Qiang Cheng Wins Gold Medal in 2019 Canadian Mahjong Championships
-MCR Tournament
2019 Canadian Mahjong Championships MCR Tournament was held in North York Ontario between May 18th and May 20th. The Prime Minister of Canada, The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau and the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, sent greeting letters to the competition. CANADA MAHJONG FEDERATION (CMF), the host of the tournament, also received a congratulatory letter from Mr. Yingfu Wang, a MCR Veteran. CMF and Maple Quest Association (MQA), organizer of the championships, sincerely thank all for supporting!
This is the first time in Canada to compete 10 sessions of MCR for three days in a row. Only highly competitive and passionate MCR fans would join such an intense competition. CMF and MQA thank all participants. Together, we have created another Competitive Mahjong history in Canada.
The tournament used randomly players’ table arrangement in the 1st session and Swiss-system from 2nd to 10th session. No.31 player Qiang Cheng won the gold medal by Total Standard Points 26 and Total Match Points 523. He also received a ticket to compete in MCR individuals in the 2nd World Mahjong Mind Games. No.3 player Leo Zhang was the 1st runner up by Total Standard Points 22 and Total Match Points 778. He moved to the 1st table in the 10th session after he consistently received 4 Standard Points in the 8th and the 9th sessions. In the last hand of the 10th session, he made the winning hand by Self-Drawn Pure Straight. His Match Points of the 10th session was only 7 points lower than Qiang Cheng’s Match Points. While he had to settle for second place, his Out with Replacement Tile and Little Three Dragons in the 2nd hand of the 8th session and Self-Drawn Four Pure Shifted Chows made him receive the highest Total Match Points 778 of the tournament. No.50 player Alexander Levin, in the 8th session, made a winning hand Big Three Dragons by discarding and won the key session in the 1st table. His Sum Standard Points after 8 sessions was 20. This result made champion competition more intense. He received Standard Points 1 in both 9th and 10th sessions. His Total Standard Points 22 was same as Leo Zhang’s, but he had lower Total Match Points 416. He won the bronze metal.
The Highest Single Hand Points was 103 containing Big Three Dragons, All Pungs and Half Flush. This winning hand was made by No.53 player Qing Xu in the 1st hand of the 8th session.
CMF conducted an initial rating of the MCR Competitive Level (MCR CL) for the members who completed the entire competition. It would certify members MCR Competitive Level after CMF had successfully launched Online MCR Star Level. According to the “CMF Member MCR Competitive Level Assessment Criteria”, three players were rated 4, five players 3 and six players 2.