NAO: Event Preview

The inaugural North American Open begins tomorrow morning at New York’s Down Town Association in Manhattan. Here are a few points of interest to get you ready.

The NAO will be using WRC rules and played in a 7-hanchan round robin (Saturday and Sunday) with the top four players moving on to a 2-hanchan final on Sunday afternoon.

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Schedule

Saturday, October 13th	Sunday, October 14th
9:00 AM – Registration	9:00 AM – Morning Check-In
9:40 AM – Opening Announcements	9:20 AM – Hanchan 6
9:55 AM – Hanchan 1	11:00 AM – Hanchan 7
11:35 AM – Hanchan 2	12:25 PM – Lunch
1:00 PM – Lunch	1:50 PM – Hanchan 8
2:15 PM – Hanchan 3	3:30 PM (approx) – Hanchan 9
3:55 PM – Hanchan 4	5:20 PM (approx) – Closing Ceremonies
5:45 PM – Hanchan 5	6:30 PM – Festivities complete
7:00 PM – Free Play

Tournament directors within NARMA have informed us there is a planned team side event, but could not confirm the format at this time.

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NARMA has promoted a photo essay contest sporting the theme, “Riichi Mahjong in North America: Where We Come From”. Submission deadline was September 29. Keep an eye out for an on-site display of the entries as well as an announcement of the winner during the ceremonies. Word has it that a neat opportunity has been arranged for the best entry.

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In absence of an official channel from NARMA or the NAO, at least one Discord user group has put up a NAO attendee channel for visitors to New York to make plans and meetups around the tournament, so take advantage if you come across one or start one where you are!

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#riichiNAO is the official social media hashtag for this event.

Player List

	Name
1	Dizon, E
2	Gordula, A
3	Sakurai, T
4	Chin, G
5	Clark, D
6	Erikson, J
7	Moreno, D
8	Halperin, R
9	Clarke, D
10	Zamora, S
11	Lui, K
12	McCormack, J
13	Fan, D
14	Nishikawa, T
15	McAnally, A
16	Shi, K
17	Koshimoto, T
18	Lee, B
19	Naimo, N
20	Ebejer, A
21	Molski, P
22	Roberge, L
23	Wang, W
24	Lai, S
25	Tseng, B
26	Adams, R
27	Taur, W
28	McGowan, J
29	Gau, V
30	Augustin, S
31	McLeod, M
32	Woelkers, C
33	Scheyer, A
34	Nguyen, P
35	Ocasio, G
36	Block, N
37	Zhao, H
38	Donaghy, M
39	Royer, S
40	Bland, B
41	Hyunh, A
42	Huie, W
43	Deng, J
44	Bragg, J
45	Leak, A
46	Leak, Z
47	Granville, S
48	Liu-Krason, G
49	Nguyen, E
50	Edwards, P
51	Le, K
52	Bohan, K
53	Tai, A
54	Myers, M
55	McDonell, C
56	Lee, M
57	Tachibana, K
58	Zhang, Z
59	Ford, C
60	Hidaka, M
61	Sugimoto, Y
62	Li, D
63	Sakamoto, G
64	Carmosio, R
65	Jaimin, L
66	Alexander, L
67	Whitcomb, A
68	Lara, A
69	[TBD]
70	[TBD]
71	[TBD]
72	[TBD]
73	[TBD]
74	[TBD]
75	[TBD]
76	[TBD]
77	[TBD]
78	[TBD]
79	[TBD]
80	[TBD]

The NAO has projected seating from 60 to a hard cap at 80 players. We have been informed that the tournament is full, but as of the date of this publication, the remaining names have not yet been confirmed.