Game #14
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
Akasaka
Drivens
U-Next Pirates
EX Furinkazan
Go Ahead
May 16, Game 2, E1-0
In E1-0, Kobayashi is player for the U-Next Pirates and carrying the momentum of Mizuhara’s win the previous game.
Kobayashi starts out with a strong iishanten hand with a secured dora 3p and a green dragon pair. On turn 4, he gets to tenpai on a yakuless 6p kanchan. He chooses to stay dama, looking to either create a shanpon with the green dragon pair, make it a triplet, or just improve the wait to a ryanmen. On his next turn he creates a 36p ryanmen and calls riichi. On his very next draw, he gets the 6p and wins the hand. Kobayashi wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 1 for 2,000/4,000.
Dama Time
May 16, Game 2, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p2067
On E2-0, Sonoda is the dealer in a 2nd place tie and trailing Kobayashi by 10,000.
Starting out, Sonoda is 2-shanten with a secured red 5p and a floating dora green dragon. On turn 2, he pairs up the green dragon to get to iishanten. Though he does have two ryanmens, making the green dragon into a triplet is ideal. On turn 5, he gets that third green dragon and increases his tenpai acceptance to 12 different tiles. At the start of the second row, Sonoda gets to tenpai and stays dama on a 69m nobetan. Soon after, Shibukawa discards the 9m and deals into Sonoda. Sonoda wins the hand with Green Dragon/Dora 3/Aka 1 for 12,000, a big direct hit on 3rd place in the overall standings and enough points to move into 1st place in this game.
Ippatsu Tsumo
May 16, Game 2, E2-1
In E2-1, Sonoda’s dealership continues. he has made his mark for 2nd place overall, but the dream of the championship is still theoretically possible.
Sonoda starts out the hand with a nice 2-shanten hand with two ryanmens. On turn 2, he gets to iishanten. After a bit of shuffling, Sonoda gets to tenpai on turn 8 and calls riichi on 14p ryanmen, adding tanyao if he can get the latter. On his very next draw, he gets the lower 1p, but it’s still an ippatsu win. Sonoda wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Pinfu for 2,600+100 all, moving above 40,000.
On An End Wait Can Happen!
May 16, Game 2, S2-2
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3073
In S2-2, there are two riichi sticks and two honba on the table. Shibukawa is in 4th place and is sitting 25,400 behind 3rd place Katsumata. With Shibukawa’s dealership already passed, he has to go. He has to go now.
Shibukawa starts out with a promising 3-shanten hand with four ryanmens and a connected 5s dora. In the first row, he is unable to fill in any of them. However, he draws a second 5s dora at the end of the row and trades a ryanmen for a penchan to accept it. On his next two turns, he fills in his remaining ryanmens and calls riichi on a 7p penchan. On his very next draw, he gets the unlikely 7p and wins the hand. With an uradora flip, Shibukawa wins the hand with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Dora 2/Ura 1 for 3,000+200/6,000+200 plus two riichi sticks, putting him 7,700 behind 2nd place.
Wide Wait
May 16, Game 2, S3-0
In S3-0, Kobayashi is the dealer in 2nd place, sitting 14,200 behind 1st place Sonoda and just 100 ahead of 3rd place Katsumata.
From the start, Kobayashi 2-shanten with a callable tanyao hand and a pair of 7s dora. On turn 6, Kobayashi makes his first call to secure tanyao and get to a perfect iishanten. In the second row, he is met with a riichi from Shibukawa,waiting on a 47m ryanmen for mangan minimum.
With the riichi by Shibukawa, Kobayashi needs to speed up. With a second call, he gets to tenpai on a 25s ryanmen. On his next draw, he gets a 4s to create a 34445677s shape. The 4s is dangerous since the 14s ryanmen is still alive along with the 47s ryanmen. The 7s also has danger, but the early 6s from Shibukawa and the fact that it is one-chance makes it a bit less likely. In addition, it improves his wait drastically to a 2358s wait. After taking a bit of time to think, Kobayashi takes the risk and makes the switch. In the middle of the third row, Katsumata discards the 8s and deals into Kobayashi. Kobayashi wins the hand with Tanyao/Dora 1 for 2,900 plus one riichi stick.
Assist
May 16, Game 2, S4-0
In S4-0, Sonoda is in 1st place and holding a 10,600 lead over 2nd place Kobayashi.
Sonoda’s hand is at a decent 3-shanten, but calling for tanyao is a bit risky. To his right, Kobayashi is also 3-shanten with a pair of red dragons. Quickly, Kobayashi gets himself to iishanten, though his red dragons are still a pair. A turn after he discards the 4m dora, Kobayashi calls pon on the red dragon and waits on an 8p kanchan.
For Sonoda, he is 2-shanten with just 5 tiles for tile acceptance. He can take the chance to push his own hand, or he could help Kobayashi in order to stop Katsumata. Seeing that Kobayashi discarded the 4m early, it is unlikely that he has enough value to push Sonoda out of 1st. Even if he has pinzu honitsu, Sonoda holds the red 5p, the green dragon and the west, making a 3/50 or greater almost impossible. Seeing that there are three 8p visible to Sonoda, he chooses to discard it as the tile least likely to come out from others. His choice is correct and successfully deals into Kobayashi.
Kobayashi wins the hand with Red Dragon only for 1,000, successfully securing 1st for Sonoda and 2nd for Kobayashi.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p260
Twitter: https://twitter.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1791121129366823091
Standings
Sonoda’s win this game was quite influential, extending their lead over 3rd place to 176.0pts. If they are aiming high, their win shifts them a bit closer to the 1st place U-Next Pirates. With Shibukawa getting 4th and Katsumata getting 3rd, the bottom two get a bit closer. The two teams are now separated by just 16.6pts. Everything will be decided tomorrow.
And that’s all for today! Only one more day left! Only one team will be crowned champion. How will everything go down? As always, we’ll just have to wait and see! Don’t forget that the broadcast on Friday will start 2 hours earlier at 17:00 JST. See you then!
M-League Watch 