Yakitori Open 2025

For my final European tournament before I go to Japan I decided on going to Berlin for the Yakitori Open 2025. With 76 participants hailing from over a dozen countries as far-flung as the US and China, this is probably the premier event before players start leaving for Japan.

Before I could start worrying about my opponents though I first had to fight my way to Berlin. A few days ahead of my scheduled leave I learned that the NS had planned a strike on the very day I was set to leave. Luckily I managed to find transport to the border and from that point on I could use German trains which were running on schedule (as much as German trains can run on schedule). In the end I managed to get to the venue just in time for social play.

One of the special features of this tournament was the use of the Pantheon system for scoring. This meant all the scoring was done on a phone and the only sticks available was a single tenbou for riichi declarations. This took a while to get used to, especially the change in pace. My biggest issue with this style of play is that phones are rectangular, and depending on the phone it can hinder the playfield, especially if you sit on the short side of the phone and have the wall unbroken. This can make it awkward to discard your tiles without interfering with your wall.

The tournament itself was very enjoyable. The organization was well done, the play area and break room were on 2 separate floors which is in my opinion the best way to go about this. The break room was filled with drinks, snacks, and fruit for the participants to enjoy. And the play area was also well stocked with water and apple juice. There was a gong to indicate the start and end of the hanchan, in my opinion this isn’t a requirement as long as start and end are clearly indicated, but the gong always makes a nice addition. Furthermore the screen at the front of the room was clearly visible from anywhere in the room and had a big clock to show the remaining time. This however was not necessary to look at since the phone also showed the remaining time, this was a very nice touch in my opnion. The screen also showed the seating order at the start of the hanchan, this was also visible from your phone, but it was a nice touch for people that didn’t have their phone available.

There was a a good amount of room for all 19 tables, however at one point I did sit at a seat where my back was right against someone else’s, overall though it was well laid out for how many people were in the room.During social play the day before it was rather hot in the room, but during the tournament the AC was working well and the room was a pleasant environment throughout the weekend.

One thing I have noticed during the tournament is how emotions can affect the flow of the game, from both me and my opponents. I personally don’t think showing your emotions during the game is a bad thing, it’s something that makes us human and if I wanted to play against people that didn’t show any emotions I would be playing Tenhou instead. However excessive emotions can sour the atmosphere of the game greatly, one such example was in one of my games where one player was obviously new, made sure to tell us ahead of the game that he was new. Small things like taking a while to build the wall and taking some time to discard your tiles shouldn’t affect me mentally, but add in the fact that I made a mistake mid game that I needed to come back from greatly affected my mental game. It was pretty clear during play that I was frustrated with the game, and I might have made some worse mistakes because of that, however the biggest issue was the way it affected the other players, especially if there’s a new player at the table. It doesn’t provide the right environment that shows new players are welcome to the game. When the player didn’t show up the next day I felt terrible and wondered if I was the cause of this issue. However, I do feel like this was not the best place to play your first mahjong game. At the end of the day it’s still a tournament and people will be competitive. If you’re not ready for that kind of opponents I don’t think going around tournaments is the best idea.

I have also played at a table where someone else was not in the best of moods either, and it’s hard to play when someone is overly emotional. It made me aware that the atmosphere is an important part of the game, and that I should temper my own as well.