Jenn’s Corner #8: Mediators and Tournaments
I arrived at SNPM’S Ryuou-sen match to cheer on one of my favorite Pro’s of all time, Yuukou Itou. My plan was to rush off to JPML’s Phoenix Cup Finals right after, but because of the length of the Final game (of 6), there was no time, so I just said my good-byes and headed home.
I walked into Vacance (バカンス), the first Mahjong Parlor I had ever played in, for the first time in probably a year. It was just as I remembered it, except for only one table was being used, in the middle, and all the tables around it had been pushed away to make room for the 30 odd spectators that had turned out to watch JPML’s Itou and Yamai, NPM’s Takeuchi and MU’s Mihara. Obviously I went hoping that Itou or even Yamai would win, so I chose to watch behind Itou.
I made it just in time to watch the last 2 and a half games and Itou was already far behind the other 3. Yamai was ahead in total score and in the 4th game.
Until the last hand of the South Round in the 4th game. The table set-up looks like this:
Itou throws the 3 of Bams and Mihara shouts “Chow”. A split-second later, but obviously secondary, Takeuchi whispers “Pon” (bump). Now, in most rule systems, the rules state that the first person to declare gets the tile. If the declaration was made at the same time, then the person Bumping gets the priority. In this case, the Chow was obviously first, but it was close enough to ask for a judgment. Alright, then, trusty mediator, who gets the tile in this case? Wait a minute? Where is the mediator? Off on a smoke break?? While the final table is battling it out?! Seriously? Well, there is a score-keeper watching, surely he can make the judgment? Nope. Looks like he is going to call the mediator over. This ought be good, someone who didn’t even see the action is going to judge it. No Way! Way. The mediator finally came over after a minute or so of people looking at each other dumbfounded and he comes over and says, “Yes?”He had no idea what was going on. Yamai explained what happened and the mediator finally said in an almost silent voice, “I believe ‘pon’ has priority,” seeming quite unsure of himself.
Obviously there is no problem here except for the fact that the mediator is judging something that he didn’t witness because of his ‘need’ to smoke, but let’s put that aside, and let’s forget the fact that he made the judgment while looking at Takeuchi’s hand (a former teammate of his in SNPM), which contained 3 drags and got its Hand point from All Trips, one of which, was made by this Bump. It seemed like I was the only one who thought this judgment was strange. Perhaps it is a culture problem, but I will say here and now that I think the mediator of a Final Table in any Mahjong tournament should be watching the Final Table. (This is why I made this article a ‘Jenn’s Corner’ entry and not a news article, so I can write my opinion)
Honestly I am not saying that his call was necessarily the wrong one. Perhaps any mediator would have made the same call. However, the fact that he wasn’t at the table to see the action means that he was not doing his job and this is something I want to set a standard for in future Mahjong competitions. When there are 50 tables at a qualification match going on at the same time it is impossible and not economical to have one mediator to each table. But this is the FINAL Table with reputations, money and honor at stake. Just because no one in your own league has made it to the Final Table does NOT mean that you are entitled to do a mediocre job of running a competition. This is also not an article to negate Takeuchi’s earned prize. He played very strongly and if the mediator would let him take the Bump, that is the best decision for him and he should do that, no questions asked.
In the end, Takeuchi won that hand and pulled ahead. Going into the Final game, he was first with +42.0 points. Mihara held 2nd place with +37.4, Yamai right behind him with +33.9 and Itou trailing with -113.3. Because in SNPM matches, the placing bonus is a ridiculous +30 points for first and +10 points for 2nd, the player with the most points in the last game, with the exception of Itou, will win the tournament. In other words, it all boils down to these 8 hands.
In the East Round, Itou had 2 big wins with +5,200 points and +12,000 points, putting him comfortably in the lead of that game. People in the room seemed to like it when Itou won.
The final hand looked like this:
Yamai Reaches. In order for Yamai to get past Takeuchi’s lead of 3,700 points, he would need to win 3,900 on the river, Self-Draw 700-1300 or win a 2,000 point hand directly from Takeuchi. He is holding:
In the end, neither the 4 or 7 of Bams appears and the hand ends in a draw, giving Yamai 3,000 points (1,000 from each player) for his Ready Hand. The Reach Bone kept him 0.7 points away from taking 1st place. Takeuchi wins the title and the trophy (which SNPM didn’t bother to dust off) with a final score of +51.9. Yamai takes a comfortable second with +23.1. Mihara ends in third with -6.1 and Itou was fourth with -69.9. Itou, the most experienced player at the table was heard saying, “Everyone today played excellent Mahjong.”
