So you want to run a tournament! Amazing! There’s a billion choices to be made. OR:follow this? Your call. If you don’t have experience in running events, consider this the “plain vanilla” version of a mahjong tourney. Follow along, and wherever you want to change things, change them – you do you, it’s your event. I might even see you there!
– Outline of an event
All in one go! This is good to do for things because you can run through the whole event in your head, and as soon as you mention something you didn’t buy or forgot you can fix that.
You ask your locals and nearby mahjong folks when is good for an event and if they’d go, and pick a date that they can get to. You get the location locked in. You make the website and a discord. You announce it. People sign up for it! And pay you! You ask your friends to help, they say they’ll help, and most of them actually do! You order/borrow the sets and mats, rent the tables and chairs, print the paperwork. A couple people cancel. A couple people ask last minute to join. The month before, you buy the triphies, and a lil first aid kit. You call a local place and order a couple boxes of coffee, trays of subs, and a couple special meals for folks that asked for them. The week before, you buy some flats of water bottles, a few cases of soda, and bages of chips, bowls, napkins, tape, and paper towels and print the things that need printing, and make the badges. You roll pairings and make a note for each round. Super early on the day of, you roll in with your friends, set up the tables and chairs, put out the mats, put out the sets, mark each set box with a piece of paper saying what table it comes from so you don’t mix up the extra tiles, put the paperwork where it goes, set up the badges and a sign in sheet, put out the drinks and snacks7y6uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhgy and your cat jumps on your keyboard. Ahem. You put out the drinks and snacks, put up signs, everyone shows up! They come up to the sign in table, state their name, you check them off, give them their badge, repeat repeat. You are about to close signups but two people haven’t shown – you call them / check in discord, one doesn’t answer, one says they aren’t coming. You tell two of your friends they will be sitting in, and hand them sub badges. You don’t need to reroll pairings so you put out the pairing shit and post it in discord. Everyone moves to their tables, you make the starting announcement, thank you all, be nice, call judges, don’t be mean or disrespectful, don’t tell people about your hand or that you had their wait, not to check facedown tiles afterwards, time limit is 90 minutes, finish the hand, when your game it done fill things out, call for a report, hand it off, etc etc.
You start round 1! some people ask for rule things, you answer them. Someone needs to go to the bathroom, a runner shuffles for them. Someone is mean, you tell them to not be mean or they can go home. You announce 30, 45, 60, 75 minutes down. People start to report, your runners pick up their sheets and drop them at the main table. You have to remind people a few times to go talk outside the area. You announce time, announce when next round starts, sit and start typing in results. Eventually the last reports, you copy past the standings into discord. Five minutes before the next round starts you say so, people get to their seats, and repeat.
Thirty minutes before round 2 is over, you have your friend go and get the sub trays and sst them up. Round 2 ends, you tell people to go get lunch, no more than 2 sandwiches until everyone has their two, wash your hands before getting back to the tables. You and the staff eat while answering questions about all last chombos.
Round 3, same, round 4, same. Players play free play games while you eat the leftover sandwiches and refresh the paperwork for tomorrow. You lock up, and get some rest for the next day.
Day 2! Same as Day 1, but when lunch starts up you pull the top table to the side a bit for those top four. everyone else does free play, and you watch those two games. once done, you announce top 4, hand out a trophy to each, photos, yay, photos all together, yay, everyone together photos, yay, then let them freeplay while you clean up around them. you post the standings on your website, finish cleanup, pack it away, and there you go, a mahjong tourney in the bag.
– Steps to do prior
The things you need to do the farthest out are to determine the date, the location, cost things out on the lowest end and make sure you know enough local and nearby players to make it not put you in the hole, and then as soon as it is announced source the sets, mats, compasses, tables, chairs, and trophies – all of these things can have unexpected delays, and knowing how far in advance it will take is important. Two months’ lead time is suggested, both so out of towners can make plans and things that take time like some trophies can get completed.
– Ruleset
This tourney uses WRC 2022 rules with the optional modification “Lower Penalties”. 6 round scramble, top 4 then have their points reset and play a 2 round finals, all others have free play.
– Items / Procurement
Download links:
Scoresheet
All Last Square
Personal Scoresheet
Points Calc
Table Numbers
Sets/Mats/Compasses are available on japanese and western shopping websites. Tables/Chairs are rentable from party rental companies, or purchaseable at big=box stores. You can save money by asking people to lend sets/mats/etc, but have a plan if they fall through.
Amounts of things you need:
1 set per 4 players (+1 overage)
1 mat per 4 players (+1 overage)
1 compass per 4 players (+1 overage)
1 table per 4 players (+1 overage, + tables for food and staff)
4-6 chairs per 4 players (+4-6 overage, + chairs for staff)
1 report sheet per round per 4 players (+ finals sheets + 10% overage)
1 all-last square per round per 4 players (+ finals sheets + 25% overage)
1 points calculation sheet per 4 players (+10% overage)
1 badge per player (+ staff + 5% overage)
1 pen per 2 players (+ staff)
1 signin sheet
2 water bottles per player per day (+ staff usage + 20% overage)
1 coffee carafe per 12 players
1 first aid kit
2 rolls paper towels
food:
To-add: generic report sheet, all last square, sign in sheet, badge sheet
– Location
School clubs (mahjong, gaming, anime) may be able to get you space for cheap or free. They may need to request this space months earlier than paid places, so take that into consideration. Some of them require a nightly cleanup, which means extra times to put away / take out sets and the like each day. You can also check with public libraries and food courts. You can also check with gaming stores. On the slightly more expensive than “free” level, sports complexes and non-chain restaurant areas, assisted living complexes all have space for rent. A 30″ card table, with chairs around it, and legroom and arm swingin’ room, is a 6ft by 6ft square. so if you have a 24 x 24 foot area, that can fit 4×4=16 tables. I suggest 6 chairs per table: 4 for sitting, and 1 each on opposite diagonal corners to hold yaku sheets, all last sheets, things people take out of their pockets, etc – the chair functions as a low-cost side table. A table on one end with water bottles, another table for you to sit with your PC and a little “inbox” area for report sheets to be processed, and the play area is all set. You should have either another room of approximately the same size as the “outside area players can talk and relax in”, or external access to a public area for the same.
(include section about renting ballroom / conference space – i have no experience here)
– Staffing
the more experience you have, the more you can cover as one person. You will need:
someone to type in scores and double check the results
someone to notify players of seating and scoring
setup breakdown of food
someone to “run” (get things that are missing or needed)
someone to handle table issues as they arise
sit-ins for uneven tables
Generally, this will be 1 TO, 1 Judge per 8 tables, 1 runner. Judges do posting and setup between rounds, everyone sets up and breaks down. Then, 3 people whose sole jobs are to play if the numbers are uneven – other than that, they run and fill in so that score reporting and such are faster.
– Social Media
have a website ready, detailing all of the pertinent information: time, date, place, cost, payment method, parking, hotels, schedule, prizing, ruleset, Discord/contact info. publicize it in Mahjong discords and websites on the day of announcement, then in 1 month, 2 weeks, etc. answer questions promptly
– Sample Schedule
Current standard for games is 90 min + 0 extra hands. Generally, this overage + paperwork leads to a 30 min break between rounds: 15 min play and report, 15 min break. For lunch, assume 2x travel time to average place + 1 hour. If it is in-house catering, 60-90 minutes is sufficient. For special events such as a tournament, you can expect players to wake up early, but not so early it feels like a chore – a 7-730AM wake time, a half hour to hour of signup in the morning, starting at 9-9:30AM, and then working it out from there. for example, a four round day with no catering would be:
8:30-9:15 sign in
9:15-9:30 announcements
9:30 hanchan 1
11:30 hanchan 2
1:00 lunch
2:30 hanchan 3
4:30 hanchan 4
6:00 free play / nightly activities
– Pricing
Add up your costs. Divide by your playercount. Since you won’t know this in advance, it is important to reach out to people early, even before pricing, to make sure you have a core group of players. Try to target players within driving range, explaining to those that are hesitant that participating in events just as they first get started is key to building a long-lasting tournament culture in a region.
Try to price your event so that it pays for your materials, which will then allow you to run future events for much less.
Look at pricing for as many parts as possible as “per person”/”per table”: Since very few of your costs (event space, first aid, judging and staff material) are fixed, you can get a much better overview of costs.
Example pricing list (2024):
– Playing Area –
Folding table: $10/person (a table is $40, so that is $10/person for it)
or rental: $4/person
Chairs: $20/person
or rental: $3/person
Mahjong set: $22.50/person
Mahjong Mat: $20/person
Compass: $5/person
Water: $1/person (2 bottles per day per person)
Paper/Pens/Printables: $1.50/person (1 per table, +20% overage)
Badging/Signage: $1.50/person (1 badge per person +10% overage)
– Lunch (each day, so double costs for a two day event) –
Sandwich Platter: $6/person (includes +30% overage: 2 3″ sandwiches per day)
Drinks (soda, etc): $1/person (includes +30% overage, 2 cans per day)
Chips: $1/person (includes +30% overage, 1/5 bag per day, or 2 individual pak)
Note that if there is nearby places to eat, skipping catering can take a load off your plate (ha) and save you and the players money. Keep the water bottles and coffee though, players love that stuffs.
Total per person cost examples, not including staff material/event space:
Purchasing all items: $101.50/person, and then $20/person for future events
Renting tables/chairs: $78.50/person, and then $27/person for future events
Static costs:
First Aid Kit: $20
Trophies/Medals: $40+ (for 4 trophies + 4 medals)
Event Space: research for your area
Rolling Cart for carrying: various
As you can see, purchasing a set/mat/compass adds $40/person, tables and chairs push it to $70 but then leaves you with materials for future events that are your own, with the appropriate savings.
– Pairing
You want people to not play against each other more than once if possible, even more so two or three times. Figuring out seating can be handled with pairing software, available here: https://mahjong-ny.com/code/mnypairing.html This software shuffles players for the first round, then looks at tens of thousands of pairings a second and picks the best as follows:
– try to get the lowest “score”
– players that play against each other more than once give a “score” of “the square of the number of dupe times they’ve played”: so, players that play against each other twice (1 dupe) are worth 1, three times is 2×2=4, four times is 3×3=9, etc.
Note that this pairing does not look at “making winds even”, or “making relative seating in duplicate pairings” even, both things that matter to some players. Winds can be drawn at the table, relative seating is something that you can deal with manually if it matters.
Note that if enough people drop that you have to cut a table, you have to re-pair. Take the pre-ran pairings and run the software after noting the drops.
With a large enough body of players – to be specific, greater than ((12x(rounds-1))+4) – as long as enough players stick around that you don’t have to drop tables, pairing is elementary with the “wheel” system.
– Randomize players into four ordered lists. First table is the first in each list, second table is the second, and so on.
– each round, the first list moves up one table, the second list moves up two tables, the third list moves up three tables, and the fourth list moves up four. (you can move players one table less, but it means the players in the first group play on the same physical table each round, which could be an issue if tiles are or become omperfect)
That’s 64 players in 6 rounds, 72 in 7, 84 in 8.
– Reporting Software
You do not necessarily need reporting software to run your event, but it can greatly cut down on your between-round downtime. You need to:
– input scores quickly
– confirm they add up properly
– properly display a ranked order of players
This can be done in a spreadsheet program. At the simplest level, you can:
– make a list of the players in a column,
– have each column next to thhat list be a round of scores,
– at the top of the column show the total of the column so you can check that everything adds up,
– have the final column be each player’s running total,
– and then perform a RANK/VLOOKUP on that column and the player list to give a ranked list of the players and their scores.
– a sample is provided.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SBXlFy1pjU5MPgnvyXi1cWor7MbPTi-zUAhU76dMj7g/edit?usp=sharing
– you can get much, much more complex. with table seating information and lookups, you can write a spreadsheet that gives you each table one at a time so you can easily type in the score with the correct person, automatically checks that they add up, and so on.
– Beginner Judge Tips
Don’t actually look at tiles in people’s hands. You will give away that 12-tiles-to-kokushi. Your peeking around to see if someone else has that big three dragons wait will be noticed.
Tell players that are talking about things that aren’t game actions (“i had your wait / i hate this game / im doing so bad / who had this tile / etc”) to refrain from things other than pon/chi/kan/reach/ron/tsumo/tenpai/noten/thankyouforthegame and scores.
80% of your effort put towards judge matters will be due to 20% of the players, whether due to newness or rulebreaking. Don’t take it out on the new players, and don’t let people who know better to use the rules as a weapon on others.
– Repeating the Tournament in the Future
If you buy your equipment you don’t have to in the future. If the tiles/mats get worn, sell them to tourney goers at a discount and buy new ones.
People who liked it will come back, and bring friends. People who don’t will complain, but if you let them complain to you and work on those things they’ll give you another chance. Have a post-tourney feedback form.