Jenn’s Corner #21 – New Season and New Projects
The new JPML season has started! Garthe and I had our first run in D1 and it was just OK. You can hear all about it in our latest ‘Jong-cast.
Since we moved up to D1, we are eligible this season to play in the Special League. This league is made so that players with mad skills can shoot up to the higher leagues instead of taking the normal 5-year route. 1st place is a spot in B2, 2nd place, a spot in C1 and 3rd place is a spot in C2. The terms are strict. You have to first qualify by moving up a league or making it to the finals of another tournament. Once the Special league starts, it gets stricter. Almost anything will disqualify even the first place contender. First of all, once a player’s score reaches less than negative 100, the player is automatically disqualified. Players are not allowed to miss a normal League tournament (Women’s League is OK too) and must participate in the Masters tournament, 10-Tier tournament and OUI tournament (for the fall season).
At the end of the season, the player’s final score in the League tournament must be at least positive in order to qualify for the move up. There are 8 sessions of 4 games each and players must of course attend all sessions.
The good news is that Garthe is in 1st place in this league at the moment with 50.1 points. I’m down in 18th with -15.6 points, but there is still time to catch up. Our buddy Ohba, who made it to the final table of the 10-Tier tournament is almost in last. I hope he can bring it around!
The other tournament that started again with this season was Champion’s League. There are 15 sessions (3 each month) and players can participate on any 5 days that they would like to qualify. Garthe and I played one day this month and we’re both down a bit for the first session. Still 4 more to go, so not too worried. I’m in 41st place with -18.3 and Garthe is in 55th with -51.4. there are 58 players so far but there will be lots more in the coming months.
Finally, our biggest project so far is starting to take form! At this year’s Word Series of Mahjong in Macau, ReachMahjong.com will sponsor the first-ever WSOM circuit event! This will be a $1,000 buy-in, 1-day Reach Mahjong event. Because of the short time schedule, the rules have been modified. The rules director, Shintaro Konno (JPML), will lead the tournament committee and they have already come up with the official rule set. We’ll post it on RM as soon as it’s ready. RM will also be accepting registration for both the Reach Event and the Main Event, which will again be a $5,000 entry 3-day tournament, using the official WSOM rules. Players that sign up through us here at RM will get a special RM player’s package when they arrive at the event including RM apparel and other gifts to be announced. Look for details on how to sign up soon.
Garthe and I will be participating in both the Reach Event, as featured players and the WSOM Main Event. Andy is the ReachMahjong representative and will be working on the committee with Mr. Konno, as well as reporting live from the event. For those of you that can catch the TV broadcasts from last year’s event, I’m in there, along with Japanese pro, Sayaka Yokoyama. We had a great time at last year’s event and this year should be even better!
This is huge for the Reach Mahjong community and the Mahjong community as a whole. I hope some of our reader’s will be able to make the trip to Macau!
Now, I’m off to Osaka for a week of fun and Mahjong Fight Club. See you at the meet-ups~
