Almost Better Than Houdini: The Disappearing and Reappearing World Series of Mahjong
For those who aren’t aware, the World Series of Mahjong (WSOM) is a big tournament that bills itself as an international tournament for mahjong which allows people who play different variants to compete against one another. How does it do this? By using Zung Jung of course. In fact, Alan Kwan is the head judge and rules expert for all of the World Series of Mahjong tournaments. I’d refer you to their website, worldmahjong.com, but I cant! It’s down again.
One minute it’s there and the next, -poof-, it’s gone. The tournament’s the same way – happening in fits and spurts, sometimes going five years between events.
As the biggest tournament that uses the Zung Jung rules system, the WSOM is one of the most important avenues for growing the game. Sadly, it hasn’t capitalized on this opportunity. The tournament doesn’t happen regularly enough or reliably enough. I remember looking at their website in 2018 (the last tournament was held in 2015, mind you) saying that it was coming, coming, and then nothing. And then suddenly “prepare yourself, the WSOM is coming in 2019! Keep an eye out for updates!” Would people be as interested in the Superbowl if it happened unpredictably every 1 to 5 years after the playoffs?
They even were, finally, after 10 years since the start of the WSOM, putting out an online platform to not only be able to play ZJ online against other people, but it’d have an app version, and you could use it to potentially qualify for the WSOM! Pretty cool, right? Well, the let-down came quickly, as it was rarely working, the app wasn’t available outside of the East Asia region, and they only had the online version in Chinese and Japanese (kind of short-sighted if you wanted to spread it around the World).
Like a parent talking to their child, I’m not angry. I’m just disappointed. It’s just such a missed opportunity (a Series of missed opportunities perhaps? Or is that too much?). It’s hard to grow the game without 1) a platform to play it on, 2) people to play it with, and 3) something to interest people to have them look for 1 and 2.
Yet, I don’t want to be too negative. I’m not trying to be harsh. When the tournament did happen, they did a great job. They put their money where their mouth was – a million-dollar prize pool. They had a great tournament version of the rules on their site. It helped informed tweaks to the ruleset to better the game. It had great production around it. They even broadcasted it on television, and online. You can still watch videos of the past tournaments online on Youtube. It’s just frustrating that there just isn’t more for this variant of Mahjong (I had to finish it. I’m done. I’ll stop now.).
-ZJMJ
What do you think? Too harsh? Not harsh enough? Make yourself heard down below!
Orz5566
Hi admin, I am a fan of Zung Yung Mahjong in Taiwan. I recently stumbled upon this website and found the content very fascinating, and Zung Jung needs more people like you to promote it!
Zung Jung shows its excellence on its low learning cost, high fun, and depth of strategy among other mainstream mahjong rules. Alan Kwan’s book about Zung Jung is undoubtedly groundbreaking. Although the WSOM tournament seems to have been discontinued (there was later several Mahjong Masters in Macau with ZJ rules though), I still admire Alan Kwan’s initiative to make it happen.
The most popular mahjong rule at the moment seems to be Japanese Riichi Mahjong, and its influence makes it relatively easy to promote. But its complicated rules and scoring system raise the barrier to entry and make it less of a well-designed table game. I think if we can’t count on world-class tournaments to help promote ZJ, we may have to package it as a new-style mahjong game with some special features distinct from other ones. Maybe that can lead to good exposure.
admin
Hello! Thank you; that’s very kind of you to say. Glad my tiny corner of the internet is something worth finding.
I agree; I really think Zung Jung has a lot of great attributes that make it my personal favorite mahjong version. And I agree with your point that the barriers to entry for Riichi are too high. Many of the rules are difficult to grasp and make a gaming experience that isn’t that entertaining to me.
Just having the rule set supported on some of the mahjong sites and apps out there would go a long way. Not having a place where a community can form around a well-implemented online version of the game is a real issue. Sadly, I don’t have any ability (or time!) to program something like that. I can only hope someone else with programming skills takes up the task and let us know about it.
I had a thought to maybe make a discord channel and use a virtual mahjong tabletop that at least people who know the rules could play with loose virtual tiles. That way we wouldn’t be reliant on a program that had ZJ rules built in, but would only need a virtual tabletop that could be used for any version of mahjong.
-ZJMJ
Orz5566
>Sadly, I don’t have any ability (or time!) to program something like that. I can only hope someone else with programming skills takes up the task and let us know about it.
I neither. There are some thoughts about making a easy-to-learn mahjong game in my mind, but making and maintaining a game isn’t an easy business.
>I had a thought to maybe make a discord channel and use a virtual mahjong tabletop that at least people who know the rules could play with loose virtual tiles. That way we wouldn’t be reliant on a program that had ZJ rules built in, but would only need a virtual tabletop that could be used for any version of mahjong.
Luckily, some mahjong players have made a platform called Mahjong Friends Online recently, which is an mahjong table simulator and is able to play many kinds of rulesets, includes ZJ. And with my enthusiasm for pursuing a perfect mahjong ruleset, I also made an ruleset called “Mahjong: Beyond The Origin” which was derived from ZJ and has more refined contents with more fun. You can come to Discord server pn7mYUjCuE (add it after discord.gg/) to see the summary of Mahjong BTO. It’s a pity that currently I haven’t made an English rulebook yet, but with the icons on the summary you can somehow know the definitions of yakus. It’s better if you can read Chinese or Japanese version of rulebook though.
Currently we held online matching once a week with Discord and Mahjong Friends Online. Feel free to join our Discord server!
Andrew
To make things worse, the Mahjong International League replaced Zung Jung with Sichuan Bloody Rules. From my experience with competitions and casual plays, I feel Zung Jung is in an awkward position. The biggest disadvantage is the “ecosystem” which Alan can do nothing about: it is an “artificial” rule so it has much less followings in China, where Mahjong originated from. Moreover, while Zung Jung claimed to be both simple and fair (in terms of self-draw in particular), in practice people just don’t care especially in East Asia: if they want simplicity they will just play Sichuan Bloody Rules (which only has three patterns, and more importantly has a larger player base), and if they want fairness then Riichi is good enough already.
I think if people want Zung Jung to be successful then they should be targeting the West or outside Asia in general as a normal board game. For instance, Zung Jung has a (strangely) steady following in Australia: mahjongaustralia.com.au uses the WSOM rule set, while Asia-Pacific Mahjong uses a variant.
admin
I agree, targeting the Western Market would be the best idea to increase its popularity. You might also get some interest from second generation HKOS players in the States who might be familiar with a version they play with their families but might be interested in a more robust and balanced scoring system.
Even in the States, though, I know Riichi is still popular, as there are more clubs and exposure to it through manga and anime that feature the game. It’s sad that it may be a dead ruleset, as I do feel there is a lot of merit and elegance in it and its overall gameplay compared to the others out there, Riichi included.
-ZJMJ
Samuel Lo
I started playing Zung Jung in 2023 and I’m definitely very sad to learn that the World Series hasn’t been held in a long time!
admin
Yeah, it’s unfortunate. It would be great exposure for the ruleset. It’s a great gamin experience, offensive-leaning with some defensive elements, rather than the heavy focus on straight defensive play of Riichi mahjong. Glad you’ve enjoyed it since you discovered it! Was it through this site you heard about it, or through something else?
-ZJMJ