Mahjong Life and Living

The Catfood Bowl S0 Tournament was the first official tournament on the Mahjong Soul English server.  This was held at the beginning of the month (June 4-7), starting on the day returning from a Las Vegas.  Ten players from the North American riichi player base, as well as ten more selected from the general English Mahjong Soul, participated. Here are the full results  along with replay URLs posted in the Mahjong Wiki .  Likewise, the respective Twitter postings from English Mahjong Soul were collected.  Video is available via Dasuke's Twitch stream . Overall, the tournament was fun.  To see a mahjong stream with a hundred plus viewers is astounding.  In general stream sense, this is very paltry low.  However, for a mahjong stream, that is a lot. The tournament layout was interesting, as it utilized the double elimination format.  As far as tournament formats goes, brackets in mahjong are not all that practical as pretty much "anyth...

As Kyuu, I have been playing the Japanese version to mahjong and have been captivated by it.  The anime Saki had much to do with it; but the effects of that diminishes and is replaced by the sheer complexity of the game.  My entrance into the game came late in 2009. I had watched Saki, without any knowledge of the game.  Even now, I cannot remember my reason for even starting the series.  Eventually, an online buddy of mine came around and introduced me to the game.  He linked me to Saikyou no 3D Mahjong ; and the rest is history.  Later on he brought me to  Tenhou.net . With Saikyou no 3D Mahjong, I had to learn the most basic of rules.  Thankfully, I was already capable of reading hiragana and katakana.  In addition, I was already familiar reading the kanji to the numbers 1-9.  Yet, I once thought the 1-sou was a 10-sou tile for some reason.  On top of that, I did not understand the winds, nor their purpose to it.  T...

It seems fitting for the tournament scene to have been a big part of my mahjong journey, as I literally traveled to these tournaments to play.  For a record, here is my mahjong tournament history .  While I had been operating the Anime Central tournament for a number of years, my first chance at my own tournament play came in 2015.  From there, I got to travel to at least one tournament per year since. Hopefully, I do not travel to a tourney this year.  For family reasons, I was in Las Vegas last week.  I feel the need to save up a little money and catch my breath.  Yet, I retain the ability to just go to one, if I so choose. I will be looking to go through the tournament listing down the line and see what kind of memories still remain in my head.  Will I go through gameplay?  Not really, unless I happen to actually remember some moments.  Then I will share them. Memory lane will be fun.

Technically, I was playing in tokujou.  However, why were these three 7dans entering my game at the same time?  Either way, I was glad to get this opportunity to get a sample of an " actual houou " game.  I have faced games with three R2000's before; but usually, they were 6dans.  So, this felt much different. The game can be viewed here:  http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2019060708gm-0029-0000-15d18a22&tw=2 Given this rare opportunity, I made sure to enjoy this game as much as possible.  The primary goal was to survive.  If I was able to win, great, but I did not.  I took my third and lived. Now, unlike my Twitter post , I am looking to cover this game more indepth to see what I could learn from it.  As a note, comments with each respective image is below the image - not above. With 1-shanten by turn three, it was a good opportunity to get some kind of jump start on them. But it took this long to get to tenpai at all, and th...

All who enter this game    Began a journey Where no path is the same. Whichever form we choose    We walk a path of new Experience as we win or lose. A long, treacherous way of pain    Yet, we continue to learn With knowledge each day we gain. Just talk to every player    You will hear a different Story, layer by layer. We all have our joys and tears    For the game brings out Either the best of us or our fears. How long do we continue,    I wonder as we walk With no end seemingly in view? With mahojng of all things    We subject ourselves to all That this game brings. So as you play, I suggest    That you only do so By playing your best. With irrelevance, regardless of skill    To the game, you bring Yourself, your spirit, and your will. In doing so, you can grow    Within this game, in your Journey, the more you know. As you play, it is you who de...