‘No Euro/Japanese championship’
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 04 November 2010 06:16
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 November 2012 18:00
- Written by Staff
VIENNA - Visitors of Mahjong News who have filled in the latest poll, decline the idea of a European Riichi Mahjong Championship where only Europeans would be admitted plus Japanese players. This idea was suggested by the Viennese riichi club Kasu.
Kasu feels like organizing the next ERC, but has some outspoken ideas about the event. “Europe has a huge variety of riichi players and the Austrians think that now is the time to make it a real European competition. So, only European countries would be allowed to send players, with one exception: Japan”, claims the club.
No enthusiasm
The poll that Mahjong News made on the topic, ‘Next EC Riichi open or not’ show little enthusiasm for this idea.
79 visitors filled in the poll (a relatively high number). 63 of them (almost 80 percent) are of the opinion that all mahjong championships should be really open - like, until now, has always been the case. 14 visitors (17.7 percent) prefer the idea of a real European championship, i.e. for Europeans only.
Just 2 visitors (17.7 percent) like the Austrian idea of ‘Europeans plus Japanese’, whilst no-one like the idea ‘Europeans plus Japanese and Japanese’.
IMO, kuitan nashi will be the most problematic point for a world championship.
To shorten my point, kuitan-nashi Mahjong is like Formula 1 racing with 3 tires. It's probably a great learning exercise (good) that they turned into the only form of testing (bad). If that was the only problem, most people could live with that. The bigger problem for EMA Mahjong is their tolerance for a type of call that would be considered cheating anywhere else: tolerating the pick-and-switch for the same tile. (chi 78+9, throw nine; pon 11+1, throw one)
For a WC-Riichi event to succeed, that last point needs to be addressed once and for all. As for the rest of the rules, it will most likely be a take it or leave it scenario. There's nothing we can do about it.
But i appreciate the current changes cuz they minimize the luck factor a bit.