On January 24, I had attended the first USPML event that they held in Manhattan. I had first found out about this organization from this post on MahjongNews that was linked to me on IRC. Since I live in New York, I was supposed to be a liaison or whatever between #mahjong and the USPML. When they announced their open play event, I signed up.
Tsuno has recently added a new, optional, rule for Tenhou CHAMPIONSHIPS, 'shuugi', which I'm sure a lot of 'PUROS' will jeer at. Shuugi rewards players for luck. Basically, for every ippatsu, aka dora and ura dora you get a bonus point. You get points for tsumo, ron and for getting yakuman hands too. As far as I understand, each of these bonus points can range from 2000-10000 depending on the Championship rules. I have a feeling I'm way off on that last sentence though.
In more recent news, Tsuno also posted a list of optional rules he's thinking of adding to championship mode, this includes open riichi, yakitori, flower tiles, option to start with 2 dora indicators, wareme and Washizu Mahjong.
Edit: Apparently Tsuno was thinking of adding Aotenjou too but due to 32bit, it's nearly impossible to have numbers that high. He said something about 'buu mahjong' too
Since I haven't played on ron2 in months, I decided to cancel my subscription and I was amazed at how they handled it.
Most online games at least allow you to use whatever remaining time you have left after cancelling but Ron2 decides to be completely different and delete your account. They didn't even allow me to use whatever remaining time I had left.
To give them some credit, they at least warned me before I cancelled my account!
Oh and afterwards they decided to tell me `we look forward to seeing you again'
退会しました。
すべてのデータが削除されました。
ご利用ありがとうございました。
またのご利用をお待ちしております。
I doubt I will actually become a paying member of ron2 again.
MahjongNews has just released an unofficial list of the best European riichi tournament players of 2009. For some reason, drob is in there. In spot #37. As the only Swede. If I'm not mistaken, this makes him the best Swedish player in Europe.
"... since formal EMA riichi tournaments were not held until 2008, when the first European Riichi Mahjong Championship took place, in Hanover. So, unlike the MCR list, comparisons with earlier rankings are not possible."
...best ever Swedish player in Europe?
After I started playing mahjong, I learned one thing very fast. It is great to be in the lead. It's not just great. It is amazingly awesome. You are like a champion looking down on the rabble, watching them scrabble around for crumbs from your table, more often than not having to cannibalize each other to stay ahead. When a minor threat emerges, you can just put on your defensive armor and snicker at the pathetic attempts at toppling you. Should you choose to take the offensive, you can strike from anywhere, at anyone, with anything. Or if you are rich and bored you can just take a luxurious stroll around menzen mansion and not do much of anything, while everyone else is hanging on your every discard, safe in the knowledge that even doing absolutely nothing can benefit you. Being in the lead is great. But how great is it?
Since upload.youtube.com is failing to load for me, I'll post this here.
This video is from a DVD that came with Kindai Mahjong Gold, it's a series of documentaries on Sakurai Shouichi or something, it's four people (not Shouichi) playing Jankiryu. I've only uploaded the first round, but if theres interest I might upload some more.
