Mahjong Time Members win second and third places in World Mahjong Championship 2010!

Starting on August 27 the second official World Mahjong Championship of MCR, lasting 9 sessions of two hours over three days, was held in Utrecht, Netherlands. 208 Players went not for prizes(but specially designed plaques), but mostly for fun and meeting acquaintances from all over the world. The spirit is the same as in the MCR fun section of Mahjong Time: a friendly
community of players with a passion for playing mahjong. The best Mahjong Time player, also being the best European player, turned out to be  Olivier Boivin (username: 0liv) from France, finishing second to Linghua Jiao from China. 0liv has been sucessful in many tournaments including: Winner of the Tile-Hog tournament -  June, 2008; Second place - International Paris Tournament, April 2009. Third place was also taken by Mahjong Time Member Elisabeth Frischenschlager(username: Elifri1) from Austria. 

Mahjong Time player a3geffen (Adrie van Geffen) was found wearing a specially designed T-shirt during the tournament with a list of the top 20 rating of some months ago, when he was number 1. The T-shirt proved to be a good way to start conversations. Rankings always do. Adrie: ‘More than half of the list on the front was attending the tournament. People would come over and point out their nickname to show others who they were. Most disregarded that their was a real live person in the T-shirt: either they pricked their finger in my chest or stomach or they tickled me. A good thing Bo Lang (better known as Roxan), also wearing a MJT-shirt on Sunday, had a different front.’ 

Both a3geffen and Roxan, players found to be in the top ranking at Mahjong Time MCR, had a disastrous start in the tournament, and it didn’t improve much. It made it apparent that luck isn’t only important when you finish, but also when you start a hand of mahjong. Roxan, being the best European player since the Championship in Baden in 2009 and number 1 at Mahjong Time, didn't get higher than place 172, while a3geffen ended at place 186. 

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

$1,000 RCR Madness Tournament is here! The past Madness Tournaments have been a huge success, and the reason for that success is you. The next Madness Tournament will take place on September 18th, and you can be part of the action! Sign up for Satellites or Qualifiers now, and you could win a chance to compete in the $1,000 Madness Tournament main event!

Monthly reward point Madness Tournament seats - Diamond, Gold, and Silver crowns can receive seats for free! After purchasing the following seats, members will receive a rebate credited to their account within 24 hours:

Diamond Crown - For every 1000 Reward Points you have earned the previous month you will receive 2 free satellite seats.

Gold Crown - For every 1000 Reward Points you have earned the previous month you will receive 1.5 free satellite seats.

Silver Crown - For every 1000 Reward Points you have earned the previous month you will receive 1 free satellite seat.

Here are the $1,000 RCR Tournament details:

Prize Pool: $1000; 1st - $500; 2d - $350; 3d - $150

Rules: RCR

Tournament Rounds: One preliminary round, then an 8 player elimination round and a 4 player final round.

Min. Points: 1 Yaku

Players: 16

Play Time: 180 min.

Date and Time: Saturday, September 18th at:

US/Pacific(PDT) 7:00 AM

Tokyo(UTC+9) 23:00

Singapore 22:00

Europe/London(GMT) 15:00

Buy - in directly to the tournament: $67.5

Satellites/Qualifiers Schedule

Day\Time	US - Pacific	Asia - Tokyo	Asia - Singapore	Europe - London
Sunday
Monday	7:00/8:00 AM and 8:30/9:30 PM
Tuesday		12:30/13:30	11:30/12;30	4:30/5:30
Wednesday	8:30/9:30 PM
Thursday	5:00/6:00 AM	12:30/13:30 and 21:00/22:00	11:30/12:30 and 20:00/21:00	4:30/5:30 and 13:00/14:00
Friday
Saturday	5:00/6:00 AM	21:00/22:00	20:00/21:00	13:00/14:00

Registration & Check-in: The registration closes 30 mins before the tournament starting time. The registered players are required to check-in(login to the game) 15 minutes before the tournament starts.

Important Notes: If you win more than one seat to the Madness Tournament, you can use your spare seats as entry into next month's Madness Tournament! Free Seats can not be carried over to the next month. In case of a tie each player receives half of the prize or half of the credit

TW and RCR satellites are interchangeable. This means that if you win a TW satellite you can choose to participate in either a TW or RCR qualifier, and visa-versa.