The World Riichi Championship has selected the five players that will be invited to represent the United States at WRC 2020: Vienna.
The USA does not currently have a system for ranking its players on a national level requiring a much more informal process for selection. We would like to offer some transparency about the process used.
In January, the WRC began soliciting applications from interested players that fell outside of any national ranking system, including the USA. After names were collected a meeting was held with the North American Riichi Mahjong Association (NARMA) along with a few other trusted leaders of the American riichi scene that would better represent the community as a whole. The following criteria were established and used to narrow the applications down to the final five, along with a short list of alternates.
First, it was decided that the available seats should be geographically spread as evenly as possible across the country, and not isolated to areas with the largest concentration of players by default.
Second, where possible, selections were made in favor of capable players that have not previously attended a WRC tournament. It is felt that these people, and the growth of the US riichi ecosystem, will benefit the most from the experience.
It should be remembered that an additional seat was awarded through merit at the Salt Lake Qualifier. For the seat quota given to the USA, the greatest weight was not given to who we thought were the absolute best players in the US, but those we felt best represented the US Riichi scene, regardless of geographic or economic privilege.
Thank yous go out to each player that submitted their information for consideration, and it is unfortunate that we cannot offer nominations to every person that wants to attend this year. We hope that some understanding of our process may ease feelings of disappointment among those that will not be able to attend. We also encourage you to work with the organizations that do exist to build and maintain systems to provide more accurate representations of American riichi mahjong in the future.
Further questions and comments can be directed to ARA (nariichi.org) or the WRC (contact@worldriichichampionship.com).