User blog:TheWickedWizardOfOz/Nagano Player Ranking

Hi :3

I'm really bored, so I've decided to rank the finalists of Nagano's team tournament against each other. ...That statement was really confusing xD What I mean is that I'm going to rank Nagano's players from the team matches out of 20 (each player gaining one spot), this is based on how they played, their overall score in the tournament, potential abilities, and how they deal with others' abilities and play-styles; however, I will also take into account their anime-only analyses, such as with Sawamura. I know that on most characters' pages, there is an overall 5/5 ranking, but I feel that's ambiguous, and I'm bored :3

These are my rankings and not based on who I like, but what I feel is a player's strength; but, feel free to argue certain points if you like :3 There may also be a little bias ;D

20) Bundou Seika

Bundou is Kazekoshi's first-year chuken and their #5 player. Although she is a rather safe player, analysing the pond very well, taking risks where necessary, she lost the most points out of anyone in the finals and despite knowing of Hisa's bad waits, decided to ignore this information and played straight into Hisa's haneman. -49,000. I don't know how I could place her any higher with that point total.

19) Tsuyama Mutsuki

Mutsuki is Tsuruga's second-year senpo. I dunno what to say here, we didn't really see how she plays, but judging from like the two hands we saw her side of the vanguard match, she's just a normal player. However, I'm also placing her here because I feel like she could've declared a Riichi with her ryanmen-wait with a menzen-Hatsu-pon. But I suppose she wanted to play safe, not wanting to lose anymore points.

18) Fukabori Sumiyo

Fukabori is Kazekoshi's second-year fukushou, and presumably their #4 player. She plays a logical game, declaring Riichi as soon as she can, similar to Touyoko Momoko, Ryuumonbuchi Touka, and Haramura Nodoka. She goes on the defense as soon as someone declares Riichi. Unlike her fellow fukushou, however, she has no special ability, and lost the most points in the fukushou match.

17) Sawamura Tomoki

Sawamura is Ryuumonbuchi's second-year jiho. She plays a logical game, but also takes into account point totals, hinting that she's good at counting points and what kinds of hands to make in certain situations. Although most of her match went unseen, she was unable to recover any points taken from Senoo's yakuman.

16) Kanbara Satomi

Kanbara is Tsuruga's third-year chuken and president. She is able to analyse, quite accurately, the flow of a game, and knew which tiles to discard when Kunihiro declared Riichi. Although she was able to analyse the flow, she obviously could not take advantage of this, and despite having good hands, she was unable to make any wins.

15) Someya Mako

Someya is Kiyosumi's second-year jiho. From a very young age, she was surrounded by mahjong, and has a very good memory of the games she's seen, from these memories, she can choose the best course of action that round. Her hands also tend to go towards Honitsu and Chinitsu, giving her very high point scores allowing for fast comebacks. However, she is unable to face beginners, apparently, and lost the most points in the jiho match.

14) Ikeda Kana

Ikeda is Kazekoshi's second-year taisho and their #2. Despite losing over 40,000 points, the reason I've placed her this high is because if her hands hadn't been interrupted in the taisho match by Saki, she easily could've taken back first place with the 3 yakuman hands she had lined up. She plays rather well, and I feel like if Ikeda was just playing a normal game, she definitely would've gained 40,000 points rather than lose them, due to her affinity for Yakuman-tenpai and other high scoring hands (like dat mentanpin-sanshoku). But, she wasn't able to really handle two national-class monsters, and this puts her at 14.

13) Kataoka Yuuki

Kataoka is Kiyosumi's first-year senpo. Very good in the East-round, racking up high points with her fast hands, but was unable to do anything against Jun by herself, requiring Mihoko's help to actually gain points in the senpo match. Despite being a great help in the qualifying round, she wasn't able to do much in the finals, or against Mihoko's or Jun's abilities.

12) Inoue Jun

Inoue is Ryumonbuchi's second-year senpo. Analysing the flow very well, she makes weird calls that allows her to take full advantage of this analysis, slowing down her opponents hands, confounding them, and speeding up her own hands. She was able to completely obliterate Yuuki, before Mihoko intervened, and was able to make it so that she was Ryuumonbuchi's only player in the prefectural semi-final. She's number 12 because despite gaining a massive lead in the first half of the senpo match, she lost a lot of points in the second half and was unable to counter Mihoko when she became serious.

11) Yoshitome Miharu

Yoshitome is Kazekoshi's second-year jiho and presumably their #3. She is a very defensive player, and was able to effectively hold onto the lead that Mihoko created, only losing -1,200, a very admirable score, considering Senoo's beginner luck. Somewhat biased to note, but she's higher than Jun because although she went against someone with a powerful ability, she still managed to effectively play and wasn't as tripped up by Senoo as Jun was by Mihoko.

10) Ryuumonbuchi Touka

Ryuumonbuchi is Ryuumonbuchi's (try saying that 5 times fast) second-year fukusho and president. She plays logically, and bails as soon as someone declares Riichi, she is also able to evaluate her beginning hand very well, determining whether or not she should call tiles to advance her hand or stay closed for her upcoming tenpai. However, as soon as she enters her "Cold-state" all hell breaks loose (...er, or freezes over?), and she was able to make a flashy comeback with a dealer baiman in the fukushou first half. However, she is not any higher despite her cool ability because she was unable to deal with Momoko's ability and was knocked down to third and lost more points than she gained in the first half.

9) Senoo Kaori

Senoo is Tsuruga's second-year jiho. Despite being a total noob and playing into Miharu's Riichi, she was still able to gain points, mostly through her yakuman, but if you look at the points, 32,000 - 5,200 =/= 30,600, which is the point total that Senoo has, meaning she won more hands after her yakuman. She is placed within the top 10, and above skilled players like Touka because of the beginners luck and ability to outplay better players with her bad play.

8) Kunihiro Hajime

Kunihiro is Ryuumonbuchi's second-year chuken. Although most of her play is left unseen, she did gain a lot of points, taking Ryuumonbuchi out of last and into second, with a rather narrow gap to the top. Touka also states that "Hajime can do anything she puts her mind to" and even without her sleight of hand, she plays effectively, efficiently, and well. When faced against Hisa's Riichi and bad waits, she often took a defensive route, not wanting to play into Hisa's hands, however, even though she did this, she was still able to gain a lot of points, even against Hisa.

7) Haramura Nodoka

Haramura is Kiyosumi's first-year fukushou. She plays digitally (in almost in every sense of the word) and is very logical, attempting to increase her chance to tenpai and winning, as efficiently as possible. Often this works, and she gains a few points; however, more often than not, she gains less than 10000 points. Although that's better than losing points, she's not living up to her prestige as the "reigning middle-school champion," despite Hisa's training and advice. She doesn't react to others' abilities, and this can be both a hindrance and a benefit. With such a wishy-washy ability, and ignoring her opponents (whom can possibly pull off co-operative plays), she is only 7th.

6) Touyoko Momoko

Touyoko is Tsuruga's first-year fukushou. She plays logically, bailing alongside her fellow fukushou opponents when someone declared Riichi. Although this resulted in massive point loss (due to her not winning any hands), when her Stealth mode activated, she quickly recovered, scoring many hits on Touka. However, her ability also lead to a certain amount of hubris, as she played directly into Nodoka's Riichi, just as Touka did hers. Even so, she was able to regain her composure and gained more points than Nodoka did, although she only got to second place overall.

The top five of Nagano's Team Tournament!

5) Kajiki Yumi 加治木 ゆみ

Kajiki is Tsuruga's third-year taisho. Despite not having an ability like some others she is 5th because she was able to analyse and effectively counter Saki's plays, and although she ended up losing points, she played extremely well against two national-class monsters (simultaneously, I might add), even able to get two direct hits off of them (for considerable points). Not only was she able to analyse Saki's plays, but she was able to analyse Kana's reaction to Amae's plays, get tenpai when under Amae's (questionable) zone-of-control, planned a chankan, and almost won with it, how boss.



4) Takei Hisa 竹井 久

Takei is Kyosumi's third-year chuken and president. Although she has no real ability per se, she has a certain style of playing, which is very effective, even against people who know of her style of play; her signature bad waits. In the second half of the chuken match, she was able to intimidate her opponents with an empty Riichi, stopping Hajime's and Kanbara's hand. Immediately after starting the first half of the Chuken match, she pulled Kiyosumi out of last and right into first (within two hands, gaining over 30000 points, rather impressive). Even though she was not pitted against anyone with an ability, she still did really well.

I'm really unsure how to rank the last three (who I think you should know by now), because in their own way, I can see how each is a really strong contender for first in the entire Nagano prefecture (or, of what we've seen of it). However, this is only my interpretation.



3) Amae Koromo 天江 衣

I know, ERMAHGERD. Last year's MVP, gaining the most points in the national tournament, THIRD!? Hear me out. Amae is Ryuumonbuchi's second-year taisho. She has a really freaky ability, and gets really expensive hands, either really quickly, or really slowly (I'm looking at you, haitei). She also halts all of her opponent's hands, leaving them in iishanten for the majority of any given hand. However, it seems that all this requires a full moon. "You cannot compare Koromo's ferocity to that of last year['s half moon play]." Although she gained more points than Saki, and had the third highest score in the finals (and the highest before she dealt into Saki's kazoe-yakuman), she did lose to Saki because of the aforementioned kazoe-yakuman. Furthermore, if her play really is reliant on the moon, then can I really say she's better than Mihoko or Saki who can activate their full potential at will?

2) Miyanaga Saki 宮永 咲

This was definitely a tough decision, but this is my conclusion. Miyanaga is Kiyosumi's first-year taisho. Her ability was one of the first explored in the series, and boy, does she take full advantage of her ability. Taking a hand that's worth 2,000 and turning it into 24,000? In the same hand, ignoring a rishan-kaihou to declare another kan and still win? Making an open Kan so that Kana would win off her? Deliberately using "the one responsible pays"? Defeating Amae Koromo by a narrow 1,500 because she can? Wth all that, how can she possibly be second!?

Because Saki gained less points than Koromo, and she was unable to deal with Koromo in the first half. Even though she basically owned Amae in that last hand, it was only in that last hand. Up until she gave Kana the win, Amae was dominating, I'd even say although Kana and Yumi got wins after that, Amae still had a very impressive lead over them, and only lost first place in the final 4th South hand. It was the first time in watching an anime I thought the protagonist might actually lose. Anyways, this list is all relative, and unlike Mihoko, she cannot really analyse her opponents in the same way, she can see the flow of the game, much like Jun, and takes advantage of it where necessary, but she didn't make it bend and break under her control like Jun or Mihoko. Nonetheless, this was definitely a close call.



1) Fukuji Mihoko 福路 美穂子

Fukuji is Kazekoshi's third-year senpo, ace, and captain. There isn't much to say, really. I lied. I have a lot to say LOL In the first half of the senpo match, she gained over 10,000 points with her "defensive play;" I'm not a bad player by any stretch, but I have to go on the offense to get over 10,000 points, and keep those points. Well, there are times when I'm still playing defensively and get over 10,000 points, but that's not the point. Going up against Jun who can take 100,000 points from a single player in two East-South hanchans, gaining that many points through defensive play is impressive.

Even more impressive, she was able to wrest flow control from Jun by helping another player, namely giving Yuuki a direct dealer baiman hit on Jun. Against two players with active abilities, and still winning against them, ending the game with them having an overall negative point total and she has a +40,000 point total (the highest in the tournament, I might add) is definitely impressive. She is also able to read the flow of the game and take advantage of it, like Saki and Jun, even more noteworthy is she was able to this effectively while Jun had control, who is noted to have a very good sense and control over flow.

Overall, I definitely feel that Mihoko deserves the title of Nagano's #1 individual player, not only getting the most points in the team tournament, but also in the individual tournament. She's able to make amazing comebacks as well as cooperative plays. Though, maybe if she went up against Saki she wouldn't win, even if both were at their highest strength, because I find that Mihoko doesn't really disturb the flow, whereas Saki can hinder other players' hands with her calls and still win big hands while doing this. However, in relative effectiveness and playing, during the team tournament, Mihoko was the best.