European Mahjong Association
The European Mahjong Association (EMA) is an organization whose purpose is "to encourage, disseminate and coordinate the playing of mahjong in Europe". Its membership currently consists only of national Mahjong organizations located in Europe, each nation being treated equally during procedural votes. Players are technically members of their national organizations and not directly of the EMA. The EMA does coordinate pan-european initiatives such as a coordinated registration and player database and the ranking system for members of the various national organizations. While a best effort is made to try to disseminate and coordinate the release of multilingual documentation, the default language is English. The current president of the EMA is Tina Christensen.
 EMA logo | |
| Location | Europe |
|---|---|
| Inception | 2005 |
| Leader |
Tina Christensen President |
| Members | 19 (or 20) associations |
| European Mahjong Association ruleset | |
|---|---|
| Kuitan, atozuke | ari-ari (2016+) |
| Starting points | 0 |
| Ending points (Target) |
0 |
| Negative score | Limitless |
| Oka (total ante) |
0 |
| Uma (placement bonus) |
1st: +15,000; 2nd: +5,000; 3rd: -5,000; 4th: -15,000. |
| Multiple win cases | 3 |
| Call precedence | Reasonable (3.0s) |
| Dora settings | All |
| Renchan setting | Tenpai-renchan |
| Abortive draws | None (2016+) |
| Specific House rules |
Nothing abnormal since 2016. |
Membership
The EMA was created in 2005 with 7 original members. At present, there are 20 members:[1]
- [01] Austria: Österreichischer Mahjong Verband (2005)
- [03] Denmark: Mahjong Danmark (2005)
- [04] France: Fédération Française de Mah-Jong (2005)
- [05] Germany: Deutsche Mah-Jongg Liga (2005)
- [06] Hungary: Magyar Mah-jong Szövetség (2005)
- [07] Italy: Federazione Italiana Mah Jong (2005)
- [08] Netherlands: Nederlandse Mahjong Bond (2005)
- [02] Belgium: Belgian Mahjong Association (2009)
- [09] Sweden: Svenska Mahjongförbundet (2009)
- [10] Spain: Federación Española de mahjong (2009)
- [12] Portugal: União de Mahjong de Portugal (2009)
- [14] Finland: Suomen Mahjong-liitto (2009)
- [15] Russia: Russian Mahjong Federation (2009)
- [17] Slovakia: Slovenský Mahjongový Zväz (2009)
- [11] United Kingdom: United Kingdom Mahjong Association (2011)
- [19] Poland: Polska Liga Mahjonga (2011)
- [16] Switzerland: Association Suisse de Mah-Jong - Associazione Svizzera di Mah-Jong - Schweizerischer Mah-Jong Verein (ASM-SMV) (2013)
- [21] Ukraine: Ukrainian Mahjong Federation (2013)
- [22] Czech Republic: Česká asociace mahjongu (ČAMJ) (2013)
- [20] Belarus: Belarus Mahjong (2015/2016)
- [21] Norway: Riichi Organization Norway (2018)
According to past archives, the missing number 13 was meant to designate Bosnia and Herzegovina. Number 20 was also meant to represent Turkey: as of 2016, this number has been assigned to Belarus. The status for the missing number 18 is unknown.
Future Membership
As of May 2016, it is likely that [20] Belarus will become a new member organization, to be welcomed into the EMA at the next General Assembly. The EMA member page already talks about 20 member countries and lists a Belarusian as a board member, but according to statutes, only at a General Assembly can their membership be formalized.
Participation
As of January 2017, there are 437 active players (players with 2 or more riichi tournaments played within the last 3 years), an increase of 111 from July 2014 (306 members). There are other players within these countries, so the totals provided below are not ceilings of activity but rather a minimum baseline to count upwards from. Player counts can sometimes dip due to the seasonal nature of the data.
| Code | Country | Players (2014.07) | Players (2015.10) | Players (2016.05) | Players (2016.09) | Players (2017.01) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Austria | 22 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 25 |
| 02 | Belgium | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 03 | Denmark | 23 | 20 | 21 | 18 | 16 |
| 04 | France | 51 | 50 | 52 | 53 | 52 |
| 05 | Germany | 23 | 31 | 34 | 34 | 36 |
| 06 | Hungary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 07 | Italy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 08 | Netherlands | 44 | 46 | 49 | 51 | 50 |
| 09 | Sweden | 11 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 12 |
| 10 | Spain | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Great Britain | 20 | 29 | 27 | 26 | 27 |
| 12 | Portugal | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 14 | Finland | 3 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 13 |
| 15 | Russia | 59 | 85 | 100 | 109 | 112 |
| 16 | Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 17 | Slovakia | 9 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
| 19 | Poland | 28 | 35 | 35 | 37 | 37 |
| 21 | Ukraine | 2 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | Czech Republic | 3 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| 23 | Belarus | . | . | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 306 | 376 | 403 | 417 | 437 |
The EMA has started to release historical data, that can be found on their website [[1]].
Rulesets
EMA currently uses two rulesets; one for Japanese Mahjong and another for a Chinese style. For the Chinese rules used, EMA uses the MCR ruleset that is regulated by one of two Chinese authorities and used in the Chinese Mahjong World Championship. For Japanese Mahjong, EMA has their own Riichi ruleset that is based on the World Riichi Championship rules, updated in 2015. The four differences from the WRC rules are: double/triple ron allowed, no kiriage mangan, unclaimed bets are taken by the winner, and more lax rules for call priority and timing. These rules take effect in April 2016.
The previous rules were loosely based on Dutch and Danish customs. Notable features included the lack of kuitan, the inclusion of kuikae (2008) and its removal (2012), the use of aka dora and ryanhan shibari.
Tournaments
| Year | #tournaments | #event-players | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 6 | 196 | |
| 2009 | 6 | 220 | |
| 2010 | 8 | 324 | |
| 2011 | 12 | 476 | |
| 2012 | 16 | 512 | |
| 2013 | 22 | 716 | |
| 2014 | 23 | 748 | Total does not include 2014 WRC (120 participants) |
| 2015 | 25 | 792 | |
| 2016 | 29 | 1056 | Total *does* include 2016 ERMC (128 participants) |
European Riichi Mahjong Championship
Ranking
Each national organization can apply to EMA to have their tournaments officially ranked. Each member country can hold one national championship (MERS-2) and two other events (MERS-1) per ruleset per year. EMA also admisters European Championships, held every 2-3 years, for both rulesets.
Ranking system
EMA's Mahjong Europe Ranking System (MERS) has separate ranking lists for Chinese Mahjong (MCR) and Japanese Mahjong (RCR) rulesets. Both operate in the same way. From each tournament a player participates in, they receive a rating from 0 to 1000, where 0 corresponds to last place and 1000 to first. Then their overall rating from 0 to 1000 is calculated as a weighted average of the tournament results. [2]
Quotas
For Championship events, EMA will allocate seats to each member country by using their quota system.[3] Once distributed to countries, national organizations are free to distribute them as they see fit.