2017 World Riichi Championship Overview
By now, the end of this year's World Riichi Competition had passed a few days ago. Since then, I had stayed over at my sister's residence just to get a feel of living in this town (again). The past five days were reserved for some quality family time. In general, it was some good downtime after a large event, where I had a tremendous amount of fun and enjoyment. By this point, I presume everyone else had made their way home. Tomorrow, I make my return home; and as soon as I arrive, I plan to make my way home to my mahjong club.
Given any large event, we have multiple people from multiple directions, and they are all mutually unique from one another. Yet, general commonality brings such people together due to a shared common interest. To be more specific, we are a bunch of very crazy people willing to spend some extra money just to play this one game together spread across multiple session.
To be fair, this phenomenon is not unique to our game. But alas, this is our game. It is what we do.
During one of these nights, I overheard a conversation about the difference between value and price. Just like many events, we paid and spent our way to get here. Given the prices paid to be at this event, many of us got plenty of value out of it. Personally, I managed to get far more value than expected. Some had gotten more, others less. Either way, we had value out of this event. Personally, the notion of expense did not cross my mind. Quite frankly, it was all worth it. Few events, that I had experienced, fall under this category; this one was well on top of my list.
So what was that value of this WRC?
Personally, my presence at this event was three years waiting for me, ever since the 2014 event. The announcement of this year's event in the United States had prompted me to prioritize being here. No matter what, I had to be here. As things turned out, I was more than glad to have been here.
Tournament-wise, I performed badly. In a sense, my habits from my struggling Tenhou ranking campaign surfaced and showed itself in my play, where it counted. Yet, oddly enough, I pulled a good number of wins in social play, where it didn't count. I finished this WRC with a ranking of 198 out of 224 with a score of -102.8. As I had set my goals, I find myself adjusting it, as my score changed. Moving into the tonpussen side event, I still played just as poorly. Nevertheless, I still do not regret, as I was still able to experience some memorable game moments — both in and out of tournament play. If anything, I managed to get plenty of laughs at my own expense.
The greatest value came from all the other players from across the world. Needless to say, it was a pleasure meeting everyone. Many have I met for the first time; others, I had met in prior tournaments. Some of you have I known through the Internet for years. Others, I have not known prior to this event. Just a show of numbers, my Facebook friend list managed to grow by over 30 in the past week. Just as many of you have impressed me, I hope to have made a strong impression on you. All-in-all, we were under a great event soaking up a great atmosphere; and it all propagated within many of us. The synergy was amazing.
It did not take long for a great handful to be classified as friends. If I am laughing and joking around you both on and off the mahjong table, then congratulations — you are classed as friends of mine. Some of you even managed to get some extra time with me. Looking forward into the future, I hope to see everyone again. Do realize, it is great being part of an international friendship network.
To any who engaged in conversation with me, those were particularly good moments. I felt the insights from the exchange of words. Either, I managed to see your own worlds, or I managed to alter my own perceptions. In particular, the time at the balcony on the Moon provided an exceptional atmosphere producing some quality conversation, covering various topics. Regardless of setting, we had some good talks. While I may have forgotten much of our conversational content, I still remember how I felt during these conversations. From here, I look to carry them going forward.
In particular, I have two Midwestern friends in particular. These two, I have seen on a fairly regular basis — either annually or weekly. One of them is the Vice-Captain of my mahjong club. To you two, it was a pleasure showing you two the tournament scene beyond our own locality. It is a whole different world coupled with exposure to people from other areas. It was nice watching you two in particular enjoy your time here. Eventually, more within our locales may get to experience these kinds of events, just as we had done. Yet, to those who did not nor cannot, we shall share our stories.
To any who missed out, do not fret. I missed the 2014 event and did regret it. Though, affordability prevented me from that one. If you have the ability and resources to attend a mahjong event like this one, then do not hesitate to follow through with it. The experience alone is worth it. I hope you get the chance to do some someday.
Now, I express my thanks to everyone — especially those who had made this event happen. If it weren't for any general interest in this event, this event would never have happened. If it weren't for the work put into this event, this event would never have happened. If it weren't for the game that we subject ourselves to, this event would never happen. Ultimately, this was all meant to happen.
And so, looking forward to the next time. In the meantime, we play our game. I hope to see everyone and anyone next time, or in some future event (maybe in the states). As long as we keep playing the game, this will hold true. Until then, peace!
Signed, Kyuu
Captain of Chicago Area Mahjong
After all this, I still have some detail writing on some event specifics. So, I'll hope to share some of that before WRC 2020.
Given any large event, we have multiple people from multiple directions, and they are all mutually unique from one another. Yet, general commonality brings such people together due to a shared common interest. To be more specific, we are a bunch of very crazy people willing to spend some extra money just to play this one game together spread across multiple session.
To be fair, this phenomenon is not unique to our game. But alas, this is our game. It is what we do.
During one of these nights, I overheard a conversation about the difference between value and price. Just like many events, we paid and spent our way to get here. Given the prices paid to be at this event, many of us got plenty of value out of it. Personally, I managed to get far more value than expected. Some had gotten more, others less. Either way, we had value out of this event. Personally, the notion of expense did not cross my mind. Quite frankly, it was all worth it. Few events, that I had experienced, fall under this category; this one was well on top of my list.
So what was that value of this WRC?
Personally, my presence at this event was three years waiting for me, ever since the 2014 event. The announcement of this year's event in the United States had prompted me to prioritize being here. No matter what, I had to be here. As things turned out, I was more than glad to have been here.
Tournament-wise, I performed badly. In a sense, my habits from my struggling Tenhou ranking campaign surfaced and showed itself in my play, where it counted. Yet, oddly enough, I pulled a good number of wins in social play, where it didn't count. I finished this WRC with a ranking of 198 out of 224 with a score of -102.8. As I had set my goals, I find myself adjusting it, as my score changed. Moving into the tonpussen side event, I still played just as poorly. Nevertheless, I still do not regret, as I was still able to experience some memorable game moments — both in and out of tournament play. If anything, I managed to get plenty of laughs at my own expense.
The greatest value came from all the other players from across the world. Needless to say, it was a pleasure meeting everyone. Many have I met for the first time; others, I had met in prior tournaments. Some of you have I known through the Internet for years. Others, I have not known prior to this event. Just a show of numbers, my Facebook friend list managed to grow by over 30 in the past week. Just as many of you have impressed me, I hope to have made a strong impression on you. All-in-all, we were under a great event soaking up a great atmosphere; and it all propagated within many of us. The synergy was amazing.
It did not take long for a great handful to be classified as friends. If I am laughing and joking around you both on and off the mahjong table, then congratulations — you are classed as friends of mine. Some of you even managed to get some extra time with me. Looking forward into the future, I hope to see everyone again. Do realize, it is great being part of an international friendship network.
To any who engaged in conversation with me, those were particularly good moments. I felt the insights from the exchange of words. Either, I managed to see your own worlds, or I managed to alter my own perceptions. In particular, the time at the balcony on the Moon provided an exceptional atmosphere producing some quality conversation, covering various topics. Regardless of setting, we had some good talks. While I may have forgotten much of our conversational content, I still remember how I felt during these conversations. From here, I look to carry them going forward.
In particular, I have two Midwestern friends in particular. These two, I have seen on a fairly regular basis — either annually or weekly. One of them is the Vice-Captain of my mahjong club. To you two, it was a pleasure showing you two the tournament scene beyond our own locality. It is a whole different world coupled with exposure to people from other areas. It was nice watching you two in particular enjoy your time here. Eventually, more within our locales may get to experience these kinds of events, just as we had done. Yet, to those who did not nor cannot, we shall share our stories.
To any who missed out, do not fret. I missed the 2014 event and did regret it. Though, affordability prevented me from that one. If you have the ability and resources to attend a mahjong event like this one, then do not hesitate to follow through with it. The experience alone is worth it. I hope you get the chance to do some someday.
Now, I express my thanks to everyone — especially those who had made this event happen. If it weren't for any general interest in this event, this event would never have happened. If it weren't for the work put into this event, this event would never have happened. If it weren't for the game that we subject ourselves to, this event would never happen. Ultimately, this was all meant to happen.
And so, looking forward to the next time. In the meantime, we play our game. I hope to see everyone and anyone next time, or in some future event (maybe in the states). As long as we keep playing the game, this will hold true. Until then, peace!
Signed, Kyuu
Captain of Chicago Area Mahjong
After all this, I still have some detail writing on some event specifics. So, I'll hope to share some of that before WRC 2020.
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