What is "EX FURINKAZAN"?
Did You Know That Japan Loves to -Watch- Mahjong?
I'm gonna nerd out about what this event actually represents, so that you get a better context of how cool this feature is!
Something that can be a little hard to grasp if you've just started your mahjong journey via video games is that in Japan, mahjong has a rich history as a game enjoyed in a live environment. While of course, there are a plethora of online apps to enjoy, there are also "mahjong clubs" called jansou, as well as mahjong bars! These clubs have a very storied history! In addition to the Jansou, there is also the calling of the Mahjong Pro! There are several Professional Mahjong organizations in Japan, and many players who want to challenge their skills will join and climb the ranks of the organization's internal leagues.
In 2018, streaming service ABEMA TV put together a broadcast league consisting of professionals from the various Organizations, competing in teams of 4 to be the last one's standing at the end of a season of matches, culminating in a post season tournament where one team will win the cash prize and hold the M League championship high at the end. This is what it looks like from the spectators side.
From the side of the players, the M league represents prestige, minor celebrity, and the ability to be able to be sponsored to play the game. For anyone who follows esports, it's kind of in the same ballpark. Mahjong is a game that there is enough interest that one -can- be paid to play it, but the opportunities for this are incredibly finite, so becoming an M Leaguer is one of the most sought after gigs in mahjong.
This competition is called the M.League. If you are curious and want to try watching it, I have a guide for spectating all sorts of live mahjong that you can read if you want. https://note.com/experimilk/n/n3dbd120017e0
This season, Riichi City became a sponsor of one of the M League teams, EX Furinkazan. Part of this "team sponsorship collaboration" is an Event in Riichi City that spans the entirety of the M League Season, focused on cheering the team on!
Let's dive into the actual event. If you're curious about the :TEAM: EX Furinkazan, I'll describe them a little bit at the bottom. (Even though I am a Raiden fan, I'll do my best :P)
TLDR: The EX FURINKAZAN EVENT
I think the best way to think about this event is that the -team itself- is a character that you are trying to increase your bond with, just like any character you'd roll in the gacha. Through checking in every day, clearing daily and monthly quests, competing in events, and gifting items you increase your Member Level, which bestows the usual rewards for increasing a character bond like titles and avatar frames. In addition, you are trying to increase your Support Points as high as possible by gifting, because the more you support, the more you will earn at the end of the event, determined by the placing of EX Furinkazan at the end of the 2024 regular season.
Lets start with the main currencies of the event:
Event Related Collectibles
Support Coin: This is your standard currency inside the event. You earn this from a daily log in, as a reward for completing Support Tasks, from placing in the various Rankings, for participating in a Preliminary Stage monthly Duel Tournament, and from successful predictions on the Team Schedule. This currency is used to buy items from the Store, and to buy gifts in Team Gifting. The more of these you have, the more you can team gift, so try to earn as much as you can!
Member Point: Think of this as your "affection level" for the event. You earn this from a daily log in, as a reward for completing Support Tasks, and from buying gifts in Team Gifting. When you gain enough Member Points, it increases your Member Level. At Member Levels 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40, you will earn various titles, Avatar frames, and Tile Backs. The higher your Member Level is, the more Member Points and Support Coins you will earn on a daily log in.
Support Point: This is essentially the goal currency of the event. To perform well in the FURINKAZAN event is to accumulate more Support Points than the rest of the server! You earn these by spending your Support Coins on Team Gifting. How much you have of these as compared to the rest of the server is what determines what your final payout is at the end of the event in March. You also earn individual rewards by accumulating these. You earn Lucky Tokens at 1000, 2000, 3000. and 3500 support points, so even if you don't care about this event, this is the most important aspect of it.
Daily Member Reward and Member Level
When the servers roll over for the day (3:00 PM CST), In addition to the regular daily check in, the Furinkazan event also has a check in! Checking in rewards Support Coins and Member Points. As you increase your Member Level, you start to gain titles, avatar frames, and even a tile back! The amount of Support Coins and Member Points you get for a daily check in increases as you gain member levels. If you are subscribed to the Monthly Mascot, you get DOUBLE the Support Coins!
Support Tasks
Weekly and Monthly Quests that reward Support Coins and Member Points. All of these quests ask you to play Matches and claim daily Member rewards, stuff you were doing anyway! Make sure that you're not leaving any Support Coins on the table!
Team Schedule
Here's where you can really enhance your M League viewing! On this screen, you can wager Support Coins on the results of matches. If you're a fan of FRKZ, just put them in 1st every time! If you're a fan of another team (Like TEAM RAIDEN, THE BEST TEAM IN THE M LEAGUE :D :D :D ) You can adjust your predictions accordingly. It costs 1000 Support Coins to make a prediction. Correct predictions will win you 5000 Support Coins.
This is a purely optional way to build Support Coins, and a series of bad predictions might see one losing Support Coins. Here's my current record: I'm someone that knows a little bit about the teams and players, And i'm currently up 5000 after only predicting matches correctly 30% of the time. I find that if you watch M League, this creates a whole new dynamic of excitement for spectating the live game, but if you don't watch M League, you may want to just skip this feature.
Rankings
The FURINKAZAN event keeps a ranking going of several competitive stats. Attempting to place on the FURINKAZAN ranking leaderboards mostly consists of performing well in 4 Player Ranked matches. If you are in the top 100 at the end of the month, you will be awarded Support Coins based on your placing, and you will also qualify for the end of the month Duel Tournament, where you can compete for Support Coins, Lucky Tokens, and the ultimate prize, an autograph from members on FURINKAZAN. There are four ranking categories:
Rising Stars: Only new accounts can participate in the Rising Stars ranking. After the rankings roll over, you can no longer rank on this leaderboard. It tracks your ± score from every 4P ranked match you play in the month. There's no cap, so the more matches you play, the more opportunities you have to raise (or lower) this score.
Seasoned Players: Tracks your ± from every 4P ranked match you play in the month. same conditions as Rising Stars, but for everyone. It will likely require a substantial amount of wins to place here, so expect to put the hours in if you want to rank here. From thinking about the rules, East Only games may be a better strategy than Hanchans if you are trying to rank.
Top Scorers: Tracks your HIGHEST score at the end of a 4P ranked match. The lower end of this leaderboard at the end of the month is around 97K, so it stands to reason you will probably need at least a Double Yakuman to place.
Dedicated Members: Tracks how many Member Points are accumulated during the month. Completing your Daily Check in and your Support Tasks will create a baseline of Member Points, from there it is a matter of Team Gifting the amount that will get you on the leaderboard. This creates an interesting "metagame" where it may be prudent to stockpile Support Coins, and spend them at the end of the month to increase accumulated Member Points to the amount that will qualify you on the leaderboard, where you have the opportunity to earn even more support coins to stockpile. I'm looking forward to this fun little betting exercise!
Duel Tournament
The Duel Tournament represents an opportunity to play with Takaya Matsugase, a member on the EX FURINKAZAN team! Every month, the top 100 from every FRKZ leaderboard will get to participate in a tournament to win extra Support Coins, Lucky Tokens, and the most impressive prize: an autograph from FRKZ!
The Preliminary round of the Duel tournament is 3 East only matches. This is a reservation style event, and due to the fact that the app is mostly japanese, If you qualify, you will be playing in the middle of the night. Just word to the wise. Support Coins are the prize for the preliminary rounds. If you finish with a record in the top 15, you'll qualify for the final event, and against FRKZ player Matsugase!
The final tournament is 5 east only rounds. Pretty much everyone will be playing against each other, and the prizes here are Lucky Tokens. If you place first here, you will get 10 Lucky Tokens AND an EX Furinkazan Autograph! We may have to pay for shipping in the West, but I am fairly certain that Formirai will ship this, even if you may have to pay shipping for it or something.
Store
The only thing you should really concern yourself with here is the Furinkazan Riichi Stick and Tabletop. Nothing else in here is an acceptable investment of Support Coins. Those are best spent in...
Team Gifting
Here's the big payoff for your Support Coins! Here's where you will show your support for FRKZ, and compete with the server to gain the most Support Points!
To participate, hit that big ol' gift button! You get the best Support Point per Support Coin ration when buying Uchiwas, the most expensive gift at 10K support coins. Gifting nets you Support Points and Member Points. Once again, the ultimate goal of the EX FURINKAZAN event is to accumulate the most Support Points.
First, make sure you coins and Lucky Token from the Overall Progress tracker. We hit that collectively about a week after it went live.
There are two seperate rewards for earning Support Points. The Individual tab lets you track individual rewards, which consist of various Friendship and Awakening Items, as well as 4 earnable Lucky Tokens for the Gacha.
Now, for the Regular Season rewards. Here, you are competing with the rest of the server over who can be the best FURINKAZAN superfan!
So, here's how this works. -EVERYONE ON THE SERVER- who has participated in the EX FURINKAZAN event in ANY CAPACITY will recieve rewards based on
a) What rank EX FURINKAZAN is at the end of the regular 2023-24 M League Season
b) What rank they are on the Support Point Ranking, which can be checked on the Team Gifting page.
So here's an example. If I have acquired enough Support Points to be ranked in the top 30% of the server, and EX FURINKAZAN is at the top when the regular season ends, I will win 3 Lucky Tokens and 20k Coins. The better they do, the better your reward is. I'll say right off the bat, currently it's very hard for anyone to do worse than 7th place, as 8th and 9th are significantly behind the rest of the league.
So, that's the EX FURINKAZAN event! Multiple ways you can earn Support Coins, and then you spend them to increase your Support Points, trying to have as much as you can by the end of the league, where you'll get better rewards if the team performs well! Even as a fan of a different team, this event has absolutely transformed my relationship to EX FURINKAZAN, where I am frequently cheering for them when Raiden isn't playing. It makes M League more interesting!
About EX FURINKAZAN
FURINKAZAN have been a team in the M League since its inception in 2018. Their main sponsor is TV Asahi. Their roster has been stable since the 21-22 season, when team rosters were expanded to require 4 players.
Aki Nikaido
"Dancing Princess on the Table"
@16003200
Birthday: 11/15/1981
Age: 42
Professional Organization: Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML)
Professional since: 1999
Mahjong Accolades: 2007 & 2008 JPML Women's Champion, 2005 Pro Queen, M League ('18-)
Aki Nikaido's story kinda feels larger than fiction, to the point where there's been a movie made about her, Joryu Tokaiden Aki. Her parents owned a jansou, and she learned about mahjong from a young age. Her childhood was tumultuous, and she ended up deciding to move from Kanagawa Prefecture to Tokyo in junior high at 15 years old, lying about her age and working at jansou in Tokyo. Eventually the JPML was formed, and her and her sister Rumi ended up joining. The Nikaido sisters are what I'd call mahjong royalty, being the face of the game for many people. Enjoys pachislot.
Kenji Katsumata
"Mahjong IQ 220"
@katumatakenji
Birthday: 03/15/1981
Age: 42
Professional Organization: Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML)
Professional since: 1999
Mahjong Accolades: 2011 Mahjong MAX Champion, 2015 JPML Houou , M League ('18-)
Katsumata's mahjong life seems to begin during his days in University, as he frequented Bakansu, where many of the current crop of mahjong pros at the top of their game played at. While teaching at a cram school, he climbed to the top of the JPML rankings, finding himself at the summit of JPML's incredibly rigorous mahjong league in 2014, but came up short. He quit his cram school job, and the next year he achieved the title of Houou, the highest in the League. In addition to being known as a strong player, he is also recognized as a great commentator.
Takaya Matsugase
"Delicate Supermassive Cannon"
@akayakokushim
Birthday: 04/11/1980
Age: 43
Professional Organization: Real Mahjong Unit (RMU)
Professional since: 2009
Mahjong Accolades: 2017 RMU Reisho Issen winner, M League ('21-)
Takaya took an incredibly early interest in mahjong, learning how to play in junior high. By high school however, mahjong was essentially an afterthought. While he didn't know quite what he wanted to do, he enrolled in culinary school, graduating in 1999 and owning a chef's licence. He moved through the culinary circles, going from working in the kitchen to restaurant management. He retired from this industry in 2009, now cooking as a hobby. He made his way up the RMU rankings, clinching their highest ranked title in 2017. Enjoys pro wrestling. Sneakerhead.
Rumi Nikaido
"Flawless"
@rumi_0927
Birthday: 09/27/1980
Age: 43
Professional Organization: Japan Professional Mahjong League (JPML)
Professional since: 2000
Mahjong Accolades: 2005 Mahjong Saikyousen Winner, 2021 Mahjong MAX Champion, 2013 & 2021 Pro Queen, 2007(?) Fuji Mahjong Queen Champion, 2005 MONDO Mahjong Kabo Queen Champion, M League ('21-)
Rumi grew up in the same mahjong environment her sister Aki did, her mother disappearing at a young age, and her father passing away around 16. She was motivated to follow her younger sister to Tokyo, and joined the JPML a year after. Showed her ability by qualifying for the Pro queen tournament eight times, and winning twice. Loves gaming, reading, spending money! Favorite anime is Neon Genesis Evangelion. Runs a mahjong/gaming/variety youtube with her sister.
