World Riichi Championship 2014 - rules!

[Shirluban]

The rule revision in online:
http://www.wrc2014.com/docs/wrc_rules.pdf

[jespernohr]

Noticed it this morning. Very good work on the rules and updating of them It's a really solid rule set that shouldn't create many debate situations during the tournament! Great work Sylvain

[Iapetus]

Can we expect these rules to be the the final version, or is it possible that it will still be slightly revised?

[Shirluban]

Can we expect these rules to be the the final version, or is it possible that it will still be slightly revised?

It's the final version.

[Senechal]

{I am not in any way affiliated with the WRC organization or rules committees and do not claim to represent them in any way. This is a statement of basic facts, followed by an opinion. Feather-ruffling is me and me alone.}
There has been an e-mail sent out this morning to clarify the tournament structure.

The catching area has been doubled from 16 to 32 for the top, the cutoff is still after round 8, and there are a 15th and 16th hanchan as a final table, which if you make it on to the final table, you may end up famished given the timing with lunch. Players 33-120 will not be bracketed, hopefully they are able to keep shuffling players for maximum exposure to Japanese pros and other players.

The advancement, despite the wording, is still TOP-2. If you make it 3rd on your table, you will drop regardless if someone in 2nd has less points, even after uma and chombo points, you will fall out of contention for the championship.

There is an update to the schedule directly on the WRC website here: http://www.wrc2014.com/agenda.php

Now, with an update like this 2 weeks before the tournament, what kind of opinions are we going to hear...

The lack of update to the rules is high unprofessional and unsatisfactory for the players going to the tournament!

Yeah, we'll probably end up with someone (maybe the same someone) saying the polar reverse to this, claiming that it's unprofessional to update something so minor. I'm positively surprised that the organizers were able to negotiate this change, because of the difficulty in negotiating changes and adjustments with the stakeholders. If you have an opinion about it, share it here: without naming the site, you can say more than 500 characters and won't be censored for having an opinion, as long as it's in good taste.

[Senechal]

As an extra observation, thanks to osamu, there are 122 players currently registered. Are we gaining two more after, losing two, have two needed to be urgently replaced... I can't speculate as to why or how, all I know is that 122 doesn't divide into 4.

[Iapetus]

As an extra observation, thanks to osamu, there are 122 players currently registered. Are we gaining two more after, losing two, have two needed to be urgently replaced... I can't speculate as to why or how, all I know is that 122 doesn't divide into 4.

I'd think that Finland and Denmark were given an extra seat each because 2 people from other countries cancelled.

[Shirluban]

The list is not up to date. It should be corrected by the end of the day.

Isabel Beiraho is replaced by Morten.
One of the Chinese player resigned in favor of an extra Finland player.
Two Japanese players switched.

[Shirluban]

Completely unofficial WRC manner guidelines

[Iapetus]

Despite the rather oppressive rulebook, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of laxness the players showed. I didn't see a single dead hand call for a falling dead wall tile. My opponents let me keep playing after saying a pon at the wrong time, and I didn't bother to punish a Dutch lady who ron'd me by saying "Mahjong".

It seems everyone was focused on making the game go smoothly, rather than punishing every offense. I think that's rather good competitive spirit. Well, calling a 1000-point penalty is simply detrimental, since it slows down the game and doesn't help the caller.

The two furiten rons I saw were of course punished with a chombo.

[Senechal]

I dropped two tiles from an opponent's hand and that deserves the dead hand penalty.

There were some oppressive players out there though, dead hands being attributed without sufficient proof.

[gemma]

Please do keep posting your feedback and personal experience of the rules here if you played at the WRC. If you're not comfortable sharing them publically, email me at gemma@reachmahjong.com and I'll forward them to the rest of the committee. Thanks in advance!

[Senechal]

I just posted our observer report on Osamuko. http://osamuko.com/osamuko-com-observer-report-wrc2014/

This should cover most things, some small things were left out intentionally, namely explaining the 3-second rule imbroglio.

[Simon]

Here are the few WRR improvement ideas I've seen, copied from my email within the EMA RCR committee:

* 3-second-rule (you can override a call of chii made 0.5 s after a
discard by calling pon 2.9 s after the same discard) is probably the
most prominent issue.

* Dead wall toppling is still considered a game-killer (you get a dead
hand) compared to live wall toppling, which affects the game much more
(you can topple some live wall tiles without punishment right now).

* False ron without revealing tiles: Is it so prevalent in Japanese
rulings to punish this with chombo, or would a dead hand suffice? I was
advocating the chombo before, but I'm not so sure anymore whether that's
the most common ruling. Needs research.

* Renhou is 5 han + more han from other yaku/dora. I think this is
uncommon with Japanese rulings. Most prevalent seems to be mangan
without extra han from yaku/dora (this is the JPML ruling) or, much less
common, 4 han + yaku/dora (RMU). Someone who can read Japanese rulesets
might look into this again.

Rules comparison (most of it comes from Sylvain's spreadsheet) on my little site

-- Simon

[Ozball]

* False ron without revealing tiles: Is it so prevalent in Japanese
rulings to punish this with chombo, or would a dead hand suffice? I was
advocating the chombo before, but I'm not so sure anymore whether that's
the most common ruling. Needs research. -- Simon

In most parlours in Japan you'll probably see this ruled as a dead hand rather than a chombo. I haven't actually seen it mentioned on any tournament rule sets, or seen it happen in one yet so not sure what the case is in competition. I can try asking tomorrow.