Beta League Pool B Summary
This pool really had a mix of experience levels - from people like Bichen Wang who is the current head of the Pacific Mahjong League to others like Aliena Mjolnir who were playing in a competitive format for the very first time and trying to find their sea-legs. And of course, there are people in the middle with some tournament experience, including yours truly. It was exciting to see if players with lots of experience would indeed rank highly, as this had been an issue in Pool D with so many strong players constantly playing against one another that they seemed to cancel each other out.
Round 3’s headline would be a battle for the throne. Kinyan Lui - no stranger to these types of settings, despite losing her top spot after Round 1 due to a 4th in her last game of Round 2, continued her trek up the points scale. Despite suffering another 4th place in her 2nd game - punished only for a single misstep evading someone else’s riichi, she regained her momentum and by the end of the round retook her spot at the top of the board. Meanwhile, Bichen struggled a bit in his matchup, suffering 2 last place finishes, but managing to hold 2nd place overall.
That battle though allowed some other names to pop into the picture. Both Jun Fan and Kaz Uchida, after putting together strong 2nd rounds, each solidified their position with a small positive gains, putting both within reach of Bichen, and consequently the leader Kinyan making it a 4-person battle at least for now.
As for the rest of the pool, there was very little movement. In fact, it was more of a settling as players clumped into groups above and below the 0-line.
It was the proverbial “Moving Day” in Round 4 as players looked to put themselves in a good position for the final round, but the round would belong to Axel Kelly. After falling into a hole early in the season, he had been chipping away at it in the subsequent rounds. But it was Round 4 where he would break out. 3 huge top placings gained him over 100 points and moved from 12th all the way to 4th! The highlight of the climb was in game 2 as he would have late back-to-back haneman and dealer mangan hands to cement his 2nd first place of the round and perhaps make those at the top slightly nervous…
Not just hitting the ippatsu, but an ura as well turning this into a haneman!
Pushing the initiative, he oikake (chase) riichi’s and is paid off with the more expensive wait!
Well, everyone except for Kinyan.
Because after relinquishing the lead briefly back to Bichen in the first 2 games of round 4, she seemingly achieved escape velocity, though not without some difficulty as she fended off a late charge from Daniel Nguyen in game 4 to take a 1st and finally put some space betwen her and her competition.
So while Kinyan would fly away with the Pool A title, the battle was on for the other 2 confirmed A1 spots. 6 players were in close contention and even if the guaranteed spots were lost, there was still a chance so long as they made the A1/A2 playoffs. The round would be played in 4 stanzas as each table would follow one after another, changing the landscape for the players left to play.
Stanza 1 - Kaz vs Andre Carniero vs Christian M vs Myself
Unfortunately for me, it was the Kaz and Andre show at the top of the table. Andre had 2 top placements and a 28 point second (!) place moving him from one playoff to another, reaching the A2/B1 playoff. Kaz ate a 4th place finish in the opening game, but roared back in the sandwich games, including a 50 point Game 3 where he closed a 30k+ point gap to take the lead in his dealer S round, putting him 2nd overall - for now.
Yet another oikake riichi that pays off! Throw in the ippatsu and ura and it’s 6000 all!
Stanza 2 - Kinyan vs Jun vs Aliena Mjolnir v Patrick Parmer
Aliena and Patrick were unable to really make much of a dent against the other players at the table. And while Kinyan’s sentinel-like play made sure she wouldn’t take a huge loss (and actually finished the league with a huge 1st), Jun was able to find his way into the top spot twice, taking 2nd overall from Kaz and seemingly punching his ticket to the A1 League.
Keeping tenpai proves costly as Kinyan takes her victory lap immediately in Game 4.
Stanza 3 - Daniel vs Aaron Ebejer vs Bill Sparkle v Kristaps Butners
Daniel’s chances for an A1 bid evaporated immediately as Aaron put a choke hold on the entire table. Having struggled for the entire session so far, with 4 games left it was if that tournament switch got flipped at just the right time. He would gain almost 100 points in the first 3 games, and it would only be Kristaps, who needed (and got) a 1st to complete the cycle (1 of each placing), that would prevent him from sweeping the table. Regardless he would give himself hope as he moved into a B1/B2 playoff spot.
Yet another chinitsu as Kristaps denies Aaron a chance of a clean sweep.
Final Stanza - Bichen v Axel v Gina Dougherty v Austin Tai
With just under 4 points separating Bichen and Axel and both around 30 points behind Kaz currently sitting in 3rd, it would be a rough battle to try and be that person to take that last spot away.
Despite Gina taking Game 1, Bichen and Axel would take the top spot in the middle 2 games, putting themselves right along Kaz with one game to play!
Axel - 110.4
Kaz - 104.6
Bichen - 101
Almost any 30k+ finish by either would at least put themselves ahead of Kaz, and barring an uneven split finishing ahead of the other would mean they would secure the final A1 guaranteed spot.
Bichen would put Axel in a bind early, hitting him for a mangan. Despite that being the only hand he paid into the entire game, he would be unable to gain any traction throughout.
But unfortunately for Bichen, the bell would toll on his run soon afterwards as Gina would take away almost 18k from him over the span of 4 hands, 3 of which he could not avoid paying into her. That would effectively kill his chances and leave Kaz with the last direct pass to the A1 League.
A fitting way to end an exciting pool all around.
