Game #15
Akasaka
Drivens
Kadokawa
Sakura Knights
EX Furinkazan
U-Next Pirates
Aki
May 17, Game 1, E1-0
In E1-0, Aki is playing for the 4th place EX Furinkazan, trying to help her to team move into podium position. All they have to do is finish ahead of the Kadokawa Sakura Knights.
Aki starts out with a nice 2-shanten hand with a likely tanyao and a secured red 5p. To her left, rival Okada is also at 2-shanten. Quickly, Okada forms a 456m iipeikou (including the red 5m) and gets to tenpai on a 2p tanki. She stays dama and waits for a better wait. At the start of the second row, Okada calls riichi and switches to a 9s tanki.
During At this point, Aki is already iishanten with a path to mangan, so she pushes. On her next turn, she calls a chasing riichi and waits on a 47s ryanmen, needing the former for iipeikou. Near the end of the second row, Okada draws and discards the 7s and deals into Aki. Aki wins the hand with Riichi/Pinfu/Tanyao/Aka 1 for 8,000 plus one riichi stick.
Bottom to Top
May 17, Game 1, E2-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p3074
In E2-0, Okada is the dealer in 4th place, trying to catch up to Aki after Okada dealt a mangan into her.
With her starting hand, she is 3-shanten with a red 5m and just a 6m away from a 456m iipeikou. In the first row, he draws the wrong side of the iipeikou chance and creates a south pair, but at least she is closer to tenpai. By the end of the row, she is iishanten. In the second row, she gets rid of the south pair to go for sequences. Near the end of the second row, Okada confirms pinfu and gets to tenpai. She calls riichi and waits on a 58p ryanmen. Two turns later, she draws the red 5p and wins the hand. Hitting the uradora, Okada wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Pinfu/Aka 2/Ura 2 for 6,000 all, instantly moving her from 4th to 1st.
Quick Pairs
May 17, Game 1, E2-1
In E2-1, Aki is trying to reclaim the lead after it was instantly taken by rival Okada.
With Aki’s first draw, she makes a fifth pair, putting her iishanten from the start. With two pairs of 6 and a pair of 3, it’s unlikely that she will convert to toitoi despite the two dragon pairs. On turn 4, she makes her sixth pair and calls riichi on a 9m tanki. On her very next draw, she gets the 9m and wins the hand. Aki wins with Riichi/Ippatsu/Tsumo/Chiitoi for 2,000+100/4,000+100, successfully moving back into 1st place.
Yu Next
May 17, Game 1, E3-0
In E3-0, Yu is in a 3rd place tie, watching Okada and Aki go at it. It’s time to get into the game.
Yu starts out the hand 3-shanten with three ryanmens. Though he has no immediate value, his hand is flexible enough to stack yaku. In the first row, Yu is able to create a sequence while keeping his other three ryanmens intact. With his current shapes, he is guaranteed a good wait. On turn 7, he gets to iishanten and waits on 11 different tiles for tenpai. Near the end of the row, Yu gets to tenpai and calls riichi on a 58p ryanmen. Two turns later, he draws the 8p and wins the hand. Getting an uradora, Yu wins the hand with Riichi/Tsumo/Tanyao/Ura 1 for 2,000/4,000.
Closing the Gap
May 17, Game 1, S2-0
In S2-0, Taro is in 4th place, exactly 10,000 behind 3rd place Okada. With his dealership already gone, he only has three hands to make a comeback.
Taro starts out with a disappointing 5-shanten hand, the red 5m being its only saving grace. Despite the awful start, the wall is kind to Taro and gets him all the way to iishanten on turn 5. In the second row, Taro shifts his hand to a 567 sanshoku. On turn 10, he gets to tenpai and waits dama on a 6p kanchan. In the third row, Aki discards the 6p trying to call riichi and deals into Taro. Taro wins the hand with Sanshoku/Aka 1 for 5,200. With a direct hit off 1st place, Taro is now just a mangan away from 1st place.
Taking The Lead
May 17, Game 1, S3-0
In S3-0, Okada is in 3rd place, 2,000 behind 2nd place Yu and 3,200 behind 1st place dealer Aki.
From the start, Okada is 2-shanten with pairs of green dragon and white dragon. When the green dragon comes out early, Okada calls pon for iishanten. To her left, Taro has the other pair of white dragons. Thinking that he can make it into a triplet, Taro is eager to make a 2p pon to advance his hand. At the end of the row, he gets to tenpai on a white dragon/4p shanpon atozuke wait. With the white dragons stuck, so is Taro.
Back to Okada, she is still iishanten. Filling in a kanchan at the start of the second row, Okada gets to tenpai on a 69s ryanmen. Later, she draws a red 5m to up her value, then calls an added kan on the green dragon to make her 6m into dora.
In the third row, Yu makes some last-minute calls to try to get points. With two calls, Yu gets to tenpai on a 25p ryanmen.
However, the calls moved the wall in favour of Okada. On her last draw, Okada gets the 9s and wins the hand. Okada wins with Green Dragon/Dora 1/Aka 1 for 1,300/2,600, moving her into 1st place going into the last hand.
Genius
May 17, Game 1, S4-0
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s5_p5579
In S4-0, Taro is in 4th place. The scores are close, putting Taro within a mangan of moving up, possibly even 1st place if he hits Okada. For anything less, he will need to hit well.
In Taro’s starting hand, he is 2-shanten for both a standard hand and chiitoi. Early on, he discards the 7p from a 6778p shape, thinking that all his other groups are solid for tanyao. However, it immediately backfires as he draws the 6p on his next draw. He puts it behind him and chooses to confirm tanyao with a 5p kanchan instead. At the end of the row, he draws a red 5s. With Tanyao/Iipeikou/Aka 1, he has enough for 5,200, getting to a mangan for 2nd place on a tsumo or a red 5p. In the second row, Okada discards the 5p trying to accept iishanten and deals into Taro. Taro wins the hand for 5,200. He finishes the game in 4th place.
At first, it seemed like a very weird choice, especially since he doesn’t move out of last. However, if we broaden our perspective, we can see this stroke of genius. Before the win, Okada was in 1st place. Under a 1st/4th scenario, the Kadokawa Sakura Knights would get quite close to the Akasaka Drivens in the standings. However, with the direct hit, Okada moves out of 1st place and into 3rd. Sitting with 25,600 is Yu, who moves up to 1st place and actually wins the game. With the win, Yu also gets the big oka/uma bonus. With Taro’s win, he denies his major rivals the 1st place bonus and thus minimizes his losses.
Final Scores
Video: https://abema.tv/video/episode/444-1_s60_p261
Twitter: https://x.com/m_league_jikkyo/status/1791403020573605903
Standings
With the surprise result, Yu ends up with the lowest 1st place of all time (beating the old record of 26,200 done by Setokuma Naoki on November 17, 2020) and gives the team their seventh win of the finals. With Taro minimizing the team’s losses, the team maintains a comfortable 151.1pts lead over 3rd place.
With the EX Furinkazan and Kadokawa Sakura Knights separated by just 4.0pts, the requirements are set: whichever of the two is higher in rank in the final game will get their team into the money.
Intro | Game #15 | Game #16
Awards Ceremony | Final Thoughts
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