2021 M.League season

2021 M.League season

M League logo
Host	M League
Type	Professional league
Team count	8 teams
Finalists

The 2021 M League season is the fourth season to M.League.

Rosters

Team name	Previous roster	Drafted player(s)	Released
Akasaka Drivens	Ken Sonoda (Saikouisen) Jun Murakami (Saikouisen) Taro Suzuki (Saikouisen) Kanako Maruyama (Saikouisen)	None
EX Furinkazan	Aki Nikaido (JPML) Kenji Katsumata (JPML)	Takaya Matsugase (NPM) Rumi Nikaido (JPML)	Kazunori Takizawa (JPML)
KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	Kotaro Uchikawa (JPML) Sayaka Okada (JPML) Makoto Sawazaki (JPML) Hori Shingo (Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai)	None
Konami Mahjong Fight Club	Hisato Sasaki (JPML) Mari Takamiya (JPML)	Arisa Date (JPML) Kazunori Takizawa (JPML)	Yudai Maehara (JPML) Satoshi Fujisaki (JPML)
Shibuya Abemas	Takaharu Ooi (RMU) Sho Shiratori (JPML) Yoshihiro Matsumoto (Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai) Aiko Hinata (Saikouisen)	None
SegaSammy Phoenix	Yuumi Uotani (JPML) Seiichi Kondo (Saikouisen) Sayaka Kayamori (Saikouisen)	Rio Toujou (JPML)	Akira Wakutsu (JPML)
TEAM RAIDEN	Masato Hagiwara (JPML) Naoki Setokuma (JPML) Saki Kurosawa (JPML)	Tomohiro Honda (JPML)
U-NEXT Pirates	Go Kobayashi (Mahjong Union) Koushin Asakura (Saikouisen) Nobuhiro Ishibashi (Saikouisen) Akina Mizuhara (Saikouisen)	None

Furinkazan tryout

As the 2020 M League season nears conclusion, EX Furinkazan opens up a position on the team. A four phase system is used to filter applicants to select one player to fill the roster spot. A total of 169 applicants from five professional associations signed up. Selection will be based on a competition system mixed with notoriety via Twitter followings and other factors.

Released members

Konami Fight Club does not renew the contracts for Yudai Maehara and Satoshi Fujisaki. The team will be looking to bring in new players from the upcoming draft. SegaSammy Phoenix does not renew the contract for Akira Wakutsu. Despite winning the previous season's title, EX Furinkazan has a roster change, as Kazunori Takizawa opts out of renewing his contract.

Draft

The draft occurred on August 2, 2021. Four teams were open to make draft choices in the following order:

1. SegaSammy Phoenix (Rio Toujo)
2. TEAM RAIDEN (Tomohiro Honda)
3. Konami Mahjong Fight Club (Arisa Date)
4. EX Furinkazan (Takaya Matsugase)
5. Konami Mahjong Fight Club (Kazunori Takizawa)
6. EX Furinkazan (Rumi Nikaido)

All teams opted for their draft picks, and thus all teams filled their four player rosters. Kazunori Takizawa was released from EX Furinkazan during the off season and was not eligible to rejoin his former team.

Standings

Regular season

#	Team	Points	Difference from next
1	U-NEXT Pirates	377.1	-
2	Shibuya Abemas	328.2	48.9
3	Konami Mahjong Fight Club	249.0	79.2
4	EX Furinkazan	184.4	64.6
5	Sega Sammy Phoenix	184.2	0.2
6	KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	177.0	7.2
7	Akasaka Drivens	-263.8	440.8
8	TEAM RAIDEN	-1256.1	992.3

Semifinal

#	Team	Start Points	End Points	Difference from next
1	U-NEXT Pirates	188.6
2	Shibuya Abemas	164.1
3	Konami Mahjong Fight Club	124.5
4	EX Furinkazan	92.2
5	Sega Sammy Phoenix	92.1
6	KADOKAWA Sakura Knights	88.5

Individual awards

Top score

1. Akina Mizuhara
2. Makoto Sawazaki
3. Kazunori Takizawa

Top hanchan

1. Arisa Date
2. Koushin Asakura
3. Yoshihiro Matsumoto

Fourth place avoidance

1. Takaharu Ooi
2. Sho Shiratori
3. Akina Mizuhara

Yakuman

• Hisato Sasaki (Suuankou) 2022-03-22 [1]

External links

• Mリーグ2021

2021 M.League season in Japanese Wikipedia