2023 M League season

The 2023 M League season is the sixth season to MLeague.

Rosters

Team name	Previous roster	Drafted player(s)	Released	Coach
Akasaka Drivens	Ken Sonoda (Saikouisen) Taro Suzuki (Saikouisen)	Maki Asami (Saikouisen) Futoshi Watanabe (Saikouisen)	Jun Murakami (Saikouisen) Kanako Maruyama (Saikouisen)
BEAST Japanext	None	Masatoshi Sarukawa (JPML) Hiroe Sugawara (JPML) Daisuke Suzuki (JPML) Kana Nakada (JPML)	None
EX Furinkazan	Aki Nikaido (JPML) Kenji Katsumata (JPML) Takaya Matsugase (RMU) Rumi Nikaido (JPML)	None	None
KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	Kotaro Uchikawa (JPML) Sayaka Okada (JPML) Shingo Hori (NPM) Nanba Shibukawa (NPM)	None	None
Konami Mahjong Fight Club	Hisato Sasaki (JPML) Mari Takamiya (JPML) Arisa Date (JPML) Kazunori Takizawa (JPML)	None	None
SegaSammy Phoenix	Yuumi Uotani (JPML) Sayaka Kayamori (Saikouisen) Rio Toujou (JPML)	Hiroshi Daigo (Saikouisen)	Seiichi Kondo (Saikouisen)	Seiichi Kondo (Saikouisen)
Shibuya Abemas	Takaharu Ooi (RMU) Sho Shiratori (JPML) Yoshihiro Matsumoto (NPM) Aiko Hinata (Saikouisen)	None	None
TEAM RAIDEN	Masato Hagiwara (JPML) Naoki Setokuma (JPML) Saki Kurosawa (JPML) Tomohiro Honda (JPML)	None	None
U-NEXT Pirates	Go Kobayashi (MU) Akina Mizuhara (Saikouisen) Yu Suzuki (Saikouisen) Kei Nakabayashi (NPM)	None	None

Abbrevations:

JPML = Japan Professional Mahjong League

Saikouisen = Saikouisen Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai

NPM = Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai

RMU = Real Mahjong Unit

MU = Mahjong Union

Player Replacement Rule Change

Starting from this season, the player replacement rule has been relaxed a bit. Instead of having failed to qualify for the finals, any team that has failed to qualify for the semifinals for two consecutive seasons with the same roster must change its roster. For the four teams failing to qualify for the finals in the previous season, their strikes carry over to this season, i.e. if one of them fails to qualify for the semifinals this season with the same roster, it will be forced to change its roster next season as well.

Required change

Per rule and the result of the previous season, the Akasaka Drivens is required to make at least one roster change.

Draft

The season's draft date is set for June 30. The new members were selected in the following order:

1. Masatoshi Sarukawa (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
2. Hiroe Sugawara (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
3. Daisuke Suzuki (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
4. Kana Nakada (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
5. Hiroshi Daigo (Saikouisen) to SegaSammy Phoenix
6. Maki Asami (Saikouisen) to Akasaka Drivens
7. Futoshi Watanabe (Saikouisen) to Akasaka Drivens

New team

A new team sponsored by BSJapanext enters the season. This increases the team count to nine. The new team, BEAST Japanext, ran a competition for a single position on the roster. In the end, Hiroe Sugawara won the competition final and the roster spot.

Standings

Regular season

#	Team	Points	Difference from next
1	U-NEXT Pirates	887.6	-
2	Akasaka Drivens	345.3	542.3
3	KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	247.2	98.1
4	Konami Mahjong Fight Club	46.9	200.3
5	EX Furinkazan	-16.6	63.5
6	Shibuya Abemas	-22.1	5.5
7	BEAST Japanext	-378.7	356.6
8	TEAM RAIDEN	-484.5	105.8
9	SegaSammy Phoenix	-625.1	140.6

Semifinal

#	Team	Start Points	End Points	Difference from next
1	U-NEXT Pirates	443.8	549.2	-
2	EX Furinkazan	-8.3	512.2	37.0
3	KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	123.6	86.8	425.4
4	Akasaka Drivens	172.7	37.8	49.0
5	Shibuya Abemas	-11.0	-162.7	200.5
6	Konami Mahjong Fight Club	23.5	-279.0	116.3

Final

#	Team	Start Points	Final Points	Difference from next	Prize
1
2
3
4

Individual Awards

Top Score

1. Yu Suzuki
2. Kenji Katsumata
3. Mizuhara Akina

Top Hanchan

1. Taro Suzuki
2. Naoki Setokuma
3. Daisuke Suzuki

Fourth place avoidance

1. Arisa Date
2. Yu Suzuki
3. Mari Takamiya

External links

• Mリーグ2023-24

2023 M League season in Japanese Wikipedia