2018 IORMC Canada Qualification underway!

Qualification for the Canadian team for IORMC is about to get underway! For those interested in viewing games and the standings, links are below!

• Viewing Lobby

• Standings

2018 IORMC USA Qualification Session #1

Standings and Session Results

The first of five qualification sessions happened today and we have some early front-runners to head up the USA squad.

Panhandle Mahjong's Ryan Adams (Panda84), who has put up very good results in tournament play, did so again here with three 1st place finishes with his only blemish being a 3rd in the third round. Even still he posted an average of 33.45, a full 8 points clear of 2nd place Tina Koshimoto (破顔の楽士), who put up 2 first and 2 second place finishes to bank an average of 25.45.

Right on her heels is one of USA's representatives from last year, Kinyan Lui (Yukitora), who also put up 2 first and second place finishes, and sits just a little over 2 point adrift with an average of 23.20.

Holding onto the 4th spot for now is Nathaniel Kozinski (tateniu). A last place finish at Tina's table in the final round dampened a good effort, but he still sits with an average of 16.15.

The next 4 players also finished in the positive, and are one good session away from contending for a spot. Even for those who struggled in the first session, they still have the ability to drop a session later on if they play at least 4 of the 5 scheduled dates. So there's still time to put in some good scores and contend for a spot on the USA roster.

2018 Dallas Fort Worth Riichi Open Results

The results of the 2018 Dallas Fort Worth Riichi Open. Report coming later...

CONGRATULATIONS to Masahiro of LA Pride of Mahjong!

FINAL TABLE

Rank	Player	Total
1	Masahiro Yaehata	123.85
2	Tina Koshimoto	57.75
3	Hirotaka Takeuchi	51.25
4	David Bresnick	43.95

SEMI-FINAL TABLE

Rank	Player	Semi-Total
1	Masahiro Yaehata	100.55
2	Tina Koshimoto	78.65
3	David Bresnick	53.75
4	Hirotaka Takeuchi	43.85
5	Jarid Earnest	25.35
6	Ryan Lunt	23.7
7	Lich Pham	3.25
8	Gregory Chin	0.2

QUALIFIERS

Name	Hanchan 1	Hanchan 2	Hanchan 3	Hanchan 4	Hanchan 5	Hanchan 6	Sub-Total
Masahiro Yaehata	37.6	-30.3	-5	8.4	28.7	94.3	133.7
Tina Koshimoto	29	56.3	24.2	19.6	3.8	-30.2	102.7
Jarid Earnest	48.6	13.6	33.1	-13.3	-8.5	12.2	85.7
David Bresnick	4.3	11.2	9.6	33.8	-15.8	38	81.1
Hirotaka Takeuchi	34.1	-19	8.4	-2.3	11.2	41.1	73.5
Ryan Lunt	7.5	35.8	-26.6	10.7	27.2	9.8	64.4
Gregory Chin	38.9	26.5	17.2	-13.3	4	-14.1	59.2
Lich Pham	-10	34.3	39.6	-43	-6.3	43.7	58.3
Thomas Graham	9	-31.2	25.8	59.9	9.8	-15.3	58
James Bragg	24.7	-32.3	16.7	32.6	33.1	-28.3	46.5
Daniel Moreno	-23.8	-13.5	-11.8	-5	51.8	31.4	29.1
Eric Nguyen	-6	-8	8.8	-8.4	18.4	-2.5	2.3
Mark Kubota	29.5	3.2	10.5	-8.3	-48.9	13.3	-0.7
Joseph Reidy	-31.6	45.6	-27.3	23.3	-13.3	-0.9	-4.2
Jaben McCormack	-15.1	25.7	-8.2	-30.1	-19.2	31.7	-15.2
Edwin Dizon	-15.2	-36.4	25.9	20.8	-1.5	-13.6	-20
Daniel Johns	4.8	-36	-22.3	3.3	17.3	9.2	-23.7
Garrett Sandifer	11.6	2.8	-4.6	27	-22.9	-53.4	-39.5
Jason McGuire	-4.9	-21.7	-4.6	-12.4	24.2	-25.8	-45.2
Ryan Jacobs	14.2	8.3	-30	-30.8	-12.5	-1.7	-52.5
Grant Mahoney	-34	-7	8.5	-24.6	28.5	-27.1	-55.7
Shayne Fell	-43.6	16.6	21.1	-25.2	30.7	-56.9	-57.3
Ryan Adams	14.5	-26.3	-13	-12.5	-31.1	10.6	-57.8
Michael McLeod	-38	24.2	-10.4	1.9	-27.2	-13.5	-63
Peter Burgos	-23.3	6.4	-29.7	-23.3	-26.4	7.7	-88.6
Mason Fraser	-11.4	-16.3	-5.9	11.4	-43.1	-31.2	-96.5
Zachary Leak	-32.9	-15.8	-18.3	9.4	7.2	-52.5	-102.9
Cameron Waggoner	-19.1	-13.5	-53.7	-19.6	-19.2	-16	-141.1

2018 Rochester Riichi Open - Day 2 and Results

With the scores still within a narrow range, there was still all to play for in the final 2 rounds before the playoff cutoff. The top 8 for the most part played nice and maintained their leads through the final 2 rounds to get to the playoffs.

There would be one party-crasher though. Sitting just over 44 points adrift of 8th place, Club Riichi de Montreal's Loic Roberge stormed his way up into the Top 8, at the expense of Mike Lee.  He would make it all the way to the finals, joining fellow clubmate Shan Kuang, Andrew McAnally from Baltimore, and local RIT member Bruce Bland at the final table.

As the scores stood going into the final table, Shan and Loic would need a complete victory as both sat over 30 points away from Arthur and Bruce. Bruce just needed to finish ahead of Arthur and the title would be his.

However Arthur, as first dealer, won two mangan hands right off the bat, making the task even more difficult for all those at the table. It would wind up being too much in the end as Arthur claims the 2018 Rochester Riichi Open title. Congratulations!

Rochester's post on the tournament can be found here.

• Rochester Riichi Open 2018
  March 3-4, 2018 // Rochester, NY

• Final Table

• 1.	Arthur McAnally	+96.0
  2.	Bruce Bland	+73.45
  3.	Loic Roberge	+20.2
  4.	Shan Kuang	-0.2

• Top 8

• 5.	George Liu-Krason	+55.2
  6.	Chris Letourneau	+48.55
  7.	Alex Ng	+8.6
  8.	Michael McLeod	-15.4

• Rest of Standings

• 9.	Daniel Moreno	+113.0
  10.	Steve Smith	+54.0
  11.	William Lou	+46.15
  12.	Aaron Ebejer	+12.65
  13.	Gabriel Ocasio	+11.8
  14.	Henry Chen	+11.2
  15.	Patrick Garrity	+10.2
  16.	Ty Kennedy	+5.35
  17.	Mike Lee	-0.4
  18.	Cassandra McClure	-2.15

• 19.	Stanley Louie	-10.0
  20.	Derek Purpura	-30.7
  21.	Gaetano Loweecy	-34.7
  22.	Christopher Omahen	-35.4
  23.	Noah Bock	-38.5
  24.	Valliappa Chockalingam	-57.5
  25.	Jaben McCormack	-64.25
  26.	Alexandre Boily	-79.85
  27.	Justin Dilgard	-93.8
  28.	Forrest Shooster	-118.0

2018 Rochester Riichi Open - Day 1 Results

Day 1 results of the Rochester Reach Open, currently under way in Rochester, NY, shows a close lead by George Liu-Krason.

Late winter snowstorms striking the northeast have not stopped the 28 U.S. and Canadian players from assembling at the Rochester Institute of Technology for this two day, 8-hanchan event. The closing of the first day found the top ranks dominated by east coast players - George Liu-Krason (MA) - 1st, Bruce Bland (NY) - 2nd, Arthur McAnally (MD) - 3rd, and Michael McLeod (NY). 

Saturday's competition was punctuated by a sainbaiman as well as two lucky rinshan wins in the same hanchan. We will be posting full results later today following the conclusion of the event!

• Rochester Riichi Open 2018
  March 3-4, 2018 // Rochester, NY

• Final Table

• 1.	Arthur McAnally	+96.0
  2.	Bruce Bland	+73.45
  3.	Loic Roberge	+20.2
  4.	Shan Kuang	-0.2

• Top 8

• 5.	George Liu-Krason	+55.2
  6.	Chris Letourneau	+48.55
  7.	Alex Ng	+8.6
  8.	Michael McLeod	-15.4

• Rest of Standings

• 9.	Daniel Moreno	+113.0
  10.	Steve Smith	+54.0
  11.	William Lou	+46.15
  12.	Aaron Ebejer	+12.65
  13.	Gabriel Ocasio	+11.8
  14.	Henry Chen	+11.2
  15.	Patrick Garrity	+10.2
  16.	Ty Kennedy	+5.35
  17.	Mike Lee	-0.4
  18.	Cassandra McClure	-2.15

• 19.	Stanley Louie	-10.0
  20.	Derek Purpura	-30.7
  21.	Gaetano Loweecy	-34.7
  22.	Christopher Omahen	-35.4
  23.	Noah Bock	-38.5
  24.	Valliappa Chockalingam	-57.5
  25.	Jaben McCormack	-64.25
  26.	Alexandre Boily	-79.85
  27.	Justin Dilgard	-93.8
  28.	Forrest Shooster	-118.0

Announcing the Riichi North American Open!

The first North American Open is coming this October in New York City!

The North American Riichi Mahjong Association, in conjunction with host USPML, is pleased to announce this continental event. Riichi Mahjong players are invited to join us October 13 - 14 in New York, NY for the best in competitive Riichi Mahjong in North America.

As the name suggests, this event is a true open tournament. Any and all comers are invited to compete for the title of North American Champion for 2018!

Further details are coming soon so join our newsletter, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@RiichiNAO) for news and updates!

NARMA announces mission and values statement

In our continued efforts to bring the North American community together, we have drafted a mission statement and a corresponding values statement which we feel reflects our shared interests and goals for everyone involved. We invite everyone to read about it in our About Us page.

Upcoming Tournaments

For those that have not been following the calendar, there are 2 tournaments coming up in the next few months.

The Rochester Institute of Technology's Nine Gates Mahjong Club will be holding its 2018 Rochester Riichi Open on March 3rd & 4th on their campus. Rochester has one of the larger clubs in the country and its alumni have since moved on to clubs all across the country including Seattle and California.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Mahjong Club will be holding their 2018 Riichi Open at the Grapevine Convention Center on April 14th and 15th. Just make sure to have your taxes done before that weekend!

In addition the Seattle Riichi Mahjong Club has tentative plans to hold their 2018 Seattle Riichi Open in July of this year. Stay tuned for more details!

Check out the Events page for links to their pages for more information as well as to sign up!

2017 IORMC Individual Recap

Results and links to replays can be found here.

Heading into the individual tournament, we had 2 representatives in the top 16 - one each from Canada and the United States. Before things started, there was a bit of a hiccup as the 7th place player from Japan was actually a no-show. While a staff member was put in to replace the missing player going forward the players just missing will probably be asked to be subs in case something similar happens.

To the quarterfinals though and the USA representative xGeo (George Liu-Krason) was basically involved in a 3-way beatdown of the 16th place participant cutieboy (Woo-Jin Choi - KOR). George was holding onto the lead, but in the final 2 hands he wound up paying in, including an unfortunate riichi then paying in on his next draw to finish outside the top 2.

For Canada's Khold (Simon Chen), it was a successful, but perhaps bizarre game. He led wire to wire, won just 3 hands, all of them were by tsumo's, and most bizarre of all - all were either via haitei ryaoue, or in the case of all last - a penultimate tille tsumo-haitei-chitoitsu.

That earned him a 1st and into the semfinals, but it was not as easy. In fact, heading into S2 he was yakitori and 18700 points from 2nd place. But after a ryuukoku, Simon is able to draw the right side of his 2 sided wait for sanshouku for an oya-mangan  He'd close out the game with another win, securing his 2nd place finish and a spot in the final table.

If the finals were one hanchan only, Simon would have won the title. 4 hands went for mangan and three of those belonged to him, giving him a 51.7 score and a 35 point lead over 2nd. However, the finals were an aggregate of 2 hanchan - though all he'd have to do avoid is a last place finish and he would probably secure the title.

Unfortunately for him, he never got any traction in the 2nd hanchan. In E1-1, soraru (Lulu Zhou - CHN) would tsumo a haneman while Simon was oya. And in S-1, Karlocia (Karolina Trepinska - FRA) would tsumo an oya-baiman. As a result of that, Simon could not avoid finishing in last, and in fact the order of the first hanchan was reversed in the 2nd. But due to Simon's loss being greater, he fell from 1st to a tie for 3rd as soraru would combine her 2nd and 3rd place finishes to win by 0.4 points.

While certainly it is not the result either player wanted, it was still very impressive that we had 2 players competing here earlier today. Congratulations to our participants and we'll look to build for next year!

2017 IORMC Team Recap

Final team results can be found here.

The 2017 IORMC Team competition has come and gone and while neither the USA or Canada disgraced at the table, it should be said that both countries struggled to hang in there the entire tournament. I won't go through the games because the records are out there since I'm sure there will be those who can parse the game better than I (I'll have the game links on the spreadsheet though), but I can at least give my perspective (for what brain activity I could have at 3 in the morning).

In fact, the USA was about to go really negative until Yukitora (Kinyan L.) on all last ended up with a riichi-ippatsu-tsumo-tanyao-sanankou-dora 5 for 11 han for a sayonara gyakuten (walk-off) win. That helped the USA go from 0-1-1-2 to 1-1-1-1 and finished the opening round around 0 at (4.4). Same went for Canada who went 1-1-1-1 and was at (1.1).

The idea that it was perhaps jitters or getting used to the dynamic seemed to not pan out in the 2nd round. There was no lifeline this time for the USA, though xGeo banked his first 1st place to help minimize the damage. Canada treaded water again with another 1-1-1-1 finish, but registered a slightly more negative score.

There was still a chance for a good showing I thought with a solid 3rd round, but the two countries apparently diverged from this point. USA continued its struggles with xGeo being the only bright spot banking yet another 1st in a 1-0-1-2 round, sending the team to a (113.4) score and a 13/16 placing. Canada put together 2 1st place finishes, one of which was from Khold (Simon C.) making him 2-1-0-0 so far putting them in 7th with one round to go.

At this point, a score around 0 seems about the best I could ask for from the USA, while Canada could move up a position or two with good scores. I was on my last legs entering my 23rd hour of being awake so I just waited for the scores to show up in the lobby.

First person to show up was xGeo (George L-K), whose 2nd place finish all but cemented him a spot in the individual competition. What came next was a first place finish from Corak to salvage his tournament, and then another first from DdR_Dan and next thing you know, the USA is back around 0! A first place finish from Yukitora could put us in position for yet another 6th place finish!

And when her score popped up as +48.4, the USA was actually sitting in 6th! The last table though saw Lindskog from Sweden put in a +63.4, and knocked the USA to 7th.

Canada was faring much better early on in the 4th round. Even with a 1-1-1-0 put in, they at one point held the 4th place spot. Unfortunately DdR_Dan's 1st place finish came at the expense of Canada's Element (William L.), but still put them 1 place better than last year in 9th.

So as a team, both the USA and Canada put up comparable results from last year, and we'll hope to make inroads next year.

There is still the matter of the individual competition to be held 2 weeks from now, and here each country was able to send a representative to compete for top player. As mentioned before, xGeo's results improved each round eventually finishing in 12th overall with a score of 77.6. Most impressive was Canada's representative, Khold (Simon C.), who put together 2 strong 1st and 2nd place finishes for a score of 128.6 and a 3rd place finish - the highest from any NA player in the IORMC.

So congratulations to our representatives this year, and good luck to Simon and George in the individual competition!

2017 IORMC Team Competition Things to Know

With the season turning and the weather turning a shade colder (at least for us here in NA), the 7th IORMC Team Competition will take place early Sunday morning (Nov 5th) with country bragging rights at stake. For the individuals, the top 16 will compete 2 weeks later in a separate individual competition.

The pairings are rosters are out, which can be found here.

People willing to burn the midnight oil can view the games in the tournament lobby here. The first round begins at 3 AM PST/6 AM EST/7 AM AST.

Will a North American team finally take the title? Or will Russia and Asia continue their dominance?

Good luck to our participants!

IORMC Update!

Qualification for the IORMC has been completed for both USA and Canada and we have our 4 representatives for this years' competition! Full standings can be found at the end of the article, but our teams for 2017 are:

United States

• Yukitora (Kinyan Lui)
• DdR_Dan (Daniel Pascua)
• xGeo (George Liu-Krason)
• Corak (Arthur McAnally)

For Daniel, he returns from the 2016 team and George make his 2nd appearance after being on the inaugural team in 2015. This will be Kinyan's and Arthur's first year representing the USA.

Canada

• Juun (Jun Oh)
• Khold (Simon Chen)
• Element (William Lou)
• AW (Casper Tsai)

For Casper and William, they represent Canada for a 2nd consecutive year (which is also the duration of the team's existence). while Jun improves from a reserve to the main team joining Simon as first time participants.

Pairings have also been announced for the IORMC, with 16 countries in all participating. The parings can be found here. Several players from the recently concluded WRC are participating including Top 8 finisher Lena Weinguny.

Good luck to everyone in the wee hours of November 5th!

United States (Standings)

Canada (Standings)