2023 M.League season

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

Rosters

Team name	Previous roster	Drafted player(s)	Released
Akasaka Drivens	Ken Sonoda (Saikouisen) Taro Suzuki (Saikouisen)		Jun Murakami (Saikouisen) Kanako Maruyama (Saikouisen)
BEAST Japanext	None	Hiroe Sugawara (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 (Kyokai) Nanba Shibukawa (Kyokai)	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)		Seiichi Kondo (Saikouisen)
Shibuya Abemas	Takaharu Ooi (RMU) Sho Shiratori (JPML) Yoshihiro Matsumoto (Kyokai) 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 (Mahjong Union) Akina Mizuhara (Saikouisen) Yu Suzuki (Saikouisen) Kei Nakabayashi (Kyokai)	None	None

Note:

JPML = Japan Professional Mahjong League

Saikouisen = Saikouisen Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai

Kyokai = Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyokai

RMU = Real Mahjong Unit

Change of the player replacement rule

Starting from this season, the replacement requirement is reduced from not entering the finals to not entering the semifinals for two consecutive seasons (with the same rosters). The rule is in effect beginning with this season. For the four teams failing to enter the finals in the previous season, if one of them fails to enter the semifinals this season, it will be required to replace one or more players next season as well (unless a replacement has already been made this season).

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:

Masatoshi Sarukawa (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
Hiroe Sugawara (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
Daisuke Suzuki (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
Kana Nakada (JPML) to BEAST Japanext
Hiroshi Daigo (Saikouisen) to SegaSammy Phoenix
Maki Asami (Saikouisen) to Akasaka Drivens
Futoshi Watanabe (Saikouisen) to Akasaka Drivens

New team

A new team sponsored by BSJapanext will be entering 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.

External links

Mリーグ2023-24

2023 M.League season in Japanese Wikipedia