Fire Horse Fall Open

Tournament Format & Scoring

Bring your strategy, bring your focus, and get ready to compete in Montahj Social’s Fire Horse Fall Open — a flighted American Mahjong tournament for all levels.

This is different from other tournament formats you may have seen before. We have thoughtfully designed a fair tournament structure with simplified scoring that uses NMJL hand values but does not let lucky self-draws, slow tables, or unusually high-value hands decide the whole tournament.

Our tournament format balances three important factors to identify the strongest players.

Skill: repeated table performance is rewarded.

Luck: a single big hand matters, but it can't overwhelm multiple rounds of consistency.

Pace: everybody gets the same scoring opportunities per round rather than fast tables generating extra points.

Click Here to Register

Flights

A Flight, the "Gallup" Flight

Players at this level should be able to:

  • Play 4 games per hour
  • Play at a fast, competitive pace
  • Quickly identify winning hands in every category, pivot between lines, call tiles and track discards

B Flight, the "Trot" Flight

Players at this level should be able to:

  • Play 2-3 games per hour
  • Play at a steady, relaxed pace
  • Play and pivot between familiar lines and attempt less familiar lines
  • Decide whether to claim a discarded tile after a brief pause

Montahj Social will contact you to determine your flight placement.

Tournament Format

We will be using a modified Swiss format. In Swiss format tournaments, players face opponents in subsequent rounds with similar win-loss records or scores, rather than random groupings or single-elimination. Everyone is guaranteed to play in all rounds against similarly performing players, which keeps the tournament competitive at every level.

Everyone will play three (3) rounds, each round is 55 minutes. In each round, players will be assigned to a table in groups of four. Each table will play a maximum of four (4) games in each round. Four games per round is a limit, not a requirement. 

In Round 1, players are seeded or randomly assigned to a table.  

After the end of each round, players will be grouped with other players who have similar scores.

At the end of the third round, the top four players in each flight will face off in a championship match. Spectators are encouraged to grab food and drinks and watch the top players compete for the championship title. 

Scoring

Step 1: Performance Points

Record Performance Points at the end of each Game.

Performance Points = NMJL Value + bonus points - penalty points

  • ‍+NMJL value awarded to the winning player‍
  • +5 bonus points for self-drawing the winning tile for Mahjong
  • 0 points for a wall game, a dead hand, or an incomplete game at the time limit-
  • +10 bonus points for a jokerless hand (excludes Singles & Pairs)
  • -5 penalty points if you're not seated and ready to play at the start time
  • -5 penalty points for delay of game (at the discretion of tournament officials)

Step 2: Standing Points

Each player adds up their total Performance Points for the Round. Standing points are awarded based on the highest to lowest total Performance Points for the Round.

  • 1st Highest Performance Points = 3 Standing Points
  • 2nd Highest Performance Points = 2 Standing Points
  • 3rd Highest Performance Points = 1 Standing Points
  • 4th Highest Performance Points = 0 Standing Points

Round Tiebreaker

If Performance Points are tied at the end of a Round, the tie will be broken as follows:

most cumulative Performance Points → most cumulative Mahjongs → highest-value winning hand → highest total value of all winning hands before bonuses → high dice roll 

Players move to the next Round and accumulate more Performance Points and Standing Points.

The Championship Table

After three rounds, the top four players will face off in a final Championship – winner takes all.

Scores reset for the Championship, but prior scores will be used to break a tie.

The winner is the player at the Championship table with the most Performance Points.  If Performance Points are tied, the tie will be broken as follows:

Most cumulative Standing Points → Strength of Schedule (SOS) → most cumulative Performance Points → most cumulative Mahjongs → highest-value winning hand → highest total value of all winning hands before bonuses → win percentage → head-to-head winner → high dice roll

Strength of Schedule (SOS) is the sum of the cumulative Standing Points of every opponent a player has faced.

Prizes

  • 1 hour of private court reservation at DTL
  • Custom DTL pickleball paddle
  • $50 credit for Montahj Social merchandise and 50% off entry in the next tournament

Click Here to Register

Questions? Email info@montahj.com

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