M.League
 M.League logo | |
| Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Inception | 2018 |
| Leader |
Mr. Susumu Fujita, Chairman (Founder/President of CyberAgent) |
| Members | 9 teams |
M.League 「Mリーグ」 is a professional mahjong team league. It is the first league in which mahjong players receive a salary for playing games. Players are drawn from the various mahjong professional leagues. An M.League season consists of a number of regular season games, followed by a playoff final. Each team is sponsored by a company and represents their respective company. All league activities take place in the M.League Studio.
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
With nine teams, the regular season takes 108 days for 216 hanchan. This grants 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 and regulations
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. Teams scheduled to play send one team member for each of the two hanchan. If desired, one player may play both hanchan.
Game rules
The league 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 uma is +30/+10/-10/-30.[1]
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. The inaugural draft was held on August 7, 2018. Naturally, each team made their player selections to fill out their roster in the inaugural draft. For subsequent drafts in later years, 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. Currently, each team has a roster of four players.
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. The studio is located in Hamamatsuchou, Minato, Tokyo. 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 Japanext | BSJapanext | 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 | Yuumi Uotani (JPML) Sayaka Kayamori (Saikouisen) Rio Toujou (JPML) Hiroshi Daigo (Saikouisen) |
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 Fight Club | Arisa Date |
| 2023–24 | 2023-09-18 | 2024-05-17 | U-Next Pirates | Akasaka Drivens |
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 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 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 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
- ↑ M.League rules (in Japanese)
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
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