M.League
M.LEAGUE 「Mリーグ」 is a professional mahjong league founded in 2018. It is a team competition: teams draft players from various mahjong organizations, then compete over a season to reach the top. It is the first league that pays a salary to its mahjong players; each team is sponsored by a company.
 M.League logo | |
| Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Inception | 2018 |
| Leader |
Mr. Susumu Fujita, Chairman (Founder/President of CyberAgent) |
| Members | 9 teams |
Format
The main format of the competition is made up of a regular season and a post-season. The basic format of the season varies in the number of hanchan played.
Current format
There are nine teams, with four players per team. The regular season lasts 108 days for 216 hanchan (96 hanchan per team). After the final day of the regular season, the top six teams advance to the semifinals, where they play 30 hanchan on a 15-day schedule (20 hanchan per team). In the finals, the top four teams play another round of 16 hanchan on an 8-day schedule.
Rules
The game rules are given in the Official M.League Rules 「Mリーグの公式戦ルール」. All games are played in the form of hanchan using AMOS brand professional mahjong tables.
Game day
Each game day session consists of two hanchan. Each team that is scheduled to play will send one team member per hanchan. If desired, one player may play both hanchan.
Game rules
The rules follow the general riichi mahjong rules with special competition settings.
The starting score is 25,000 points; the target score is 30,000 points. The bonus of oka and uma is +50/+10/-10/-30. [1]
Notable rule variations
- Tie: Bonus point spilts evenly to tied players.
- Bankruptcy: Not applied.
- Extended rounds: Not applied.
- Multiple ron: Not available. Atamahane is used.
- Fu: Double-wind pair worths 2 fu.
- Ryuukyoku: No abortive draws.
- Dora:
- Yakuman:
- Counted yakuman: Not applied. Regular yaku scoring is capped to sanbaiman.
- Double yakuman: Not applied. Only scores the regular version for suuankou tanki / kokushi 13-wait / junsei chuuren poutou. Daisuushi also worths single yakuman.
- Composite yakuman: Applied. Yakuman yaku can be stacked together.
- Sekinin barai: Applies to daisangen, daisuushi and suukantsu. Suukantsu's pao only applies to the case where sankantsu is completed while fourth kan is daiminkan.
Penalty
M.League has four types of penalties: chombo, dead hand, yellow card and red card.
Draft
Before the start of each season, a day is set for team drafts. Teams select from a field of players from the various professional organizations. During the inaugural draft (2018), each team made their player selections. For each year thereafter, teams had the option of drafting new players or otherwise passing on the opportunity. Beginning with the 2022–23 season, passing is no longer allowed.
Announcers
Main
Guest
Several guest commentators appear on the program. The most regular guest commentator is Koushou Tsuchida. Other commentators may be either current league players, former members, or other mahjong professionals.
M.League Studio
The league has its own studio for games and broadcasts, located in Hamamatsuchou, Minato, Tokyo. All games during a season take place in the M.League studio.
A jansou called M.League Stadium is open to the public in Takadanobaba.
Teams
As of the 2023–24 season, there are nine teams competing in the league. Each team must have four players drafted from five professional mahjong organizations: Saikouisen Nihon Pro Mahjong, the Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML), Nihon Pro Mahjong Kyoukai (NPM), Mahjong Union (MU), and Real Mahjong Unit (RMU).
| Team | Company sponsor | Players | Joined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Akasaka Drivens | Hakuhodo DY Media Partners | Ken Sonoda (Saikouisen) Taro Suzuki (Saikouisen) Maki Asami (Saikouisen) Futoshi Watanabe (Saikouisen) |
2018–19 |
 |
Beast X | BSJapanext[2] | Masatoshi Sarukawa (JPML) Hiroe Sugawara (JPML) Daisuke Suzuki (JPML) Kana Nakada (JPML) |
2023–24 |
 |
EX Furinkazan | TV Asahi | Aki Nikaido (JPML) Kenji Katsumata (JPML) Takaya Matsugase (RMU) Rumi Nikaido (JPML) |
2018–19 |
 |
Kadokawa Sakura Knights | Kadokawa | Kotaro Uchikawa (JPML) Sayaka Okada (JPML) Shingo Hori (NPM) Nanba Shibukawa (NPM) |
2019–20 |
 |
Konami Mahjong Fight Club | Konami Amusement | Hisato Sasaki (JPML) Mari Takamiya (JPML) Arisa Date (JPML) Kazunori Takizawa (JPML) |
2018–19 |
 |
SegaSammy Phoenix | Sega Sammy Holdings | Sayaka Kayamori (Saikouisen) Hiroshi Daigo (Saikouisen) Genta Takeuchi (Saikouisen) Takaki Asai (NPM) |
2018–19 |
 |
Shibuya Abemas | CyberAgent | Takaharu Ooi (RMU) Sho Shiratori (JPML) Yoshihiro Matsumoto (NPM) Aiko Hinata (Saikouisen) |
2018–19 |
 |
Team Raiden | Dentsu | Masato Hagiwara (JPML) Naoki Setokuma (JPML) Saki Kurosawa (JPML) Tomohiro Honda (JPML) |
2018–19 |
 |
U-Next Pirates | U-Next | Go Kobayashi (MU) Akina Mizuhara (Saikouisen) Yu Suzuki (Saikouisen) Kei Nakabayashi (NPM) |
2018–19 |
Seasons
| Season | Start Date | End Date | Winner | Runner-up | Top regular season player |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018–19 | 2018-10-01 | 2019-03-31 | Akasaka Drivens | EX Furinkazan | Takaharu Ooi |
| 2019–20 | 2019-09-30 | 2020-06-23 | U-Next Pirates | SegaSammy Phoenix | Yuumi Uotani |
| 2020–21 | 2020-10-05 | 2021-05-18 | EX Furinkazan | Kadokawa Sakura Knights | Hisato Sasaki |
| 2021–22 | 2021-10-04 | 2022-04-26 | Kadokawa Sakura Knights | SegaSammy Phoenix | Akina Mizuhara |
| 2022–23 | 2022-10-03 | 2023-05-19 | Shibuya Abemas | Konami Mahjong Fight Club | Arisa Date |
| 2023–24 | 2023-09-18 | 2024-05-17 | U-Next Pirates | Akasaka Drivens | Yu Suzuki |
| 2024–25 | 2024-09-16 |
Top 10 hanchan scores
| Rank | Player | Team | Score | Date | Season (Hanchan) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taro Suzuki | Akasaka Drivens | 132.8 | 2024-02-26 | 2023–24 (Reg 178) |
| 2 | Saki Kurosawa | Team Raiden | 132.7 | 2022-11-07 | 2022–23 (Reg 41) |
| 3 | Arisa Date | Konami Mahjong Fight Club | 125.5 | 2021-11-18 | 2021–22 (Reg 54) |
| 4 | Koushin Asakura | U-Next Pirates | 122.4 | 2021-12-02 | 2021–22 (Reg 70) |
| 5 | Hisato Sasaki | Konami Mahjong Fight Club | 118.2 | 2021-04-22 | 2020–21 (SF 14) |
| 6 | Yuumi Uotani | Sega Sammy Phoenix | 114.4 | 2020-02-27 | 2019–20 (Reg 167) |
| 7 | Hisato Sasaki | Konami Mahjong Fight Club | 114.0 | 2021-02-18 | 2020–21 (Reg 154) |
| 8 | Yoshihiro Matsumoto | Shibuya Abemas | 113.7 | 2021-04-29 | 2020–21 (SF 22) |
| 9 | Shingo Hori | Kadokawa Sakura Knights | 112.9 | 2021-01-02 | 2020–21 (Reg 97) |
| 10 | Makoto Sawazaki | Kadokawa Sakura Knights | 112.1 | 2019-11-19 | 2019–20 (Reg 64) |
Yakuman
So far, all the yakuman scored fall under yakuman gosanke: suuankou, daisangen, and kokushi musou. The most scored in a season was in the 2019 season with eight.
| Suuankou | Kokushi Musou | Daisangen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | Tanki | ||
| 11 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
References
External links
- Mahjong channel on Abema.tv
- プロ麻雀リーグ「Mリーグ」発足 (YouTube)
- M.League channel
- M.League in Japanese Wikipedia
- Blog covering game highlights