
• There will be no Nagashi Mangan.
• There will be no mid-game draws.
• There will be no multiple ron. The player closer to the discarder will win the hand.
• There will be no multiple yakuman.
• All kan declared will open a new kan dora indicator immediately, regardless of the type of kan (kakan, daiminkan, ankan).

League Points (LP) system

The league point system for this league will be your net score/1000 + the following points based on your position:

Example

A player finish in 1st place with 35k.

Net score = 35k-25k = 10k.

Total LP = 10k/1k + 45 = 55 LP.

Chombo Penalty: -30 LP , 4000 point payment to all other players, hand is redealt.

Missing sessions: No penalty

Attending the 9th and 10th session: +10 LP for the next league.

LP will be halved after the 8th session of the league.

The winner of the Main League will be awarded $40 vouchers which will be presented in the next tournament.

Side League

The main league consists of 10 sessions which will have two side leagues consisting of 5 sessions each. In each of the side league, the same LP system will be used, and the winner of each side league will be entitled to fee waivers for one session.

Bonuses from the previous league will not be added to the Side League. Also, LP from the Side League will not be halved after the 8th session.

However, penalties from chombo will still be deducted from the Side League.

Attendance Points (AP) system

The attendance points system for this league will be as such:

All player’s attendance points will be reduced to 10% at the start of the WRC league. Newcomers, this is the best opportunity to get higher AP than the veterans to avoid sitting out for your first game!

Feel free to ask any questions regarding this league’s rules if you’re unsure.

Feng

Its been 4 years since we last played pair Riichi! Since we have leftover 2 sessions before the year ends, we decided to bring it back. This time, each session’s winner will win $10 voucher!

What is Pair Riichi?

Inspired by manga-adaptation drama, Tohai, pair riichi is played with you and your partner sitting opposite of each other. If either you or your partner gets last place, your pair lose! There’s no signalling or communication that is related to how your partner should play. I.e Telling your partner to discard certain tile is considered cheating. The teamwork here is based on the strategic aspects of the game and how much you can read your partner during the game.

Rule to be played

• Session 1 – Aka-ari
• Session 2 – Aka-nashi

Ranking

Pairing

Not everyone has a pair and there is only 1 winner per session so we will be testing on how adaptable players are to their partners. Therefore, ONLY for game 1, players are allowed to choose their pairs. For remaining players with no pairs will be paired up by drawing lots. For game 2 & 3, all pairs will be based on draw lots and the matching of pairs will also be based on draw lots.

Tie-breaker

If there are multiple winners amongst the top winners, their total score will be used as tie-breaker.

If within a game, 2 players have the same score in 4th place, the partner who has the higher score will be used as the tie-breaker.

Registration

For these sessions, there will be NO sit-outs. So it is like a 1 session “mini tournament”. So there will be some changes to our usual registration protocol.

Registration to start on every Monday 12pm. Players who register after Wednesday 12pm will be treated as first register first serve. Will accept registration in groups of 4.

How Pair Riichi is different from usual Riichi

1. Damaten (Waiting without riichi) can be common as you wouldn’t want to win from your partner. Even for tsumo win, you will have to be careful not to do so when your partner is the dealer, especially when your hand is of high value. However it is still viable as long as your partner has enough points to handle your tsumo win. The ideal situation is to have both of you achieve 1st and 2nd.
2. Skipping ron (Discard win) can be common as well. So you might want to discard any dangerous tiles right after your opponent has discarded. Late by 1 turn can be even more disastrous.
3. Sashikomi (Intentionally playing into someone’s hand) can be more prominent in this tournament. For example, if you have a large lead as 1st, and your partner who is struggling at 4th declared riichi, you might want to do your best to spare him some of your points to save him from 4th. But there is always the risk of playing into your partner’s hand that is too expensive and you lose your advantageous position. Remember, you must not get 4th place. The balance here is like another ball game.

Hellloooooo

Here comes another piece of good news!

Introduction of Asean-Oceania Riichi Mahjong Association (AORMA)

For the past few months, I’ve been initiating and coordinating a formation of Asean-Oceania Riichi Mahjong Association. It is made up of Singapore, Indonesia and Australia. The original plan was to have Vietnam as well but there was some issue with them having a stable long-term coordinator. Hopefully once they have somebody, they can join us.

The whole idea of forming this association is to combine the pool of each countries riichi player to form a bigger riichi community. Currently, we are only competing amongst each other in a pool size of around 20-24. With an association, we can double or triple this number. As much as I understand how most of you think oversea tournaments like World Riichi Championship or World Mahjong Sport Games is a bit far-fetched, I hope having this association increase some exposure to oversea players and feel the excitement of competing with others, as a Singaporean Riichi player. 🙂

Trial League

Official activities will start in 2019. But before that, there are some things we need to test as part of our planning. This trial is a 4 sessions of league games, every Sunday from 14 October to 11 November. There is no session on 4th November as there is already International Online Riichi Mahjong Competition on 3rd November. This league will be held via Tenhou platform and uses Tenhou default rules.

We are trying to make this as flexible as possible to accommodate as many players as possible. So players can actually choose to register for whatever number and for whichever game slot that they deem fit! For example, you can register for game 1 and 3 only, or even 1 game or all 4 games!

Here’s the schedule based on SGT.

Registration

All registered players have equal priority to play if they register between 1430 and 1515. This will be gone through a google form which its link will be released on facebook or whatsapp (if you haven’t been receiving my WA messages, let me know and i will add you into the list. You need to add my hp number into your contact book)

After 1515, players can only register through a discord channel. Link will also be provided. These players will have a lower priority and will be slot in only if they make up the number to fill up the tables.

If there are no players who register late, then the sit-outs will be players who have gotten the lowest scores from the previous game. If this happens during game 1 (i.e no previous game), then unfortunately we have to go by first come first serve.

Players can register multiple game at once but for basic courtesy, please do not back out after doing so.

Players match-up

For the 1st session of the whole league, it will be random. Any subsequent session will be based on players’ overall ranking. Seat assignment will be random based on tenhou.

Ranking

A moving average score will be used to rank players. It will be an average from 4 to 12 games. That’s to say, if you play for full 16 games, your first 4 games won’t be counted. To have a rank, players need to have a minimum of 4 games. Otherwise your overall score remains 0 but this means you will be ranked higher than players who have an overall negative score after 4 games.

Facebook Group

We have made a facebook group call “Asean-Oceania Riichi Mahjong Association” whereby we hope to disseminate all related info there and also hope to make it as a common place for everyone across the borders to befriend with. So please join!

At the end of this league, we would hope to survey all players for their thoughts on this. Please do give this a try and support this initiative!

Feng

The new league will begin on 15 September 2018. This time, we will be using the Aka-Nashi ruleset. The summary is given below. This league consists of 10 sessions.

Remember to remove the Aka-Dora before commencing your games this weekend!

Aka-Nashi rules

League Summary

• There will be no Aka Dora (red dora) used for this ruleset.
• There will be no Kazoe Yakuman (counted yakuman). Any hand with 13 or more han is treated as a sanbaiman.
• There will be no Nagashi Mangan.
• There will be no mid-game draws.
• There will be no multiple ron. The player closer to the discarder will win the hand.
• There will be no multiple yakuman.
• All kan declared will open a new kan dora indicator immediately, regardless of the type of kan (kakan, daiminkan, ankan).

League Points (LP) system

The league point system for this league will be as such:

Chombo Penalty: -30 LP , 4000 point payment to all other players, hand is redealt.

Missing sessions: No penalty

Attending the 9th and 10th session: +10 LP for the next league.

LP will be halved after the 8th session of the league.

The winner of the Main League will be awarded $40 vouchers which will be presented in the next tournament.

Side League

The main league consists of 10 sessions which will have two side leagues consisting of 5 sessions each. In each of the side league, the same LP system will be used, and the winner of each side league will be entitled to fee waivers for one session.

Bonuses from the previous league will not be added to the Side League. Also, LP from the Side League will not be halved after the 8th session.

However, penalties from chombo will still be deducted from the Side League.

Attendance Points (AP) system

The attendance points system for this league will be as such:

All player’s attendance points will be reduced to 10% at the start of the WRC league. Newcomers, this is the best opportunity to get higher AP than the veterans to avoid sitting out for your first game!

This ruleset is the same ruleset used in WRC 2017.

This ruleset is the same as the previous league’s ruleset with the Aka Dora removed.

That’s all for the Aka-Nashi league! Be sure to attend so that you do not miss out on all the fun!

Feel free to ask any questions regarding this league’s rules if you’re unsure.

Eric Quek

Hello Everyone!

We just found out about this broadcast function in whatsapp, which we think it can serve as a good notifications/news updates in replace of e-mail. It is a mass sending message function but at the recipient side, you will only see a personal message (PM) sent to you, just like anybody message you on whatsapp. You can reply or comment or ask about it immediately. Since it is a PM, your replies are private too.

Understand that not everyone check or read their e-mail or use facebook that frequently. With the broadcast function, we hope to bring you updates seamlessly, making it more convenient for you and perhaps in a more engaging manner.

To be eligible in the participant list, please make sure you have added me (9176 6611) and Eric’s phone numbers (8282 0550) into your address. I will first be adding active and semi-active members for this coming week, before the session report is released. So those in the list, should receive a PM about session report. If not, that means my message has failed to reach you so please take note!

If you do not wish to join, you can also let us know and we will remove you from the list.

Feng

The new league will begin on 23 June 2018. The aka-ari ruleset will be utilised. See below for the summary. There will be a total of 10 sessions for this league.

A gentle reminder to this evening’s players to include the aka dora into the set before commencement of the games!

Aka-ari rules

League Summary

• Aka dora (red dora) will be used.
• There will be no Kazoe Yakuman (counted yakuman). Any hand with 13 or more han is treated as a sanbaiman.
• There will be no Nagashi Mangan.
• There will be no mid-game draws.
• There will be no multiple ron. The player closer to the discarder will win the hand.
• There will be no multiple yakuman.
• All kan declared will open a new kan dora indicator immediately.

League Points (LP) system

The league point system for this league will be as such:

Chombo Penalty: -30 LP , 4000 point payment to all other players, hand is redealt.

Missing sessions: No penalty

Attending the 9th and 10th session: +10 LP for the next league.

LP will be halved after the 8th session of the league.

Side League

The main league consists of 10 sessions which will have two side leagues consisting of 5 sessions each. In each of the side league, the same LP system will be used, and the winner of each side league will be entitled to waivers for one session.

Attendance Points (AP) system

The attendance points system for this league will be as such:

All player’s attendance points will be reduced to 10% at the start of the WRC league. Newcomers, this is the best opportunity to get higher AP than the veterans to avoid sitting out for your first game!

Note that most of these rules follow WRC rules, with the exception of the Aka-Dora.

That’s all for the aka-ari league! Be sure to attend so that you do not miss out on all the fun!

Feel free to ask any questions regarding this league’s rules if you’re unsure.

Eric Quek