IORMC US/Canada Qualification Schedule

Hello! Tournament coordinator Edwin here with an announcement regarding the qualifiers for the 2017 IORMC to be held later this year.

(Edit: Canadian qualifiers are announced below)

First of all there is a new addition to the tournament! Not only will there be the team competition as done in prior years on November 5th at 1100 UTC (0300 PST/0400 MST/0500 CST/0600 EST/0700 AST as we will have turned the clocks back already for those observing Daylight Savings time), but there will be an individual competition for the top 16 finishers two weeks later on November 19th at the same time!

We had 17 countries represented last year and we only expect that number to grow this year!

That said, it is that time again for us to start qualifications!

At this point, the US qualifiers will be held on Tenhou for the following dates:

• Saturday, July 29
• Saturday, August 26
• Saturday, September 16
• Saturday, September 30

The US will hold their qualifiers first at 1200 PDT/1500 EDT.

Same qualifying format will apply. The top 2 qualifying scores will be taken with the average of all hanchan scores within those sessions becoming the basis of ranking players. This is to factor in the possibility of byes in rounds which would adversely affect those receiving byes.

Updated: Canada will have their qualification on the following dates:

• Saturday, September 2
• Saturday, September 9
• Saturday, September 16
• Saturday, September 23
• Saturday, September 30

A minimum of 2 qualification sessions is needed to qualify, and if you play 4 or all 5, your lowest session is dropped.

Canada will hold their qualifiers first at 1400 PDT/1700 EDT/1800 ADT

The rules have changed since the last IORMC, and we will have those posted here as well as links to registration for the qualifiers so please stay tuned over the coming days!

2nd Vancouver Riichi Open Results

The 2nd Vancouver Riichi Open was played earlier this month with 28 players from the University of British Columbia, Seattle (SRMC) and California (PML) represented.

Day 1 was filled with wild swings, the biggest highlighted by UBC player Celeste who started off with a huge win of 61.6 points (which wound up being the largest single round score posted), but then went last with -48.8, another first for 26.6 points and rounded off the day with a 2nd place and 3.6 points. All in all, good for 43 points and a 7th place standing.

5 of the top 8 were occupied by players from Seattle, with Shane Rideout using 2 strong first place finishes early and coasted to a 3rd place standing and 69.3 points. Daniel Moreno from the Pacific Mahjong League put in 4 solid performances, finishing in the top half each hanchan for 71.4 points.

Leading the pack however was UBC president Casper Tsai who played very solid throughout Day 1, yours truly playing against both Daniel and Casper on the same table almost ekeing out a 2nd place finish until getting directly hit on a riichi-ippatsu-tanyao-chitoitsu to send me into 3rd. But back to Casper, his aggressive, but intuitive defensive style of play gave him the advantage and the Day 1 lead of 21.9 points over Daniel.

Despite the fact the top 2 had broken away, there was still all to play for as 7 players were within 30 points of 8th. And that came into play as the tiles were not kind to many in the top 8. 3 players would finish third in their penultimate hanchan and 2 would finish last. Casper even could not avoid the bloodbath finishing in third himself. But one more huge 1st place finish meant that he still topped the standings, despite Daniel putting in 2 firsts of his own.

2 players who survived the battering were the aformentioned Shane Rideout who despite finishing 3rd twice, did not suffer huge losses and slipped into the playoffs in 3rd place. Kinyan Lui (SRMC) who had been sitting in 5th was knocked out the cut after round 5 and a last place finish, but slid into the final spot after finishing 2nd in her last hanchan. It really was good fortune though as Sylvain Royer (PML) had used a huge first place finish to move into the top 8 only to fall at the hands of his "teammate" Daniel and finish just 4 points off the final spot.

The biggest winner was Anne Qu (UBC) who fell behind early with a score of -47 after 2 rounds, but 3 large firsts and a second later moved all the way to 6th and in the playoffs.

In the playoffs there would be some rematches. One of which was notable in that on the drive back to Seattle, while all of us were flat out impressed with Casper's play throughout the tournament, David Li (SRMC) would mention that it was Casper who was impressed with David's play as David had given Casper his only third during the qualifying rounds, and then in the rematch in the semifinal had a commanding first. It would not be the last one however, as Casper would still finish in second setting up one final rematch between the duo. They moved on at the expense of Celeste who had one of her swings at the wrong time, and Kinyan who just couldn't get anything started.

While the first semifinal was pretty clearcut, the other semifinal was a close game throughout, but Shane Rideout would prevail with Daniel Moreno holding on against Pacific Mahjong Open winner Charles McDonell to move on to the final. And with the top 2 winning bids, there would be all to play for.

And with everything at stake, the game was played very close to the vest and the scores barely budged for the most part. However, in all last, David as dealer would hit Daniel hard catapulting him into 2nd place just 200 points behind Casper.

1. Casper Tsai - 34000
2. David Li - 33800
3. Shane Rideout - 30600
4. Daniel Moreno - 21600

Now, as far as everyone at the table was concerned, it was known that Casper would not be accepting the invitation, so at the time Daniel was the odd man out. But as Daniel is apt to do, he finds a way in the final hand, hitting a haneman against Shane Rideout, and he immediately exclaimed what we would eventually find out. A haneman plus the bonus was 12300, making the standings the following:

1. Casper Tsai - 34000
2. Daniel Moreno - 33900
3. David Li - 33800
4. Shane Rideout - 9300

Just 200 points separated the top 3 players!

And so to the table it seemed that Daniel and David would be the 2 representatives to go to the WRC. But that's when Daniel finally mentioned he already had a sponsor's exemption, so in the end it didn't matter. That meant that David Li and Shane Rideout have earned a seat for the World Riichi Championships! Congratulations!

Full standings can be found here (link).

DFW Mahjong 2017 Riichi Open Results

The Dallas-Fort Worth Mahjong Club held their first tournament at the Grapevine Convention Center with players from 8 states competing for a seat at the World Riichi Championships later this year!

A full write-up can be found on the DFW Mahjong website (link), but congratulations go out to local Tina Koshimoto for winning the tournament!

Full results can also be found here (link).

-Edwin Dizon (NARMA Tournament Operations Coordinator)

2017 Rochester Riichi Open Results

March saw the East Coast holding it's first tournament of the year with Rochester Institute of Technology's Nine Gates Mahjong Club holding their 2017 open. 28 players would do battle in the first weekend in March to claim the title.

By the end of the first day there was a breakaway group of 6 who separated themselves by about 30 points from the rest of the field. Leading the charge was Nine Gates member Stanley Louie. 4 solid first place finishes put him clear by 14 points over alumnus Steven Smith. 5 points behind Steven was Montreal's Alexandre Boily, whose 3 second place finishes were consistent enough for 3rd. Rounding out the lead group were Christopher Omahen, Ty Kennedy and Jaben McCormack. Barring a collapse in the final 2 rounds, all 6 seemed pretty safe to make the playoffs.

Behind them however was Patrick Garrity and Jeffrey O'Connell, who while they occupied the final 2 qualifying spots at the end of Day 1, were far from safe as a chase group of 7 people were still within striking distance.

The road would not be easy however, as both would sit down to an opponent in the top 6 for the 5th round. While Jeffrey would cruise to an easy victory and a +37 round score all but securing his place in the finals, Patrick would not be as fortunate. The aforementioned Alexandre did not rest on his laurels and continued to press at the expense of Patrick. A -24.1 score in the 5th round would open up a spot for the chase group.

Filling that spot was Garrett Sandifer. Despite spinning his wheels on the first day, he put together 2 first place finishes in the last 2 rounds from 14th to 4th.

Those not in the top 3 would be relieved to have the scores halved after qualifying as the gap between 3rd and 4th was a touch over 40 points. With the distance cut to 20, there was a chance that those behind could rally to the top 4. And in fact not 1, but 2 players would crack the top 4.

8th place Ty Kennedy would take full advantage of facing 1st place Stanley Louie, not only taking first, but sending Stanley into last in their semifinal match. That swing of 56.5 points was enough to send Ty into the top 4. The other player to make it would be Steven Smith, who also took advantage of his matchup with 4th place Garrett Sandifer. While finishing ahead of Garrett would be enough to pass him, he would have to worry about the other table and if not one, but 2 people could pass him up. But with a semifinal score of 48.6, completely routing the table, he easily secured himself a spot in the finals. Not only that, but he had a 34 point lead going into the final. Barring a 4th place finish, and no breakaway winner, he would secure the title.

Things aren't that easy though as Christopher Omahen would make one final push. But while he would win the finals with a score of 29.4, he fell just 1.3 points short of Steven missing out by the narrowest of margins.

And so congratulations go out to Steven Smith for winning the 2017 Rochester Riichi Open!

Final results can be found here (link).

-Edwin Dizon (NARMA Tournament Operations Coordinator)

2017 LAPOM Riichi Championship Results

The 2017 LAPOM Riichi Championship was held on February 18-19th at the home of the Los Angeles Pride of Mahjong (LAPOM) location in Gardena, CA. A healthy field of 28 competitors did battle over 8 rounds in 2 days for 2 seats for the World Riichi Championships to be held in October 2017 in Las Vegas, NV.

The format of the tournament saw players playing 5 of the 6 qualifying rounds on the 1st day, meaning that there would be a wild scramble in the beginning of Sunday for those looking to finish in the top 8 for playoffs.

From the off, Teppei Noguchi warmed up as the rounds progressed, increasing his individual round scores over the first 4 rounds. With 2 second and 2 first place finishes, he was entering the last round of Day 1 with a score of 88.1 and a 25 point lead over 2nd place. But a heavy 3rd place finish saw him fall from 1st to 5th to end the day scoring 66.9.

Rising to replace him at the top was Bichen Wang, who had treaded water for the first couple of rounds, but closed the first day strong with 2 first place finishes which constituted almost all of his score of 85.9. Right behind him was Sylvain Royer whose consistent play and 3 first place finishes slotted him just 0.6 points behind.

The final qualifying spot heading into Round 6 was held by Kenyu Hayashi, who overcame a 3rd and 4th place finish early putting in 3 consecutive wins to finish Day 1 with a score of 49.2. But there were still 2 players within 10 points, and another 2 behind by 25 points, so there was still all to play for in the morning sprint.

And on moving day as it were, 1 player was able to overtake and cross over the line in the top 8. Aruto Kurosaki was able to put in a first place finish at his table and slide into the #8 spot. The casualty was Terry Kurobe, whose third place finish at his table unfortunately had him fall short of the playoffs.

With just one round for players outside the top 4 to work their way in, those on the outside looking in had to take some chances to improve their standing. Masahiro Tsuruta was able to make the jump going from 7th all the way to 2nd with a huge semifinal win of 46. He wound up replacing Sylvain in the top 4, who wound up as collateral damage on the same table.

The final table was set with 2 locals, the aforementioned Teppei Noguchi & Masahiro Tsuruta, PML's Bichen Wang, and visiting Aussie Anthony To. With about 30 points separating 1st and 4th, a reversal was certainly possible, and in fact it actually happened. The final table finished in reverse order of standing and Teppei Noguchi with a final round win of 34.8 put together the gyakuten sayonara victory to claim the 2017 LAPOM Championship! Congratulations!

Final results can be found here (link).

-Edwin Dizon (NARMA Tournament Operations Coordinator)

IORMC History

One of the international events held is the International Online Riichi Mahjong Championship, or IORMC. Originally as an exchange between South Korea and Japan, it had slowly incorporated more and more countries from around the region eventually featuring 17 countries from around the world in 2016. As a point of interest we went back to look at the history of the tournament, and was able to find information as far back as 2011. Back then it was 8 v 8 with Japan's 8 actually being pros in real life.

For those curious, we've collected the results from KML's (Korea Mahjong League) archives and put them all in one place here:

• 2016 Results
• 2015 Results
• 2014 Results
• 2013 Results
• 2012 Results
• 2011 Results

2017 NARMA Winter Online Open Concluded

The 2017 NARMA Winter Online Open had taken place yesterday on Saturday, January 28.  A total of 48 registered players had participated in the online event.  Kins was able to hold onto their lead built during qualifying which included 3-1st place finished. Mainstay DdR_Dan made rallied in the final round, but fell just short. Rounding out the top 4 was TRUNDLE and BigG who had roller coaster rides, but in the end finished on the podium. To all the participants and organizers, thank you.  Final standings are is as follows, while full tables can be found (here):

Placement	Player #	Name	Hanchan 1	Hanchan 2	Hanchan 3	Hanchan 4	Prelim	Hanchan 5	Final
1	35	Kins	11	48	55	46	160	44	84
2	7	DdR_Dan	9	49	41	14	113	55	83.25
3	31	TRUNDLE	60	9	-17	61	113	22	50.25
4	18	BigG	74	-40	81	-23	92	13	36
5	27	Panda84	57	-21	54	64	154	-16	22.5
6	45	ゴリアテ	5	17	6	68	96	-27	-3
7	26	harph	2	55	23	11	91	-41	-18.25
8	20	tateniu	52	56	13	-21	100	-50	-25
9	11	Corak	-10	-18	55	60	87		21.75
10	38	AW	53	-38	59	11	85		21.25
11	23	Element	17	61	44	-39	83		20.75
12	12	Yukitora	50	44	-45	27	76		19
13	6	xGeo	50	11	7	-21	47		11.75
14	21	D.Sierra	48	10	-31	19	46		11.5
15	25	白之川	64	-27	-53	54	38		9.5
16	19	zheitny	-18	8	-2	41	29		7.25
17	9	hehehe	43	49	-12	-52	28		7
18	13	-Shinki-	-46	48	63	-51	14		3.5
19	24	RostiLFC	50	-33	-25	16	8		2
20	1	戰場ヶ原ひたぎ	-27	53	-42	15	-1		-0.25
21	39	東脳	61	-20	-50	6	-3		-0.75
22	44	Kuhaku	-52	8	-33	74	-3		-0.75
23	43	少女ムーコ	18	7	13	-42	-4		-1
24	3	提莫	15	20	-14	-26	-5		-1.25
25	29	D147G	7	-28	-40	52	-9		-2.25
26	14	Doragan	-27	-21	-18	55	-11		-2.75
27	37	-Alice-	20	41	-28	-53	-20		-5
28	5	鳴海孝之	-37	-16	49	-17	-21		-5.25
29	46	スパイ@水貨軍團	-18	17	8	-30	-23		-5.75
30	40	ic3burg	-17	-31	5	19	-24		-6
31	48	雪泉@月閃	-13	-50	-19	58	-24		-6
32	34	karolcia	-11	-30	66	-53	-28		-7
33	32	505fam	-26	-42	40	-14	-42		-10.5
34	8	原外桃	-43	11	5	-20	-47		-11.75
35	42	Akrian	-58	-54	52	13	-47		-11.75
36	47	NARMAOPN	-54	-25	21	8	-50		-12.5
37	28	Krabman2	-45	68	-28	-56	-61		-15.25
38	15	Aesdeef	10	-40	-38	3	-65		-16.25
39	30	たつみの	-20	-52	-54	60	-66		-16.5
40	33	純水	10	-14	-50	-15	-69		-17.25
41	41	WHMBoar	2	-38	10	-50	-76		-19
42	16	CsBlue	-54	42	-51	-16	-79		-19.75
43	10	********	-42	-31	12	-23	-84		-21
44	4	sumail	-27	4	-36	-50	-109		-27.25
45	36	shodor	-51	18	-31	-48	-112		-28
46	17	Archon^2	-18	-16	-27	-54	-115		-28.75
47	2	竹井久	-39	-19	-16	-50	-124		-31
48	22	Juuuun	-35	-50	-22	-25	-132		-33

Unfortunately, one name is censored, because it was inappropriate. This was not screened during the event registration process. Apologies to anyone offended.

North American IORMC Qualifiers Complete

Report by Edwin Dizon (Tournament Director)

The North American Riichi Mahjong Association recently finished qualification matches for the 2016 International Online Riichi Mahjong Competition (IORMC) to be held Saturday, November 5th at 2000 JST (0400 PDT/0700 EDT/0800 ADT) on Tenhou. The IORMC began in 2011 as a competition between Japan and Korea, but has since expanded to include countries around the world. This years’ iteration, as of this writing, has 16 confirmed countries. This will be the USA’s second year, and Canada’s first, in the competition. Last year’s results, where the USA placed two players in the top 12, can be found here.

The format for the USA and Canadian qualifiers played throughout September and October was four events, each with four hanchan. Players could compete in all events, but were required to play in a minimum of two. A player’s top two qualifying scores were taken and an aggregate average (in event of byes) calculated. The top four ranking players in each country would represent their respective nation.

Qualification replays can be found on NARMA’s YouTube channel.

In the US region, Harmonix (Wei Bin Wang) jumped out to a whopping 241 score (60.25 average) in the first qualifier. While he couldn’t match that total over the final 3, he used it to secure the 4th spot with an average of 38.57 over 7 games.

スピカテリブル (Martin Zhang) played in all 4 qualifiers and scored no less than 63 points (15.75 average) finishing in the top 5 in every single event. His top two scores of 136 and 174 (38.75 average) qualified him for 3rd.

雪泉@月閃 (Zixuan Jiang), was unable to make the final qualifier due to a late schedule change, but it wasn’t necessary. He finished top 2 in two of the qualifiers with scores of 129 and 190 (39.875 average) making the 2nd highest overall score.

Finally, the top qualifier DdR_Dan (Daniel Pascua) missed the first qualifier but didn’t need it. His name was already familiar to our broadcast staff as a solid player. He didn’t disappoint, finishing top 2 in two of the final three qualifiers with scores of 204 and 132 (an amazing 42 average.)

Moving north to Canada, things were not as clear-cut. Their top finisher was Element (William Lou) who had been sitting comfortably with a total of 165 in his two qualifiers (20.625 average.) He cemented the top spot by scoring 160 in the final qualifier, raising his average to 34.375 - more than 10 points over the closest competitor.

Unfortunately エンジェルス☆ (Stephen So) was also a casualty of the late schedule change of the final event and missed the last qualifier. However, his two qualifying scores of 125 and 46 (21.375 average) were enough to secure 3rd overall.

AW (Casper Tsai) played in all four qualifiers and used a top score of 152 in the 3rd qualifier to propel him up to the top 4 taking the last spot with a 20.375 average.

That left one more spot which was all to play for in the final qualifier. At the time, Chien held the all-important slot with a total of 105 over 8 games. But there were players behind him who, if they could drop their lowest standing score, could easily overtake the position. They included kuowiz (130 points in 4 games), 505fam (103 points), riya (92 points) and mjfever (68 points), so Chien’s position was tenuous at best. Early on, it looked it like it would be a battle between 505fam and mjfever; after two rounds mjfever was +13 and 505fam +81. But an unfortunate connection issue by 505fam brought it all down to the final hanchan.

505fam +40 (143 points through 7 games)
mjfever +73 (141 points)
Kuowiz -2 (128 points)

And as the pairings would have it, all 3 would play each other in the final hanchan!

In that final hanchan, the players all went aggressive knowing that finishing above the other 2 all but guaranteed the final spot. kuowiz would jump out to an early lead, while 505fam struggled to gain traction. mjfever held steady and had the best chance to close the deficit, but in the end kuowiz (Josh Kuo) continuously shut the door on hand after hand, claiming a victory score of +59 and rocketing to 2nd overall with an average of 23.375.

With kuowiz’s qualification to the Canadian team, this means that the entire contingent is of current and former University of British Columbia’s Mahjong Club members! Perhaps not surprising as their club boasts a roster of about 100 members.

Congratulations to all our qualifiers and good luck in the wee hours of November 5th!

Welcome to the new NARMA website!

Thank you for visiting our new website!  As we continue moving forward, this site will be central to our activities, you'll be able to come here for regular updates and information about Riichi Mahjong in North America.