While Jenn and Garthe were off enjoying the bright lights of Macau, I was in Vienna at the Austrian Riichi Tournament held by Kasu. It was the final event on the Mahjong calendar for 2008 and the day did great justice to all the progress Reach Mahjong has made in Europe over the past year. (Also all my Mahjong practice finally paid off!)

Walking down one of the major shopping streets in Vienna which was packed with Christmas shoppers, there was only a small plaque on the wall to mark GO7, the tournament location of Kasu’s Austrian Riichi Tournament. Away from the hustle and bustle of the frantic consumerism twenty players from all over gathered to play Mahjong.

GO7 was the perfect location for such a tournament. Kasu are certainly very lucky to have such a wonderful place to practice Mahjong.

Four games were played in total and at the end I think everyone was drained from concentrating so hard. The games were friendly yet dramatic. I think I may have caused the greatest stir when I scored a yakuman hand after hitting ten doras. I’d like to say it was pure skill, but lady luck was definitely watching over me when I turned over the ura dora.

The competition was definitely tight and some very high hands were scored overall. The final game saw the top three players running very closely against each other. Going into the final game we had: Lena Weinguny at the top with 70,100. Myself, Gemma Collinge, with 62,400 and Tom Mustonen (Wortex to regular RM.comers.) with 53,900.

Lena and Tom were on the same table for the final game so you can imagine how intense that game was! Both players had played very strongly the whole tournament and Tom was actually winning up into the very last moment when an unfortunate chombo lost him those vital points. However, he still had a very secure third place!

On the table next to them, I managed to win the table by just a few points which was enough to secure my place. Lena sailed through to beat both of us with an amazing final score of 98200.

The top three places:


Lena, Tom, Me

To see the full score table, please visit Mahjong News!

The first place prize for the tournament was a Mahjong table made by the members of Kasu. Second place prize was a set of Mahjong cards donated by RM.com. Third place was glory! All top three winners also received a certificate and beautiful piece of calligraphy.

Lena from Austria is definitely a player to watch for the future! I was fortunate enough to play with her in my third game. If you have the chance, watch her discards she’s very dangerous! But it is also great to play with such a modest and fun girl! I really admired her as a Mahjong player. I certainly hope that we see more of her play very soon!

Tom is a regular at our meetups so it was great to see a close friend of RM.com do so well too.

I surprised myself with my own performance. I’ve been working hard on my game for the past few months and it felt so good to have it pay off. Luck was on my side that day though so who knows if I’ll be able to pull it off again!

Either way, I think it is safe to say that an excellent time was had by all. Kasu were amazing organizers. The event was run well and all disagreements were handled swiftly and well. The location was comfortable and we were all treated to some sausage so all my stereotypes of German-speakers were satisfied!

It was my second chance to play with other European players. (My previous time was in Hannover where I scored… not particularly well!) I was so pleased to meet old RM.com players and also meet new people who may not have read our site before. Being there really made me see how much potential Mahjong has in Europe. There is so much enthusiasm for the game. It really enthused me to play even more and bring the game to more people.

These tournaments are particularly important for people like myself who don’t always have the chance to play with people and get most of their Mahjong-fix from online sites. A big thank you should go to the members of Kasu who put so much effort into organizing a wonderful tournament. They’ll be holding another next year and I really encourage you to go if you can make it! You won’t be disappointed!