We are the champions! Berlin mahjong club is the best riichi mahjong club in the world
As one of the founding members of the riichi mahjong club league from 2024, our club was a shoe-in for the second edition. In 2025 the competition was going to be more serious, much tougher and a lot more prestigious than before. Instead of a one-off 4 hanchan tournament on a single day, this year’s event was to take place over the course of three weeks and three stages.
Every week, half of the teams would be eliminated, narrowing the competition until only four are left standing. The best riichi clubs would then commence the battle for pride and glory (and some handsome prize money) on the final weekend.
Playing for the Berlin Mahjong Club:
Junyu – 澜猫猫
Noah – Yulwei
Oliver – 天才8号
Ou – Janbo
Fabian – ひみつナナ
Yufan – 超閾值過載
TOP 16: vs USMA , Chombo Gang, São Paulo
The tournament almost ended before it had even begun for us. Due to rather unfortunate scheduling, the first leg of the RMCL coincided with another mahjong tournament in Torún, Poland. With a lot of last-minute scrambling, we somehow managed to assemble a team of 4 players for the day. Junyu and I would have to play the 4 hanchan of the TOP 16 stage immediately after the first day of the Torún tournament. Mahjong from dawn to midnight.
Within the first two hours, we build an almost unassailable lead in our group of 4 clubs. While the third hanchan was a little bit of a setback, we struck back with a vengeance in the 4th and concluded the day with more than 300 points. Yufan secured our victory with +80 1st Place in the final hanchan, granting us not only the all-important advancement to the round of 8, but also the first place overall after the first stage of the event (technically, Lisboa had a slightly higher score with 329 points, but due to a 45-point penalty, we ended up eking out 1st Place).
This day was a blast, but also utterly chaotic. I went from the Torún tournament straight to a restaurant, where I had to play the first hanchan for the RMCL while eating my very delicious traditional polish piroshki. For the second hanchan, I found a spot at the water, looking over the sun setting on the river, while I orchestrated a big comeback from fourth to first place in south 3. Afterwards, I tried to get back to my accommodation, but did not manage to find my way back in time and ended up having to play hanchan number 3 in the middle of the street somewhere in Torún.
Our individual scores for the TOP 16 competition were:
Noah +156.4
Yufan +153.6
Junyu + 116.6
Fabian -108.2
TOP 8 vs Kasu (Vienna), CARM (Argentine), TNT (Paris)
One week later, we found ourselves in a fierce group with some familiar European clubs as well as south American powerhouse CARM. Oliver and Ou joined Junyu and me in the team, as Fabian would be hosting our stream for this round.
The very first hanchan got away from us quickly. Everyone struggled in their matchups. After round one, Berlin was in last place with -103.5 points. The other 3 clubs had all managed to win at least one hanchan, creating a distance of more than 120 points to our closest competitors.
What followed was the single most legendary hanchan of BMC history. We won every table simultaneously.
Ou earned +84.7, Junyu +87.3, Oliver +69.8 and I +56.7, turning the tables in our group and instantly shooting off to a dominating first place at +195 points. The other three clubs all lost a ton of points too, which meant that we were now leading second place Kasu by more than 220 points.
The remaining hanchans saw Kasu climb up into the positive to secure a spot in the final, almost chasing us down with a huge win in the very last hanchan. But in the end, we had once again topped our group going into the final 4. This time it was not quite enough to win the day, as Chombo Gang, our rivals from TOP 16, destroyed their group with a score of +254.6.
Tenhou chance for Oliver during the second hanchan. But even without achieving one of the rarest yakumans in the game, he easily crushed the table and overturned the standings with a huge 1st place
Individual scores for the top 8:
Oliver +85.5
Ou +55.8
Noah +28.9
Junyu -8.7
TOP 4 vs Kasu (Vienna), Riichi Nomi (NY), Chombo Gang (Santiago de Chile)
So far, to quote our club president Julian, we had “barely measured up to his expectations” … four hanchans against the best competition stood between us and becoming the Riichi Mahjong Champions League Champions. We had met both Kasu (TOP 8) and Chombo Gang (TOP 16) before, and had triumphed over them back then. But just as was the case in prior rounds, points were reset to zero. Four hanchans for each player would decide the tournament then and there.
(You should absolutely watch the VOD of the TOP 4 btw, here it is. Spoilers ahead)
I was quite excited for the final. A chance to win in a mahjong tournament had eluded me in EMA tournaments so far, so these would be the most important hanchans of my playing career so far. And it could not have been a better start for me. In East two of the very first hanchan, I kept drawing the same tiles. With a chance at toitoi + yakuhai I was considering opening my hand when the first ton came out, but decided against it. The possibility of drawing into it myself was too tantalising. And I did. Discard 9 suuankou tenpai. Ron would have been a mangan or haneman depending on ura dora. But when my screen started glowing with the yakuman chance, a mere haneman sounded too cheap. And only 2 draws later, I drew the 5m to win my very first suuankou. The timing could not have been more perfect.
While it did not go as well for the others, we lead the final with 84 points after round one. Mostly off my win and avoiding 4th places on every table. With M-League uma and oka, any 1st Place was worth an unreal amount, and just as we did in the second hanchan a week earlier, any club could instantly jump ahead with 2-4 first places in a single hanchan.
The second hanchan did not go our way. No first place and 2 unfortunate last places meant 3rd place for the team after 2 hanchans. The silver lining was that no single club had been able to run away with the competition so far. With only about 90 points separating 1st and last place, anything was possible in the last 2 rounds.
And then. We did it again. 3 first places in the same round to flip the tables and catapult BMC to the top spot with a huge advantage heading into the final hanchan of the entire event.
The last hanchan was a painful experience for me. Even though I played very defensively and held 1st place for a while, the game got away from me. Some unfortunate back and forth saw me enter south 4 in last place. Just like a week before, when I had to play against ZuBe from Kasu, nothing seemed to work. Luckily, they ended up winning the hanchan, and as the team furthest from us in the standings, it was the least hurtful outcome possible given my 4th place.
Our strong position after 3 hanchans made everyone play a little more cautiously, and consequently no one was able to walk away with another 1st Place in the final hanchan. But with 2 decently big 2nd places from Ou and Junyu, as well as a moderate 3rd from Oliver, the team was able to soften the blow I had received. We had only lost about 30 points in hanchan number 4.
Junyu decided to fold this beautiful hand to secure our victory. Vying for 12000 points would not have changed anything for the team’s standings.
And thus, when the final results were revealed, we found ourselves at the very top yet again. Champions of the Riichi Mahjong (Club) world!
Individual Scores for TOP 4:
Noah +112.5
Junyu +25.3
Ou -8.6
Oliver -11.3
A huge shoutout to the organisers TNT, to Riichi City for sponsoring the event, Paul and Julian for organisation and communication and Fabian, Julian and Paul for the commentary! See you again next year when we extend our reign at the top of the world!
