World Riichi Championship 2028 Qualification Information for American Players

Current Qualification Standings

System Overview

The qualification of US players for the 2028 World Riichi Championship (“WRC 2028”) will be conducted via a two-tier system consisting of a series of Open Qualifiers followed by the ARA Invitational 2028 (“ARA Invitational”). The right to hold Open Qualifiers will be open to any organizations that can meet the requirements specified in this document. Eligible players who perform well in these events will be given Qualification Points via a scheme described below, and the 60 eligible players with the most points will be invited to participate in the ARA Invitational, along with four players selected by the American Riichi Mahjong League. In the event that invited players are unable to attend the ARA Invitational, the next player(s) with the highest QP Score will be invited until all seats in the ARA Invitational are filled.

Results from the ARA Invitational will be used to determine the United States’ proposed slate of players for WRC 2028. Additional invitations or seats may be awarded depending on WRC's allocation of US quota seats. The exact number of players qualifying to WRC 2028 through the Qualification System will not be known until World Riichi announces each country’s quota.

Open Qualification Period

In order to ensure proper time to hold the ARA Invitational and properly prepare the player list for WRC 2028, Open Qualifiers must be held between the dates of January 1, 2025 and November 30, 2027. This will be referred to as the Open Qualification Period.

Events that were approved by ARA as Open Qualifiers before ratification of the Qualification System will maintain that status, provided they meet the minimum player requirement.

Participation Requirements

Any ARA-recognized club or organization is permitted to host an Open Qualifier. If an organization would like an event to be considered a Open Qualifier, it meet the following conditions:

  1. The event must be open to all US players. Event organizers may accept or reject non-US players at their discretion.

  2. The event must occur within the Open Qualification Period and must be announced at least 60 days in advance. The announcement must include the event location, format, entry fee, and player cap (minimum 24).

    • Events scheduled for August 30, 2027 or later must be announced by July 1, 2027.

  3. Registration must open at least 30 days in advance of the event, at least seven (7) days after the public announcement, and must be open to all interested players simultaneously (no early registration or priority slots).

  4. At least 24 players must attend the event. If an approved event fails to have 24 players start the first round, the event will not count as an Open Qualifier and no Qualification Points will be awarded to any players.

Event organizers can submit their tournament for approval by filling out this form.

Event Format Requirements

Events must follow the current ARA Tournament Certification Guidelines and meet the below additional requirements:

  1. The event must be held across a minimum of two (2) consecutive days and run for a minimum of eight (8) rounds, including any post-cut play (ex: 6 round scramble with 2 round final table).

  2. If the event has knockout play (ex: top 2 players from a specific table advance), a minimum of two (2) rounds must be played before the next cut unless the scores from the previous cut are carried over in some fashion.

Regional Limitations

A geographic region is allowed two (2) events per calendar year (January 1-December 31) that are certified as Open Qualifiers. Geographic regions are defined based on where a club is based: 

  1. A club’s home location is where its last open tournament was hosted.

    1. If the club/organization has never hosted an open tournament, then its home location is the midpoint of all its events run in the last month.

  2. If the club’s home location is closer than 75 miles to another club’s home location, then they share a geographic region. Otherwise, the club has a 75-mile radius geographic region to itself.

If two or more clubs share a geographic region, they should consult with each other to see who would like to host an Open Qualifier. The available Open Qualifier spots should be split as equally as possible among organizations wishing to host an Open Qualifier.

In the event that Clubs A and B share a geographic region, Clubs B and C also share a geographic region, but Clubs A and C do not, any Open Qualifiers run by Club B count against both the A/B geographic region and B/C geographic region. In this scenario, possible ways to resolve include: 

  1. Clubs A, B, and C all run one Open Qualifier (preferred).

  2. Clubs A and C each run two Open Qualifiers and Club B runs zero.

  3. Club B runs two Open Qualifiers, but Clubs A and C run zero. 

If there are more than two organizations that wish to run an Open Qualifier in a geographic region and they cannot resolve the matter themselves, ARA will choose the organizations that will be allowed to host an Open Qualifier at its own discretion.

Player Eligibility

Players are eligible for the Qualification System if they:

  1. Are a US citizen or primarily reside in the US (more than half of a calendar year), and

  2. Are not attempting to qualify to WRC 2028 through another country’s quota.

Non-eligible players may still participate in events, but their results will not be assessed for Qualification Points. Any Qualification Points won by non-eligible players disappear, and are not adjusted downwards to the next eligible player.

To accept Qualification Points, a player must be registered in the ARA database and be marked as eligible by filling out the eligibility questionaire on their database profile. They must also submit their ARA ID to an Open Qualifier’s staff at registration or no later than seven (7) days after the final round of the Open Qualifier.
If you have questions about your specific circumstances, please email info@nariichi.org.

Qualification Point System

Each eligible player attending an Open Qualifier will receive Qualification Points according to the below formula:

This formula rewards tournaments that draw a large number of players, but also allows the very top placements in smaller tournaments to still receive a competitive amount of Qualification Points. As the number of players increases, the number of Qualification Points awarded to each placement also increases, but with diminishing returns. 
A spreadsheet showing the possible Qualification Points for any given tournament size can be found here. It can be copied by anyone wishing to use the Individual or Tournament lookup functions.

Players withdrawing from an Open Qualifier before their final placement has been determined will receive no Qualification Points.

Reporting of Results

The host of an Open Qualifier must submit results to ARA using <insert tech process here> within seven (7) days of the end of the event. After review, the results will be deemed as certified and made available to the public to ensure transparency in the qualification process. Reports must include a list of players by order of ranking in the event. Each player listed should include a full name, state, email address, and club association (if applicable). For any players earning Qualification Points, their ARA ID must also be included.

Behavioral Disqualification

As players selected by this system will be representing the United States’ riichi mahjong community on the world stage, tournament behavioral standards are necessary. All players must follow the ARA Code of Conduct. ARA reserves the right to remove any player from the Qualification System for repeated or gross violations of the Code of Conduct.

American Riichi Mahjong League

The American Riichi Mahjong League has been allocated four (4) player slots to the ARA Invitational. Players will be selected from among those not in the initial invite list once the Open Qualification Period has ended. Further details on this qualification process will be announced later in 2025.

ARA Invitational 2028

The ARA Invitational will be tentatively held on January 15-17, 2028 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend). More information, including the format and selection process for the host venue, will be announced later in 2025. ARA will select the host venue by Summer 2027.

Qualified Players

After the last Open Qualifier held within the above Open Qualification Period, players will be assessed by their total QP Score. A player's total QP Score will consist of the sum of the top six (6) Qualification Points results that player has attained from Open Qualifiers.

Any ties in QP Score will be broken in the following order:

  1. Highest single tournament placement

  2. Highest single Qualification Points result

  3. Second highest single Qualification Points result

  4. Third highest single Qualification Points result

  5. Fourth highest single Qualification Points result

  6. Fifth highest single Qualification Points result

  7. Random draw held by ARA and witnessed by all tied players.

The 60 players with the highest QP Score that have not already been awarded a non-quota seat to WRC 2028 will be invited to the ARA Invitational, along with the four (4) players selected by the American Riichi Mahjong League.

In the event that invited players are unable to attend the ARA Invitational, the next player(s) with the highest QP Score will be invited until all seats in the ARA Invitational are filled.