2021 International Online Riichi Mahjong Competition (IORMC) - USA Qualification

Coming off of arguably the best performance the US has put to date in the IORMC, it is that time for the new USA (or perhaps old) team members to continue the march towards being the best in the world!

As a quick refresher, the IORMC was originally a competition between South Korea and Japan in 2011 that has grown into a worldwide country competition in a short period of time.

Seeing as though both the team and newly formed individual competitions are in such a short format, the qualifying sessions for the USA reflect that format.

There will be 4 sessions in all, held on each Saturday in August at 0900 PDT/1000 MDT/1100 CDT/1200 EDT. Only the first 3 sessions will count towards qualifying. A change this year is that the first spot will be awarded to the individual with the highest single scoring session - provided that their overall qualifying average is positive. All other spots will be awarded based upon their qualifying average.

Registration and more details can be found here.

2020 International Online RIichi Mahjong Competition - CAN Qualifiers

It’s that time of the year again! In cooperation with the Canadian clubs, the CAN qualifiers are now officially announced for the IORMC competition held in November!

What is the IORMC? Originally a competition between South Korea and Japan in 2011, it has turned into a worldwide competition with countries from all across the world! With a short format, it’s not rare to see haymakers thrown left and right as countries (and now individuals!) battle it out for top honors!

This year, there will be 5 qualifier sessions, starting on Saturday, August 8th and for each Saturday afterwards save for a break on August 22 & 29th. More information and the registration link can be found here.

2020 International Online Riichi Mahjong Competition (IORMC) - USA Qualification

It’s that time of the year again! US qualifications for the IORMC competition held in November will be starting soon!

What is the IORMC? Originally a competition between South Korea and Japan in 2011, it has turned into a worldwide competition with countries from all across the world! With a short format, it’s not rare to see haymakers thrown left and right as countries (and now individuals!) battle it out for top honors!

This year, there will be 4 qualifier sessions, held on the Saturdays following the 4th of July. More information and the registration link can be found here.

2020 WRC Application Process - USA

Hello! As the curtain falls on 2019, the stage is set for 2020 and the 3rd World Riichi Championship.

With the date starting to appear on the horizon, we wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of the process for getting a seat this year, as it differs to some extent from what happened when the WRC was on home turf as it were.

As Riichi Reporter has, well… reported, the USA will have just 5 seats available for this iteration. This meant that we were unable to offer seats to regional tournament winners like in 2017. Instead, interested players who wish to participate this time around will need to fill out a form provided by the WRC (link TBD), and they will evaluate your resume as well as your results in ARA sanctioned tournaments to select the 5 participants to represent the US.

If you’re trying to hash out what your expenses will be like, it was also revealed through Riichi Reporter that the entry fee would be around 400 euros (~450 USD).

When we find out the link to state your interest, we will immediately pass it on to all of you!

Best of luck in the new year!

Request for Proposal for 2021 North American Open

NARMA is looking for a host for the 2021 North American Open.

If you are a club, and you think you can host the 2nd iteration of the tournament, please send a Request for Proposal (RFP) to tournaments at nariichi dot org. Any questions can also be sent to the same e-mail.

Your RFP should include at least the following:

  • Dates, including alternate dates

  • Location

  • Max field size (if any)

  • Tournament Format (including schedule)

  • Staffing Levels

  • Contingency Plans (i.e. substitutes/fill-ins/etc)

  • Tournament Budget (Profit/Loss Statement)

  • Food/Lodging Arrangements (if any)

Tournament Sanctioning Guidelines/Call For Tournament Results

NARMA, in an ongoing process to provide standards that will allow tournaments to be recognized internationally, have revised our sanctioning guidelines to be more in line with established standards. Please refer to the link on our homepage for the new policies. A PDF version is also available for download.

To that extent, we are also putting out a call for tournament results. If your tournament can meet the sanctioning guidelines, and was held in the last year, please register as if you were going to hold a tournament, and one of our members will reach out to begin the process of reviewing your tournament retroactively approved.

2018 IORMC USA Qualification Session #1

Standings and Session Results

The first of five qualification sessions happened today and we have some early front-runners to head up the USA squad.

Panhandle Mahjong's Ryan Adams (Panda84), who has put up very good results in tournament play, did so again here with three 1st place finishes with his only blemish being a 3rd in the third round. Even still he posted an average of 33.45, a full 8 points clear of 2nd place Tina Koshimoto (破顔の楽士), who put up 2 first and 2 second place finishes to bank an average of 25.45.

Right on her heels is one of USA's representatives from last year, Kinyan Lui (Yukitora), who also put up 2 first and second place finishes, and sits just a little over 2 point adrift with an average of 23.20.

Holding onto the 4th spot for now is Nathaniel Kozinski (tateniu). A last place finish at Tina's table in the final round dampened a good effort, but he still sits with an average of 16.15.

The next 4 players also finished in the positive, and are one good session away from contending for a spot. Even for those who struggled in the first session, they still have the ability to drop a session later on if they play at least 4 of the 5 scheduled dates. So there's still time to put in some good scores and contend for a spot on the USA roster.

2018 Rochester Riichi Open - Day 2 and Results

With the scores still within a narrow range, there was still all to play for in the final 2 rounds before the playoff cutoff. The top 8 for the most part played nice and maintained their leads through the final 2 rounds to get to the playoffs.

There would be one party-crasher though. Sitting just over 44 points adrift of 8th place, Club Riichi de Montreal's Loic Roberge stormed his way up into the Top 8, at the expense of Mike Lee.  He would make it all the way to the finals, joining fellow clubmate Shan Kuang, Andrew McAnally from Baltimore, and local RIT member Bruce Bland at the final table.

As the scores stood going into the final table, Shan and Loic would need a complete victory as both sat over 30 points away from Arthur and Bruce. Bruce just needed to finish ahead of Arthur and the title would be his.

However Arthur, as first dealer, won two mangan hands right off the bat, making the task even more difficult for all those at the table. It would wind up being too much in the end as Arthur claims the 2018 Rochester Riichi Open title. Congratulations!

Rochester's post on the tournament can be found here.

  • Rochester Riichi Open 2018
    March 3-4, 2018 // Rochester, NY
  • Final Table
  • 1.Arthur McAnally+96.0
    2.Bruce Bland+73.45
    3.Loic Roberge+20.2
    4.Shan Kuang-0.2
  • Top 8
  • 5.George Liu-Krason+55.2
    6.Chris Letourneau+48.55
    7.Alex Ng+8.6
    8.Michael McLeod-15.4
  • Rest of Standings
  • 9.Daniel Moreno+113.0
    10.Steve Smith+54.0
    11.William Lou+46.15
    12.Aaron Ebejer+12.65
    13.Gabriel Ocasio+11.8
    14.Henry Chen+11.2
    15.Patrick Garrity+10.2
    16.Ty Kennedy+5.35
    17.Mike Lee-0.4
    18.Cassandra McClure-2.15
  • 19.Stanley Louie-10.0
    20.Derek Purpura-30.7
    21.Gaetano Loweecy-34.7
    22.Christopher Omahen-35.4
    23.Noah Bock-38.5
    24.Valliappa Chockalingam-57.5
    25.Jaben McCormack-64.25
    26.Alexandre Boily-79.85
    27.Justin Dilgard-93.8
    28.Forrest Shooster-118.0

Upcoming Tournaments

For those that have not been following the calendar, there are 2 tournaments coming up in the next few months.

The Rochester Institute of Technology's Nine Gates Mahjong Club will be holding its 2018 Rochester Riichi Open on March 3rd & 4th on their campus. Rochester has one of the larger clubs in the country and its alumni have since moved on to clubs all across the country including Seattle and California.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Mahjong Club will be holding their 2018 Riichi Open at the Grapevine Convention Center on April 14th and 15th. Just make sure to have your taxes done before that weekend!

In addition the Seattle Riichi Mahjong Club has tentative plans to hold their 2018 Seattle Riichi Open in July of this year. Stay tuned for more details!

Check out the Events page for links to their pages for more information as well as to sign up!

2017 IORMC Individual Recap

Results and links to replays can be found here.

Heading into the individual tournament, we had 2 representatives in the top 16 - one each from Canada and the United States. Before things started, there was a bit of a hiccup as the 7th place player from Japan was actually a no-show. While a staff member was put in to replace the missing player going forward the players just missing will probably be asked to be subs in case something similar happens.

To the quarterfinals though and the USA representative xGeo (George Liu-Krason) was basically involved in a 3-way beatdown of the 16th place participant cutieboy (Woo-Jin Choi - KOR). George was holding onto the lead, but in the final 2 hands he wound up paying in, including an unfortunate riichi then paying in on his next draw to finish outside the top 2.

For Canada's Khold (Simon Chen), it was a successful, but perhaps bizarre game. He led wire to wire, won just 3 hands, all of them were by tsumo's, and most bizarre of all - all were either via haitei ryaoue, or in the case of all last - a penultimate tille tsumo-haitei-chitoitsu.

That earned him a 1st and into the semfinals, but it was not as easy. In fact, heading into S2 he was yakitori and 18700 points from 2nd place. But after a ryuukoku, Simon is able to draw the right side of his 2 sided wait for sanshouku for an oya-mangan  He'd close out the game with another win, securing his 2nd place finish and a spot in the final table.

If the finals were one hanchan only, Simon would have won the title. 4 hands went for mangan and three of those belonged to him, giving him a 51.7 score and a 35 point lead over 2nd. However, the finals were an aggregate of 2 hanchan - though all he'd have to do avoid is a last place finish and he would probably secure the title.

Unfortunately for him, he never got any traction in the 2nd hanchan. In E1-1, soraru (Lulu Zhou - CHN) would tsumo a haneman while Simon was oya. And in S-1, Karlocia (Karolina Trepinska - FRA) would tsumo an oya-baiman. As a result of that, Simon could not avoid finishing in last, and in fact the order of the first hanchan was reversed in the 2nd. But due to Simon's loss being greater, he fell from 1st to a tie for 3rd as soraru would combine her 2nd and 3rd place finishes to win by 0.4 points.

While certainly it is not the result either player wanted, it was still very impressive that we had 2 players competing here earlier today. Congratulations to our participants and we'll look to build for next year!

2017 IORMC Team Recap

Final team results can be found here.

The 2017 IORMC Team competition has come and gone and while neither the USA or Canada disgraced at the table, it should be said that both countries struggled to hang in there the entire tournament. I won't go through the games because the records are out there since I'm sure there will be those who can parse the game better than I (I'll have the game links on the spreadsheet though), but I can at least give my perspective (for what brain activity I could have at 3 in the morning).

In fact, the USA was about to go really negative until Yukitora (Kinyan L.) on all last ended up with a riichi-ippatsu-tsumo-tanyao-sanankou-dora 5 for 11 han for a sayonara gyakuten (walk-off) win. That helped the USA go from 0-1-1-2 to 1-1-1-1 and finished the opening round around 0 at (4.4). Same went for Canada who went 1-1-1-1 and was at (1.1).

The idea that it was perhaps jitters or getting used to the dynamic seemed to not pan out in the 2nd round. There was no lifeline this time for the USA, though xGeo banked his first 1st place to help minimize the damage. Canada treaded water again with another 1-1-1-1 finish, but registered a slightly more negative score.

There was still a chance for a good showing I thought with a solid 3rd round, but the two countries apparently diverged from this point. USA continued its struggles with xGeo being the only bright spot banking yet another 1st in a 1-0-1-2 round, sending the team to a (113.4) score and a 13/16 placing. Canada put together 2 1st place finishes, one of which was from Khold (Simon C.) making him 2-1-0-0 so far putting them in 7th with one round to go.

At this point, a score around 0 seems about the best I could ask for from the USA, while Canada could move up a position or two with good scores. I was on my last legs entering my 23rd hour of being awake so I just waited for the scores to show up in the lobby.

First person to show up was xGeo (George L-K), whose 2nd place finish all but cemented him a spot in the individual competition. What came next was a first place finish from Corak to salvage his tournament, and then another first from DdR_Dan and next thing you know, the USA is back around 0! A first place finish from Yukitora could put us in position for yet another 6th place finish!

And when her score popped up as +48.4, the USA was actually sitting in 6th! The last table though saw Lindskog from Sweden put in a +63.4, and knocked the USA to 7th.

Canada was faring much better early on in the 4th round. Even with a 1-1-1-0 put in, they at one point held the 4th place spot. Unfortunately DdR_Dan's 1st place finish came at the expense of Canada's Element (William L.), but still put them 1 place better than last year in 9th.

So as a team, both the USA and Canada put up comparable results from last year, and we'll hope to make inroads next year.

There is still the matter of the individual competition to be held 2 weeks from now, and here each country was able to send a representative to compete for top player. As mentioned before, xGeo's results improved each round eventually finishing in 12th overall with a score of 77.6. Most impressive was Canada's representative, Khold (Simon C.), who put together 2 strong 1st and 2nd place finishes for a score of 128.6 and a 3rd place finish - the highest from any NA player in the IORMC.

So congratulations to our representatives this year, and good luck to Simon and George in the individual competition!