WSoM 2010 - "Not very good this year, everyone was upset."

Reward Points

Starting February 1st through July 31 2010, Mahjong Time plyers participated in the reward points contest. The players that accumulated the most reward points received a full or partial reimbursement for their main event ticket and the registration fee for WSoM 2010 in Macao. Therefore, the following players received sponsorship packages for 2010 World Series of Mahjong: alien84 from Australia accumulated the most reward points and was number one in the contest, and player once from Singapore finished 3rd. Unfortunately, player jade27 from the United Kingdom , who finished second, wasn't able to participate in this year's tournament in Macao.

alien84, jade27 and once are very distinguished players in the Mahjong Time community, each holding diamond crowns and multiple medals in Madness and other tournaments.

Another player form Singapore decided to join Mahjong Time's team in Macao. Player angel389 booked her entry on her own and registered on Aug 19th with alien84 and once for this years challenging competition.

WSoM Main Event 2010

A total of 200 participants from 10 different countries participated in the event, with a prize pool of HK$1,000,000(US $128,000). The event took place in the stunning Venetian hotel in Macao. One of the premier Mahjong events in the world, WsoM featured great organization and top of the line technology. This year's tournament format was very different from the previous two years(2007 and 2008; 2009 was skipped). Instead of being eliminated after each round, contestants were able to play 6 rounds for 2 full days before the Final. This allowed players to not worry about getting eliminated too early. However, on last day of the competition players were eliminated after each round. After two days of fierce competition, Mahjong Time's player once won the prize for placing 30th in the tournament. Our special congratulations to once! The prize money awarded to her by WSoM was HK$6069(US $780). Unfortunately, the participants of this year's event where not aware of the lower prize pool until the first day of the tournament, and had been expecting something close to what WSoM offered in the last two years. Player once commented: "Not very good this year, everyone was upset. This year the prize had dropped drastically, about 10 fold" once continued... "then they allowed no minimum points to mj, those are chicken hands. That means no skill was involved this year." Many low score hands were played this year, as it was more important to score many small positive points than to try to build a beautiful hand and score big.

alien84 on the left, angel389 in the middle, and once on the right

once

WSoM 2008 Mahjong Time Sponsorship

Mahjong Time was the exclusive online partner of WSOM 2008. Follow the link to watch the YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IIz3rCWXfg

A total of 302 players from 15 different countries participated in the tournament, competing for the US$1,000,000 prize pool

Below are top Mahjong Time's finishers of the tournament:

alala - 19th and $5,000 in prize money!
mefb - 24th place and $5,000 in prize money!
once - 45th place
xinsheng88 -98th place
jayjayyau - 123rd place
jinlong - 125th place

Pictures from the WSoM 2008 event:

Day One: http://picasaweb.google.com/novozhenya/WSoMDayOne#
Day Two: http://picasaweb.google.com/novozhenya/WSoMDayTwo#
Day Three: http://picasaweb.google.com/novozhenya/WSoMDay3#

Written by Slava Novozhenya, Mahjong Time CEO