Current Qualification Standings

US Qualification System for the 2025 WRC

Overview

The qualification of US players for the 2025 World Riichi Championship will be conducted via a two-tier system consisting of a series of Open Qualifiers followed by a 64-person invitational Final Qualifier 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 64 eligible players with the most points will be invited to participate in the Final Qualifier Invitational. Results from the Final Qualifier Invitational will be used to determine our proposed slate of players for WRC 2025. Until the WRC quotas are announced, the number of players to qualify into the WRC remains unknown.

Our objective is to have a decided set of players to put forward for WRC participation by Jan 1, 2025.

Open Qualifier Program

Open Qualification Period

In order to ensure proper time to hold the Final Qualifier Invitational and properly prepare our player list by the deadline of Jan 1, 2025, Open Qualifiers must be held during the calendar year of Nov 1, 2023 to Oct 31, 2024. This will be referred to as the Open Qualification Period.

Participation Requirements

Any US club or organization is permitted to host an Open Qualifier. If an organization would like an event to be considered a Open Qualifier they must 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 Qualifier Period and have been scheduled with at least 60 days of public notice.

  3. The event must be registered with ARA via our Open Qualifier submission form. At most, any organization can register only one event to be considered an Open Qualifier.

Given the 60 day public notice, the last possible event may be held on Oct 31. This means, Sept 1 is the last possible day for any tournament in this system may be accepted and announced.

Event Format Requirements

  1. Current WRC rules must be used. Any rule modifications may be adjusted in accordance to WRC rules under the optional rules document.

  2. The event should have a designated host, head judge, and substitute players

  3. Event staff are not eligible to participate in the event, and substitute players must only be functioning as a means to fill in missing tournament spots

  4. If an attendance cap is implemented for an event, the minimum value of that cap is 32 players
    (ex: An event with a 52 player cap meets this criteria. An event with an 8 player cap does not meet this criteria)

  5. At least 24 players must actually attend the event in order for the event to be considered a valid qualifier
    (ex: An event with a 32 player cap that only attracts 24 entrants meets this criteria. An event with a 64-player cap that only attracts 20 entrants does not meet this criteria)

Regional Limitations

A geographic region is allowed two (2) events that are certified as WRC Open Qualifiers. There is no other limitation on tournaments and events, this restriction is strictly for WRC Open Qualifiers. This works as follows:

Pick a point on the map which represents your club. This should be the last location your club ran an open tournament. If no open tournament has been run by your club, then pick the midpoint between all events ran in the last month by your club. Everything around that point in a 75 mile radius is considered your club’s circle. If another club’s center point is in your club’s circle, then those clubs share a geographic region. If there are two or more clubs in a geographic region, please consult with the other clubs in the area if they would like to host a Qualifier. Please split the available Qualifier spots equally among clubs that would like to host a tournament.

If there is a situation where Club A and Club B intersect and Club B and Club C intersect but Club A and Club C do not intersect, then any Qualifiers run by Club B count against both Club A’s geographic region and Club C’s geographic region. In this scenario, possible ways to resolve this is if Club A runs 2 and Club C runs 2 (and Club B runs 0). Or Club A, B, and C all run just 1. All three clubs running 1 Qualifier is the preferred solution.

If there are more than 2 clubs that wish to run an Open Qualifier in a geographic region, ARA will choose the two clubs that will be allowed to run Qualifiers at its own discretion.

Tournament Point System

The currently proposed tournament qualifier point (QP) system is as follows:

  • Events with less than 24 attendees are not considered valid qualifiers and will not award any qualification points
  • If an event has 24-49 people, 1st place receives 100 points, 2nd place receives 50 points, and 3rd/4th place receives 40 points.
  • If an event has 50-99 people, 1st place receives 100 points, 2nd place receives 50 points, 3rd/4th place receives 40 points, and 5th-8th receives 30 points.
  • If an event has more people, then 1st place receives 100 points, 2nd place receives 50 points, 3rd/4th place receives 40 points, 5th-8th receives 30 points, and 9th-16th receives 20 points.
  • The North American Open (Aug 31 to Sept 1) is a special national event. The winner of this tournament is awarded a direct Non-US quota seat into the WRC. Subsequent placements up to rank 64 are noted in the Qualification Points table.
  • Events qualify for points based on the numbers of players that play hanchan one. This can include substitute players to replace no shows or last minute cancellations. (February 2024 Clarification)

Additionally, a player gets an additional 0.01 more points for each player ranked below in order to function as a tiebreaker.

Example: At a 64-player tournament, the seventh place player will recieve the 30 Qualification Points awarded for their placement plus an additional 0.57 points, as they were ranked above 57 other players for a total of 30.57 QP awarded. The eighth place player in that same tournament would also receive the 30 Qualification Points awarded by their placement plus an additional 0.56 points as that player was ranked above 56 other players for a total of 30.56 QP awarded.

Table representing WRC Qualification points to be distributed at events based on event size

Player Eligibility

The criteria for participating as an individual in the 2025 US WRC Qualification Process have been lightened and clarified as of February 2024. All players living primarily in the US (more than half the year) and not attempting to qualify to the 2025 World Riichi Championship through another country's process are eligible. Players who are neither of these two categories 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, you must fill out this form affirming your eligibility to represent the USA at WRC: https://forms.gle/SGNcGxk6RNJqzKcq6

If you have questions about your specific circumstances please email info@nariichi.org.

Reporting of Results

The host of an Open Qualifier must submit results to ARA within 30 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 must include a full name, state, and club association (if applicable).

Qualified Players

After the last Open Qualifier held withn the stated qualification timeframe, players will be assessed by their total QP Score. A player's total QP Score will consist of the sum of:

  • Any Qualification Points earned by that player at NAO
  • The top three Qualification Point results that player has attained at Open Qualifiers

A list of players ranked by their total QP Score will be produced. This list will be used as the basis for selecting players to be invited to the Final Qualifier Invitational. In the event where qualified players are unable to attend the Final Qualifier Invitational, then qualification runs down the player list until all seats in the Final Qualifier Invitational are filled.

Behavioral Disqualification

As players selected by this system will be representing the United States community on the world stage, tournament behavioral standards are necessary. ARA reserves the right to disqualify any player marked with a major behavioral red flag including but not limited to:

  • Cheating
  • Aggressive, violent, or threatening behavior towards other players
  • Hate speech
  • Harassment of any kind

2024 ARA WRC Qualification Invitational

The Final Qualifier Invitational has been confirmed to be a 64 player event and will be held in NYC at Sparrow's Nest Studio on January 18-20, 2025 (Martin Luther King weekend). The US quota for WRC seats has been set to 16. This has rendered the original format obsolete, and the invitational must be reconfigured.

Registration for the invitational has been opened. All invitees have been messaged by e-mail. If any among the potential invitees have not received an invitation, please contact ARA ASAP, preferably via Discord for the fastest response time.

More information on the invitational is noted here.