2023 M.League season

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2023 M.League season

M.League logo
Host M.League
Type Professional league
Team count 9 teams
Finalists
Champion U-Next Pirates
Runner up Akasaka Drivens
Third KADOKAWA Sakura Knights
Fourth EX Furinkazan

The 2023-24 M.League season is the sixth season to M.League.

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.

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.

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

Standings

Regular season

# Team Points Difference
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 Net End Difference
1 U-NEXT Pirates 443.8 105.4 549.2 -
2 EX Furinkazan -8.3 520.5 512.2 37.0
3 KADOKAWA Sakura Knights 123.6 -36.8 86.8 425.4
4 Akasaka Drivens 172.7 -134.9 37.8 49.0
5 Shibuya Abemas -11.0 -151.7 -162.7 200.5
6 Konami Mahjong Fight Club 23.5 -302.5 -279.0 116.3

Final

# Team Start Net Final Difference Prize
1 U-NEXT Pirates 274.6 280.5 555.1 - ¥50 million
2 Akasaka Drivens 18.9 165.4 184.3 370.8 ¥20 million
3 KADOKAWA Sakura Knights 43.4 -85.5 -42.1 226.4 ¥10 million
4 EX Furinkazan 256.1 -360.4 -104.3 62.2

Individual awards

Individual 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

2023 M.League season in Japanese Wikipedia