The WRC 2025 Tokyo Qualification season is well underway. The first Australian to qualify was Trevor Yau who won the Australian Riichi Mahjong Open just last month. With 1 of 3 seats claimed, Australians are still working hard to win their chance to fight on the world stage this coming July.
In this new interview series we will chat to some of the Australian hopefuls who are currently fighting for this highly sought after chance.
Shikin “Murasaki” Sasaki is a member of the West Australian Riichi Mahjong Association. She started playing mahjong 2 years ago just after WARMA was founded and has since competed in multiple national events including the Australian Team League, Australian Riichi Mahjong League, Rapid Fire Monthly and two Australian Riichi Mahjong Opens. She has posted highly respectable finishes including winning the ATL, and placing 3rd and 8th respectively in the RFM and at ARMO2024.
Q: How long have you been playing mahjong and how did you learn to play?
I learnt the basic rules of riichi mahjong through following the Saki manga, but I’ve only started to play seriously for a little under 2 years.
Q: What type of mahjong do you like to play? How would you describe your playstyle?
My current playstyle, as my club president would describe it, is “High Variance Aggression”. A reflection of my straight forward personality. I like to zentsu a lot of hands if I can.
Q: What do you do outside of mahjong?
I work full time as an admin, I’m also a full time student. In my off time, I like to play video games or crochet. I’m very allergic to the outdoors.
Q: In 2023 you had a disappointing finish at ARMO. In 2024 you finished very strong in 8th. What have you been doing to prepare for events?
As 2023 was the first year I started to take mahjong seriously, my goal for that year was to gauge my skills against the talents in Australia.
At that stage, my mahjong had not integrated any solid technical components. A large amount of the hanchans were essentially carried through a hope that my luck was strong enough.
First and foremost I realised that I had to increase the amount of games that I played. I also consumed a large amount of pro mahjong content.
Then, taking the lessons I learnt from 2023, I looked at improving my knowledge of mahjong from a technical point of view. I began learning fundamental skills but knew my personality would clash with fully digital playstyles, so I turned to professional players whose playstyles I really enjoyed and used them as a template. I used books such as Sawazaki Makoto’s “Overpowered Mahjong Experience Theory” and Kondo Seiichi’s “Mahjong – Using Theory and Instinct Together” as resources for my learning.
One other point I had taken away was the need to improve mental stability, endurance and resilience. I solved this personally through over exposure in sanma, but I’m not sure if this would work for others.
Q: What are you current goals for mahjong?
I want to learn scoring properly and be able to score quickly and accurately.
I also want to increase my knowledge in fundamentals which should hopefully fix some bad habits I’ve developed.
Q: What would it mean for you to qualify for WRC?
From a mahjong fan perspective it would be a great chance to meet and engage with not only Japanese pros, but also other strong players from around the world.
From a personal perspective, qualifying is the positive feedback for the effort which I have put into mahjong. While trivial, this positive feedback would serve as a push of confidence for my ADHD brain to keep developing my mahjong skills.
As of the end of week 1 of the Aussie WRC Qualifier League, Shikin is currently 18th/23 with a score of -53.9. While not the strongest start with another 20 hanchan still left, anything is possible especially with her “high variance aggression” playstyle. We look forward to seeing Shikin continue to work hard growing her mahjong.
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