Catfood Bowl S0 Tournament
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 "anything" can happen in a game. However given these conditions, we as players have to be prepared for just about "anything". I had some early criticism about the format, as brackets for mahjong touranments are very susceptible to the "luck factor". Having played through it, it was actually rather enjoyable.
Personally, I might consider emulating this tournament format elsewhere. Any elimination style tournament emphasizes placement based play rather than point based play. The double elimination format applies pressure to avoid specific placements, depending on the bracket. The play dynamic is different, especially in the games, where attaining the coveted first is all that mattered. This forced players to think much differently.
The prize package is unusual for any online mahjong tournament. The prizes are as follows:
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 "anything" can happen in a game. However given these conditions, we as players have to be prepared for just about "anything". I had some early criticism about the format, as brackets for mahjong touranments are very susceptible to the "luck factor". Having played through it, it was actually rather enjoyable.
Personally, I might consider emulating this tournament format elsewhere. Any elimination style tournament emphasizes placement based play rather than point based play. The double elimination format applies pressure to avoid specific placements, depending on the bracket. The play dynamic is different, especially in the games, where attaining the coveted first is all that mattered. This forced players to think much differently.
The prize package is unusual for any online mahjong tournament. The prizes are as follows:
- Winner: $300
- Runner up: $100
- Third: $50
- All other participants: $10 Amazon gift card
This is a total prize package of $620 total. So no matter what, anyone is eligible for a prize. At the very least, that alleviates some tournament pressure. Nevertheless, the pressure was on for players to go for the glory and perform well.
For the play from my perspective, I was unfortunate enough to immediately go into the defeated side of the bracket after one game, along with twelve others. In my second game, I immediately faced elimination where either a first or a high scoring second continues in the tournament. I was eliminated in my second game.
Dropped down to 200 points, I very much wanted to cry, as people were watching the game. In pure emotional roller coaster fashion, the South round became tense as I was able to even take the lead via a large comeback. So, going into South 4, anyone could win the game with just one hand. My hand confused me with different options, and I chose the wrong direction. Alas, this is mahjong. I did my best. From here, I hoped for Konata, to do well as he eliminated me directly.
Upon elimination, I joined the rest of the audience to watch the streams. I even looked at the previous streams featuring the early games. It was nice to see a fairly larger audience for a mahjong stream. People were watching, commenting, and having a fun time. Then here, I recommend anyone to watch the final. It was a very fun game to watch. Point exchanges everywhere, and it was a real fight with the smallest hand at 7700. With that, I once again congratulate the tournament winner and the finalists for putting up a good show.
With that said, it felt special having been a participant at all. Hopefully, everyone else should feel the same way. Of the participants, half of us were representative players across different community groups across the United States. All of us have a connection to a specific player, who is not to be named. As for the remaining ten, they went through the Mahjong Soul selection process. For setting up the tournament, I thank Yostar and the Majsoul crew for setting up the tournament.
Moving onward, we can look forward to the next tournament. Many more players should have the opportunity to play in these kinds of tournaments. On my own, I played around with designing this tournament format using different initial player counts. We shall see viability.
Until then, we all have more games to be played. Have fun!
For the play from my perspective, I was unfortunate enough to immediately go into the defeated side of the bracket after one game, along with twelve others. In my second game, I immediately faced elimination where either a first or a high scoring second continues in the tournament. I was eliminated in my second game.
Dropped down to 200 points, I very much wanted to cry, as people were watching the game. In pure emotional roller coaster fashion, the South round became tense as I was able to even take the lead via a large comeback. So, going into South 4, anyone could win the game with just one hand. My hand confused me with different options, and I chose the wrong direction. Alas, this is mahjong. I did my best. From here, I hoped for Konata, to do well as he eliminated me directly.
Upon elimination, I joined the rest of the audience to watch the streams. I even looked at the previous streams featuring the early games. It was nice to see a fairly larger audience for a mahjong stream. People were watching, commenting, and having a fun time. Then here, I recommend anyone to watch the final. It was a very fun game to watch. Point exchanges everywhere, and it was a real fight with the smallest hand at 7700. With that, I once again congratulate the tournament winner and the finalists for putting up a good show.
With that said, it felt special having been a participant at all. Hopefully, everyone else should feel the same way. Of the participants, half of us were representative players across different community groups across the United States. All of us have a connection to a specific player, who is not to be named. As for the remaining ten, they went through the Mahjong Soul selection process. For setting up the tournament, I thank Yostar and the Majsoul crew for setting up the tournament.
Moving onward, we can look forward to the next tournament. Many more players should have the opportunity to play in these kinds of tournaments. On my own, I played around with designing this tournament format using different initial player counts. We shall see viability.
Until then, we all have more games to be played. Have fun!
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