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 Down Town Association

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.


Schedule

Saturday, October 13thSunday, October 14th
9:00 AM – Registration9:00 AM – Morning Check-In
9:40 AM – Opening Announcements9:20 AM – Hanchan 6
9:55 AM – Hanchan 111:00 AM – Hanchan 7
11:35 AM – Hanchan 212:25 PM – Lunch
1:00 PM – Lunch1:50 PM – Hanchan 8
2:15 PM – Hanchan 33:30 PM (approx) – Hanchan 9
3:55 PM – Hanchan 45:20 PM (approx) – Closing Ceremonies
5:45 PM – Hanchan 56:30 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.


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.


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!


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

Player List

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