Nanpuu May 2026 Tournament

(This was originally written June 1st, the Monday two days after the Nanpuu tournament. Despite posting this late enough that some of the things I wrote are out of date, I don't want to rewrite this so I'll posting it as is.)

What even is Nanpuu?

Last Saturday was Riichi Nomi's "Nanpuu" May Member's Tournament. This tournament was mostly for fun, but 1st and 2nd place winners get seats in the World Riichi Mahjong Champions League's International Club Battle. I entered it because one of the New Year's Resolutions I made this this year was to enter IRL tournaments. I didn't actually expect to win.

The venue was a small classroom right by the Pier 57 Food Hall. Despite it being loud and crowded outside, the classroom it was quiet once you entered. It was just about the right size for a 20 person tournament.

Since this was techically practice for the WRM Champion's League, the ruleset was the same as the one they would use (MLeague). The only major caveat was that we would only be playing the South Round, hence "Nanpuu". There was also a 45 minute timer so games wouldn't go on too long. Best cumulative score at the end of four games wins.

Game 1

The first game wasn't anything special until all last. I was just shy of 8000 points away from 1st place. I flopped a hand that had no dora or aka, but it did have potential for both chanta and chiitoi. I actually physically cringed when around turn 4 or so, I accidently tsumogiri-ed my 5th pair without noticing. I got to riichi, with the following as my final wait with three 7s left:

After my riichi, absolutely nothing seemed to happen for an uncomfortably long time. Finally, around 1st place's second to last draw, they suddenly took a long pause. They discarded 7s. After the match, he confided in the table that he was going for tenpai payments. Oof.

Game 2

When the pairings for tournament initially came out, I thought I was done for right then and there. I didn't recognize anyone at my first table that was particularly skillful, but the other three tables were a different story. For my second table, I was up against Club President and actual Professional Mahjong Player™ Claire. It got worse when I realized Jude, the last Member's Event tournament winner who was also at this table.

It ended up being a very call heavy game, compared to all the other tables I played. Without any big hands, the scores were very tight. On South-4, I was 1st with Claire 2nd a few thousand points behind. I found myself doing a lot of sakigiri that hand so I would have a have ample safe tiles to drop if I needed them. Despite this, my hand came together fast anyway. It was a single tile wait with no yaku unless I riichi-ed. I'm still unsure about what was the correct choice, but I riichi-ed hoping to push the others to fold. Unfortunately for me, 4th place riichi-ed after me and the game repeats, just barely beating out the clock.

With two sticks on the table, Claire can win with any hand at all now and take 1st. I really started regretting that riichi. Claire started calling immediately, followed by Jude. At this point, all I can do is fold and hope Jude wins. At least if Jude wins, I have a chance to keep my 1st. By some stroke of luck, Jude wins on ron and is just short of my score.

Game 3

The third game was my luckiest game by far. I was facing a bunch of strong Riichi Nomi regulars, including Aki, who straight up killed me the last 2 games we played together (One was so horribly unlucky I clipped it way back when it happened). I started the first round making a pretty horrible mistake. I end up with this exact hand relatively early:

I end up throwing 9s here. There were already 2 copies of the white dragon visible on the table. I can't defend this to be honest. I was punished for this when I drew back 9s and discarded it again, only to deal in to a mangan. Guh.

Somehow I still get out of this game with a very strong 1st place. The very next hand I score a haneman, followed in quick succession with a dama dealer mangan on Aki. I folded the last hand, which went into exhaustive draw. But as the cherry on top, I got to keep the 2 sticks on the table since we were playing MLeague rules. This ended up being my highest scoring game.

Game 4

My final table of the day had Max (LightPinkYoshi) and Mia (missinginaction). Max is a Tenhou 8 dan while Mia is an N-League player who mentored under Claire last year. Under normal conditions I would have feared this table. However, I was so far in the lead the only way I would lose this is if I messed up tremendously. Mia was in 4th place around 90 points behind me and Max was definitely out of the running for 1st. I would have to come last and Mia first for Mia to have a shot at surpassing my score.

Half of that came true immediately when Mia got an early dealer haneman on my toimen. I lock in and proceed to fold basically every hand. Except at one point, I draw an early dora 3 and decide it would be better to force tanyao. I hit toimen with a dama tanyao dora 3 aka 1. Poor toimen has to use the busting stick.

At all last the scores were as follows:

Mia (missinginaction)   45,000
Charlie (Rhoooo)        32,600
LightPinkYoshi          28,000
Justin(kcab)            -5,600

Max opens his hand in first row on an honors pon. His first row discards were manzu, quickly followed by souzu. At this point, I decide to fold specifically to Max.

My logic was this. Just the hand previously, Mia won a low value dama hand, so I figured she wouldn't be trying to much value and would prioritize defending here 1st place. Toimen was so far gone I figured I wouldn't have to worry about him unless he riichis, since that's the only way he could possibly dig himself out of that hole. That leaves my only possible threat as Max. His hand is likely pinzu honitsu and the dora is 6p, so it's best I don't take my chances.

This is where things get somewhat weird. Max eventually starts discarding pinzu in the second row, but he also discards the dora. My hand looks like a complete mess from defending. I don't even have a shanten anymore. More than half of it is honors and pinzu, so I'm just discarding anything else without thinking too much.

Embarrassingly, this is the last game going on after the timer, so the entire room is watching. I get really self conscious about how ridiculous my hand looks to anyone behind me. At one point, I tedashi one of my 3s pair, only to tsumogiri 3s immediately. Twice. And then I followed it up by tedashi with my last 3s. That one gets some confused laughs from the peanut gallery. Mia looked so confused too lol.

Somehow, Mia and toimen accidently draw past the end of the wall. After putting those tiles back, everyone notens. No one even had a hand.

Max showed his after the game ended. Apparently he had collected a lot of honors tiles too, but his hand never came together since I had all the ones he needed. I thought Max was going for a hand that would only take 2nd from me. It was honestly really impressive how he can still think about winning while 17000 points behind 1st. Apparently Mia didn't even know I was folding until the last 3s drop and only started folding then. It was the most cursed hand I have ever played.

Final Thoughts

I won 1st overall with Mia coming 2nd. Mia couldn't make the Interclub tournament, so that seat went to Mittens in 3rd place. And apparently, there was tangible prize! I was presented with some Riichi Nomi poker chips. And a cookie from someone for some reason (It was delicious thank you).

Anyway that's how it ended. I have to prepare for the Interclub tournament now. I'm not even a Master 1 player on Mahjong Soul. I can't even use the Jade Room to practice. I'll have to use Red Orange League games to practice instead. I think this is going to be the last time Riichi Nomi decides to picks out players based on the results of such a small tournament.