Mahjong Club hosted its spring tournament Saturday evening in the Underground of the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center.
The 36 tournament attendees competed for $150 in prizes, according to executive board member Kathy Li ’24. The first, second and third-place winners received $75, $50 and $25 gift cards, respectively.
According to Makoto Kobayashi ’23, another member of the group’s executive board, the rules for the tournament were a “simplified” Hong Kong style that Mahjong Club had already been using at club meetings. Every competitor played three matches, each of which consisted of four rounds. “E-board members … hopped in and out of games to fill in for empty spots,” Alanna Zhang ’25, a member of the club’s executive board, wrote in an email to The Herald.
Tournament winner John Wu ’24 thought the overall experience was “really fun,” even though “it was different from Riichi Mahjong,” a more complicated style which he normally plays.
Kobayashi said that the tournament’s round-robin format with random seatings allowed participants to compete without much waiting. In past competitions, when a bracket-style tournament was used, only four competitors were playing at the end, he explained.
Zhang explained that this was the club’s first spring tournament, and that this year’s event also was also free. The club typically hosts a fall tournament with a $5 entry fee, according to Li.
“We realized we had (enough funds to) make the tournament free and provide dinner,” Zhang said. “We’re going to request more funds to make it free" in future semesters, Li said.
Competitors had a wide range of experiences with Mahjong before the tournament. Dun Jian Chin ’25 has played for years with his family, while Caterina Dong ’24 started to play last fall. “People were very nice here, very welcoming. I stayed through the whole tournament,” Chin said, though both him and Dong noted that the environment got competitive at times.
For Wu, the thrill of the game was the tournament’s appeal. “What I enjoy the most (about Mahjong) is that while there is a lot of skill involved, a lot of it comes down to luck of the draw — and that’s kind of exhilarating.”
Kelvin Jiang is a section editor for University News and Science & Research at The Herald. Born in Illinois and raised in Palo Alto, CA, Kelvin is concentrating in math-computer science and applied math. He enjoys anything tech-related, being outdoors, and spending time with his cat.
