Hi folks, it's been a while since I last posted. The covid situation caused us to all play online only for a while. All tournaments have gone online as well. I'm finding myself in a state of mahjong burnout, especially for tournaments, which I think came completely to a head when the Montreal tournament happened just recently. It looked well run and the format (elimination/out run) made it so people that were not doing well in the standings were just knocked out, and didn't have to dedicate more time to crazy power plays to get back into the running. This format isn't really compatible with live play, because you can't have people traveling to play 2 hanchan then get eliminated.
In the end, I chose to not participate... it was really down to the wire, but there were a combination of factors:
Mainly, I am unsure how I feel about the 2-day online format. The 2-day live format is fine for me, it's a minivacation replete with socialization, competition, free play and just getting to hang out with people that are just as passionate about the game. The 2-day online format, before I even thought about signing up, felt like losing a weekend to recuperate from life (my job isn't compatible with working from home so I'm still commuting every day). When it's over, things just go back to normal immediately. No socialization or free play that's any different than the current online play landscape with which I am already feeling burnout. The feel of playing no-stakes real tiles to unwind after you've already played serious business riichi for hours might be the mark of an addict, but it's also perfect to decompress. Call that riichi, call that kan, push that tile- get it out of your system before day 2 starts!
Of late, I think I dislike 1-day events because they are so short they suffer from crazy levels of variance, but I also am not on board with 2-day online events for the above reasons. This is probably the burnout talking.
Since it has been a while since I posted any rated games, there have been some developments. Namely, I ranked up to 6 dan!
This was over a month ago, and I hardly played a game since then. Only two games happened between then and today, a very sad third where a turn 4 deal in to dama from the dealer in all last that was plenty big (11600) sent me tumbling from 1st in to 3rd and then a do-nothing 4th. All this burnout lead me back here, to once again attempt the lunchan. I am playing less of what I'd call 'structured casual', meaning the only ladder games I'm playing are tenhou tokujou games, and apart from that I am only playing casual friendlies. A majsoul event might draw me back in to play some games over there to complete yaku xyz, etc. Today, I stopped playing majsoul sanma at lunch (this habit just felt lower stakes because with covid it's harder to get out for lunch and play a calm game) and went back to the tokujou lunchan. I won the game, which I'll share in the next post!
There'll be many more to come, as the climb to 7 dan is one of the most brutal, and allows access to the coveted houou room. Hopefully whatever readership I have will support me and send their good vibes as I attempt to climb out of tokujou. Comments, especially on the lunchan synopses are much appreciated.
Until we meet again at the tables, stay sane and safe!
Comments
Post a Comment