Sword Girls is an online TCG written in flash to work for any browser (no downloads or heavy clients). You can craft any card in the game for free, though paying has its benefits. There are regular events, daily quests, and even cash prizes for the elite. And the fun part? They cards are all girls.

There is also a random factor to it, and the fights have a nice flow (no more than 5 minutes for really hard fights). Dungeons, bosses, mining, you can even gift cards to your girl so she’ll evolve.

Did I mention the random factor? There are awesome cards out there that can change the course of the game. Swap Spell, which might as well have a troll face attached to it, Sister’s Letter, Shrink, oh, and it’s always fun when your opponent has a highly buffed character and you ran out of removals, and all you can do is watch your sword girls attack the wrong target… repeatedly, embarking into suicidal missions.

So, yeah, join us at the IRC and ask for a Fight!

Also, this is a sorry excuse for an April post.

As you may know, EMA has recently revised the rules for Riichi tournaments. Well, forget about all of it for now, because this tournament was probably the last one played under the old rules. This mainly means, that the uma was still -9000/-3000/3000/9000. Sure, why not, although we wanted to try out the new uma too.

This is where we played.

Since it was held one week after a tournament in Puteaux, some people came directly from that one. Especially Ans and Cor Hoogland, who took this as a great way to spend a few weeks of vacation (along with their big black dog, who quickly became an attraction). Others were Kim Iversen, who is also very keen on traveling, UK’s Martin Lester and frenchman Joel Ratsimandresy. We played in a nice asian restaurant Wasabi, where we also ate tasty asian food (sushi, miso, udon, mixed bento, etc.). Very nice and very cool.

All in all, eight countries were represented by 24 participants. The event lasted two days, with six hanchans. I went into the tournament with a bit of nervousness, since last time I played one – in Hanover- didn’t go so well. But after day one, I was pretty happy – after the first three hanchans I was standing on 2nd place. I thought well, this might work out nicely!

This is where we ate

On day two, my first hanchan ended with me on 3rd place. Just -5400, alright, I can still do this. Second hanchan was the most stressing one. The table was stacked – Cor Hoogland, Tobias Klüpfel and Nicolas Poilleux. The skill and experience of these players was really showing. Until south 2 (or 3, not sure now), no one scored even a mangan hand. The score differences were very small, and anyone who would have managed to shoot a bigger hand could win. I was close to some really nice hands, but often had to betaori out of them. And still, at the end of the south round, my nerves or bad luck or everything combined got the best of me. I dealt in twice into Toby’s hands – both were inside waits, one was damaten, one had 4 ura-dora and one had like 3 dora. My defense still has some holes.

This threw me totally back, and I needed the last hanchan to go really well to stay in top 10. But alas, mahjong gods were not having it. Firstly, the last table was the slowest ever. I started as north, and I was afraid I won’t be able to get to be east in the 90 minutes. Sorry guys – Martin Lester and Ernest Glaser – you need to practice speed! At least Joel was keeping up. Anyway, Martin was dominating this table. Tsumoing almost everything he got, we got into 5 renchans. After that was broken, and I even got to be east (I think I was hit by a tsumo of course), we got to south 1 and we only had time for one more hand. And my hand was really really nice. It formed up beautifully, and I riichi’d a potential baiman – riichi, pinfu, san-shoku, 3 red dora, one normal dora. Of course only if I could get my tile. But as you would expect – after like 10 rounds of nothing, Ernest to my left tsumoed my tile, got a haneman with it, and jumped over me to 2nd place on the table with 200 points.

The gods of mahjong have a really twisted sense of humor!

That was pretty unlucky. But the biggest jumper of the tournament award goes to my countrymate, Juraj Jerguš (nicknamed Onizuka, cause he’s that awesome). After day one, he was last, with something like -75000 points. He was pretty down, and decided to wear his trollface t-shirt the next day, and play accordingly. Well what do you know – after the last three hanchan, he managed to win everything he could and jump to +5500, which secured him a nice 11th place. I finished just behind him, 12th, with 4000. At least I was in plus!

Ans and Cor Hoogland with their little puppy.

So finally, Kim Iversen from Denmark won the tournament with his consistent play, getting minus points only on one table. Second place belongs to Nicolas Poilleux from France, who also played very consistently and this result put him on the first place in the overall EMA ranking. Third place was Lena Weinguny from Vienna’s Kasu club. The Austrians played very well in this tournament. Complete results on the EMA site.

So, to summarize – I really enjoyed this tournament. I was happy with how I played most of the time, but a few hiccups cost me a lot, as it usually happens. We got some information from the organizer – Alexander Doppelhofer – about his offer to organize the European championships. His plan is to do a joint individual and also a team tournament, which is very exciting in my opinion. We’ll see how it goes.

So, see you after another tourney!

Cor Hoogland is a pretty cool guy. No, really!

いくらなんでも「悔しい」、「勝てない」、「へたくそだ」を考えていても、やはり麻雀ができる感覚が、まさに最高なのではないか。

しかも、へたでもたまには勝てる。たまには他人にその自分が経験したことある悔しさを感じさせる事ができると言う事実も。

でも、みんな最後には笑っているはずだろ。一緒に打つ事ができた事も、感謝してるのだろう。

他人がいるからこそ、麻雀ができるのだ。それは感謝しろ。大切な事なのだから。

俺は世界でたった一人の雀士・・・いや、たった一人の人間になったら、麻雀最強になってるのは誰も否定出来無い事実となる。しかし、それも寂しいのだろう。麻雀で競い合えるからこそ楽しいのよ。

俺はまだ楽しんでいたいのだけど、すっごく悔しさを感じる時もあるんだ。やはり、そう言う時にはやめるしかないのだろう。麻雀への悪い思い出が付いてしまうからです。

俺は一生ただ楽しんでいたい。みんなと一緒に。

皆、麻雀頑張ろうぜ。みんなこそ最強なんだから。一人じゃないのだけ。

どうやら、麻雀の楽しさは喧嘩、争い、批判などではない。麻雀の楽しさは、一緒に打つ事ができたと言う深いところにあるのさ。

みんなでそれぐらいは感謝しとこう。

What I mean when I talk about consistency in your discards is… be faithful to your logic/style/beliefs/school of thought/theories/experience/that sixth sense for the occult that always helps you win/whatever. I’m not saying you should stick to what you know and never change it, you probably should improve your game every time more, but what I mean is… if you’re going to suddenly change your whole game, don’t do it in the middle of a game. Or even worse, in the middle of a hand. If you’re digital, don’t suddenly go occult because you had a sudden hunch; or if you’re occult, don’t go digital just because you’ve begun doubting yourself due to that mangan you dealt into the hand before.

It’s painful to see a guy switching between aiming for ittsuu or chanta three discards in a row, just to get himself into furiten later on because he couldn’t decide on one when he had to. You should remember that every one of your discards should have a meaning and a reason to it. If you go one way or another “just because” then your results will be substandard.

It doesn’t matter your belief, your system or your method, all discards can (and will) backfire at one point. If you panic at that point and attempt to play it off as if nothing happened, switching courses yet again, in a half-assed way, then your results will be half-assed too. Instead, you should remember the reason why you chose to go one way, and whether straying from that course will be beneficial or not in reality.

If at one point you considered a path to be inferior to another and you destroy that shape, when that shape comes back (if it comes back) it will be a lot weaker than at the time you destroyed it. So you must really think twice whether you wanna switch roads again. Is it really worth of it?

Also, if you happen to lose consistency because you are starting to doubt, don’t! Make sure your discards have a sound reason and intent for them (it doesn’t matter if they’re right or wrong, superstitious or logical, they just need to have a purpose to carry out) and if they manage to carry out their purpose, then you’re winning in a way!

When you learn better strategies, you’ll send your tiles to accomplish better purposes, but don’t just dispatch a lot of your units into quests just to cancel them halfway through.

If anything, think before you discard. Most of the time it’s as simple as that.

I bet all of you have been playing online mahjong fairly often these days and that some are fed up fiddling around with Tenhou and the likes.

So you want to move further to … Real Life Mahjong?

I cannot offer you a trip to Japan for playing against the masters of the table, but I can still give you a list and hints where you can find the nice, eager to play and – in my eyes – competent players you can find on #osamuko from all around the globe.

This section is quite new, so be sure to check it again in a few weeks!

If you also want to be on the list or if you know places where you’re playing at, please write me an eMail (you can find the adress in the list) with all necessary information or visit the IRC-channel.

#osamuko Hall of Fame:

s25k, Minden / Cologne, Germany - eMail: maajanbu (at) yahoo.de

s25k:

So this is myself. 24 years old. I’m always looking for motivated new players from around the area. I welcome everybody who’d like to enjoy playing with real tiles. But I’m also a fan of fast paced games, so watch out!

xkime, The Americas / Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: nicobsas (at) gmail.com

xkime:

Born in 1991. Argentina, Capital. Parlor experience; encourages manners and fine play. Aiming for Phoenix Tables at tenhou. Patient and newbie-friendly group.

Tenhou User and Blog

Will be added to this section soon:

Senechal, Canada

NAB, Singapore

Mikoto, Stockholm, Sweden

Lorizean, Germany

Players and groups looking for players – the complete List:

(Known IRC-Channel visitors are marked with a ” # “)

Europe:

• UK

# Osamu, 20 years old, Manchester

Contact via eMail: osamu (at) osamuko.com

# Bob2004, 20 years old, Cardiff

“Feel free to come along even if you don’t know how to play, I’m happy to teach you.”

Contact via eMail: alexevans2002004+mahjong (at) googlemail.com

koral, 21 years old, Oxford

“Used to play with some friends but they never got enough interest in the game. I have got my own Japanese set and a good foldaway table. Would be happy to meet any mahjong interested people for a game or a drink.”

Contact via eMail: forced.sage (at) Gmail.com

Pingu, London.

“I’m based in London UK, would love to find some players for a regular live game.

I’m a 5Dan player on Tenhou with 600+ Hanchans logged and a rating high of 19XX.”

Contact via eMail: londonreachmahjong (at) gmail.com

• Germany

# ron⁵, Frankfurt a.M.

Contact via IRC Channel

#s25k, 24 years old, Minden / Cologne

“If you live nearby and even if you don’t, feel free to drop me a message! Every player who enjoys playing is welcome.”

Contact via eMail: maajanbu (at) yahoo.de

• France

GGzeOuf, 26 years old, Montpellier

“We gather twice or 3 times per month on saturday afternoon. The club consists of about 10 people, mostly begginers that are learning the game for a few months now and a couple of experienced players. Hence, novice and skilled players are welcome.”

Contact via eMail: ggzeouf (at) gmail.com and Facebook

• Poland

Szymon, Warsaw

“We have Mahjong Club in Poland, Warsaw, with meetings every sunday to play and learn Mahjong. In case anyone would like to come and
play: we welcome everyone.”

Contact via eMail: archalv (at) gmail.com and Facebook

• Sweden

drob, Växjö

“We’ve a budding mahjong club”

Contact via eMail: mahjong (at) azaz.se

The Americas:

-

Asia:

-

Il faut distinguer le mahjong qui se joue « en réel » de celui qui est pratiqué en ligne. Dans les parties non virtuelles, il se pratique à quatre joueurs, avec des pièces appelées tuiles et avec des règles relativement élaborées que nous ne détaillerons pas ici. La version online du mahjong consiste en une pyramide de tuiles que l’on doit retirer par paire similaire.
Dans sa version « de terrain » ce jeu mêle tout autant tactique et calcul que psychologie et chance en fonction des règles jouées. Malgré l’ancienneté de ce jeu, ça n’est que très récemment que les règles officielles se sont diffusées largement à l’Europe et au reste du monde. C’est en 2002 qu’a eu lieu le premier Championnat du Monde de mah-jong organisé et géré par la Japan Mahjong Organization. Et à partir de 2005 la règle officielle chinoise s’est imposée comme référence en Europe. En 2006 la World Mahjong Organization (WMO) édite le Green Book qui pose définitivement les standards officiels.

It is important to distinguish Mahjong that is played “for real” from mahjong played online. In non-virtual games, it is played with 4 players, with pieces called tiles and with relatively elaborate rules that we won’t discuss in detail here. The online version of Mahjong consists of a pyramid of tiles that must be removed pair by pair.
In its “on terrain” version, this game intricately combines tactics, calculations and psychology as well as luck according to the rules played. Despite the age of this game, it has only been recently established that official rules have spread largely across Europe and to the rest of the world. It is in 2002 that the first World Mahjong Championship was run and organized by the Japan Mahjong Organization. And in 2005, the Chinese Official rules has imposed itself as the reference in Europe. In 2006, the World Mahjong Organization (WMO) published the Green Book that definitely sets the official standards.

Ignoring the point that they are definitely playing fast with the facts concerning the elaboration of organizations, and that we at osamuko.com recommend you play exclusively riichi mahjong (we prefer with open tanyao, but without isn’t necessarily bad), what was done here is as follows: they took the legalization of gambling for skill games like mahjong and basically said “we’ll apply it to something completely different.”
I do not know the laws in France, nor what’s really allowed in spielotheques (places with Video Lottery Terminals, or slots, and the like) but they have insulted the game of Mahjong by allowing gambling or redemption games to use the good credit built by Mahjong’s worldwide ambassadors: Tenhou, the EMA, Mahjong Montréal, ReachMahjong.com and of course, us here at osamuko.com. This creates a dangerous precedent which is tantamount to legalizing betting on single die rolls because “Craps is legal”. One card Baccara or Poker.

We will defend the right to exist of web portals offering Mahjong for money (like the MahjongLogic network) but this skill games travesty is impossible to support. If it is legal in France/Europe to offer a game so denatured from the original, we at osamuko.com recommend that you unplug your computer and go meet a Mahjong organization in your country (like Tri Nitro Tiles or Kasu)… and if it isn’t, that the French/European government assumes responsibility to regulate such gambling dérapages.

#3 Haku

A pure tile; untouched by dirty paintbrushes.

#2 1p

It seems like whenever an anime/manga needs an epic win or they need something mahjong related they’ll use a 1p.

#1 Haku Pocchi

While only ever seen in jansous, Haku Pocchi is truly the greatest tile ever. It’s a haku with a bit of paint but If you draw this tile after a riichi it counts as any tile you want!

#10 Jenn Barr

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. A blonde girl with blue eyes, crushing you in mahjong? That can be hot. She adds the american flavor in Japanese mahjong, in the good way.

#9 Tezuka Sakiku

Professional of free parlors. She has been a sex symbol in the mahjong world from while back, and she still has her charms. Maybe because we still love gamblers. She is in a Mahjong Idol Group (much like AKB48, except for female pros) called Suzume alongside Ueda Yui, Naruse Akemi and Sakuraba Fumie.

#8 Miyauchi Kozue

Professional at the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. She’s beautiful, talented and a warmhearted pro. Her beauty supports her talent and natural kindness.

#7 Oririn Heart

From the Good Players Club. She’s not only a good player, but she is good. Her true job is that of a gravure idol, but she tries her best to improve at mahjong and she can be seen regularly playing in mahjong broadcasts alongside Babi Hirokazu and Kajimoto Takunori (lucky bastards!).

#6 Oosaki Hatsune

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong Association (NPM). She is known by some to be air-headed or vulgar, even tomboyish, but there is more to this player. She made her way from working into cabarets in Japan to actually winning a title as a professional player and even today continues to tell off her foes, while getting more admiration by her fans.

#5 Ishii Aya

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong Association. Recently she was featured at Saikyousen ’11 as representative for female professionals (after winning that right in the preliminaries). Her slender, small, cute and shy image may give you the wrong impression at the table, where she will kick your butt if she has to. And most of us most likely wouldn’t mind.

#4 Shirakawa Yukina

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. Lately featured in Janryuumon broadcasts with Takunori Kajimoto. She’s not afraid to show her body, and her mahjong.

#3 Izumi Yukiko

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. Her nickname is “ice doll.” This cold cutie has even made DVDs for our entertainment, and not only mahjong DVDs.

#2 Nikaidou Rumi

From the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. The oldest sister of the mahjong professional “Nikaidou” sisters. Her rank at the league may not be as high as her younger sister’s, but her looks and beauty surely aren’t behind!

#1 Nikaidou Aki

Also from the Japanese Professional Mahjong League. She will probably stay at number one for a while. She is arguably the female player with the most notable results, at least at her league, and her popularity knows of no bounds. If someone knows about mahjong, even if barely, it’s highly likely they’ll know of her. A manga based about her called “Aki” is also published regularly.

—

I wouldn’t mind seeing any of them (I have only personally met #6 and #5) but remember, most of them like people who are skilled at mahjong. So don’t forget to practice! You never know.

If you want to see some of these girls playing, check out the following official (completely legal, FUCK YOU SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/FBI/NAZIS) youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/sangroup3

The top row, is your nickname:  きめず

The next link, is the validity for your account. If you’re a premium user, it will tell you when your premium account expires. (Old screenshot is old. w) This is called 有効期限 (yuukou kigen).

The dropdown list contains the different types of games; if you just play the regular 4 player mahjong, don’t bother touching it. It’s just to view different stats. In this case, should you ever need to reset it manually, ■All Periods of Time/Ranking Matches for 4 players. ■全期間/段位戦　４人打ち　(zenkikan / dan’isen  yonin uchi) (Yes, it’s actually yonin rather than yonnin.)

４級　７５/９０ｐｔ　R1800

This is your rank and rate. I’ve heard players who are third kyu say they are third dan. Don’t make this mistake, it makes you look silly. Kyu grades are written in arabic numbers (987654321) while dan rates are written in kanji (初二三四五六七八九十). Notice you start as 新人 (rookie/shinjin) and you end up as 天鳳位 (tenhoui) after you pass 10th dan. Next is the amount of points you have and need to get to the next rank. Lastly, your rate (how well you play, though it doesn’t mean much for the first 200 or 300 games). 1500 is the average for new players (新人).

１位率 .379 / How much you get first place. (ichi’i ritsu) 37.9%

２位率 .379 / How much you get second place. (ni’i ritsu) 37.9%

３位率 .241 / How much you get third place. (san’i ritsu) 24.1%

４位率 .000 / How much you get fourth place. (yon’i ritsu) 0%

飛び率 .000 / How much you go under 0 points. (tobi ritsu) 0%

対局数 29 / Number of games. 29 games.

平均得点 20.9 / Average point gain. You know, those +53, -51, +-0, etc. you get after the game ends; the average of all of them. 20.9 points per game.

平均順位 1.86 / Average placement. You know,  1-4-4-4-2-1-3-4-4-4-etc. averaged. 1.86st place average.

平均収支 – Average income. Only for jansou mode.

平均祝儀 – Average chips. Only for jansou mode.

和了率 .302 / Hand win rate. How often you win hands (you know, like theoretically, in four player mahjong you’re supposed to be winning one fourth of the hands, and even less because of draws where nobody wins). Winning, in average, 30.2% of the hands (a little under one third). This can be read as “agari ritsu” or “houra ritsu.” And they’re both right.

放銃率 .091 / Deal-in rate. How often you deal into others’ hands. 9.1% of the time (meaning, dealing in less than a tenth of the hands). It is called “houjuu ritsu” as “houjuu” refers to “dealing in.”

副露率 .406 / Calling rate. How often you call tiles. Pon, kan, chii. Ron and tsumo are, of course, not counted. Do note, closed kan are also considered here, as kan is a call. Called “fuuro ritsu” because “fuuro” is a “call”/”open meld”/whatever you wanna name it. You may find it in other servers as 鳴き率 (naki ritsu). 40.6% means you (in this case, me) call tiles pretty often.

立直率 .163 / How often  you riichi. 16.3% of the hands. Riichi ritsu.

You then have another dropdown menu. This is for the “monthly ranking” tenhou has. It only counts for the month, and you need at least 30 games in the month to be officially in it. There are many divisions, for different game types, that you can select on it. If you just click every button and play in whichever game starts faster, don’t even bother.

月間／般南　喰いアリ赤 – Monthly / General Lobby’s East-South Games, with Open TanYao and Red 5′s. (Gekkan / pan-nan Kui ari aka)

2+4+1+0 = 7戦

This just counts your number of first places, plus your number of second places, plus your number of third places, plus your number of fourth places to display the total amount of games you played that month. Two first places, four second places, one third place and no fourth places for a total of seven games.

R1800 １３９１２位 / This is your position in the Rate ranking. It compares how high your rate is compared to other players who play the same mode as you. With a R of 1800 in the general lobby’s hanchan (with aka and kuitan), you’d rank somewhere among the highest 14 thousand. Tenhou is crowded of players with a rate higher to 1800. Contrary to the popular belief. w

Then, you have two columns, one to the right and one to the left. They read 通算 and 平均. Tsuusan and Heikin. Something like, the raw number to the left, and the “average” to the right.

得点　+156 3566位 (通算)  +22.2 (平均) / This 得点 (tokuten) refers to the points you get at the end of each game. The raw number is a positive 156, which means if you summed up the numbers of those 7 matches (like, +54 +11 -2, etc), you’d get a total of 156, and that would put you in the 3566th place among people in the same ranking (again, for that kind of game and lobby). Then, the average (heikin) would be 22.2 per game. (Notice, I didn’t have 30 games at the time that month, so you cannot see the position for the average portion)

順位 +90 3458位　(通算) 1.85　（平均） / This is “jun’i” or “placement.” I have no idea how the raw number to the left is calculated, but if it’s a positive number, the higher the better. With a +90, that’s about 3458th. Then, the average would be 1.85st per game. It’s like you’re virtually getting first places every time you play, with a virtual second place from time to time. The middle line in mahjong is 2.5; everything below that (2.3, 2.2, 2.1, etc) is win, while everything below that (2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, etc) is fail. Again, none of these mean anything in the short run, anyway.

Then you have the lines for 収支 and 祝儀. Income, and chips. Only for jansou mode.

合計 means total, and your total for the above info would appear in there once you play the 30 games a month in that game type. It converts all those numbers into a single one, and puts it against the other players’ to give you a more general position. If this ever happens to become 1位、it would mean that you were the best player -in general- for that mode UP until that point of the month. So yeah, pat yourself in the back if that happens.

More stats include:

トップ率 .285 / Top ritsu. How often you took first place (top) that month. Should theoretically be around a fourth (25%) of all games when playing against player of the same skill level. 28.5% of games.

連対率 .857 / Rentai ritsu. How often you took first and second place (non-”losing” placements) that month. Should theoretically be 50% (half) when playing against people of your same level. 85.7% of games

ラス率 .0 / Rasu (last) ritsu. How often you take last place. It’s best to keep this low. It grades you on how low it is, not how high. So, the guy in the first place of the ranking would be like 0.000001% and not 99.999999999%

Also, whenever you “need” anything from tenhou in English, just look at this page first: http://arcturus.su/tenhou/

It’s usually in there.

PS: I’m thinking I should have a new column called “SEX” for real. “Simple Explanations by XKime.” It would makes us get more hits.

Anyway, as I said in the last news post, on December  17th we will be hosting a tournament on Tenhou to promote the new league several Osamuko.com staff members have created  To satisfy all time zones  the tournament is 8 hours long, so there will probably be times when no one is queuing, if this happens just come to the IRC channel  (#osamuko@irc.rizon.net) and ask for players!

[Tournament Name] 第1回　地球麻雀リーグ杯
[Date] 2011/12/17 9pm-5am GMT
[Prize] 1-3 Guaranteed place in the league and, maybe, free Tenhou premium for 1st*.
[Rules] Standard Tenhou ruleset, kuitan ari, aka ari.
[Ranking] Players are ranked according to their best score from 3 consecutive games. For example, if a player had -23 +45 +53 +35 -45, his score would be +133
[Requirements] Only requirement is a tenhou ID.
[URL] http://tenhou.net/0/?C25144842

*Tsunoda gives out tickets for Tenhou premium to championships which meet his requirements. We’re not sure if we’ll be able to qualify for this.