Interview with Chiei Sugawara, a “beautiful mahjong player on the precipice” who is facing her last chance to get fired.

I was prepared for a tough competition, but frankly speaking, I was hit with a heavy punch from the first day. The audition qualifying rounds consist of two matches per day for a total of six matches over three days, with the top four finishers advancing to the finals. “I’m going to take the top spot at least once a day! I was determined to do so, but on the first day, in the first game, I was suddenly in fourth place. In the second game, I had a chance to make it to the top, but ended up in second place, and I had a negative thought in my head: ‘Maybe the mahjong gods didn’t choose me …….'”

The one who revealed her feelings with an anxious look in her eyes was Chiei Sugawara, 33, a professional mahjong player belonging to the M-League’s BEAST X. On May 18, she was invited to the M-League’s “BEAST Ten” tournament.

On May 18, her team opened the “BEAST X Member Replacement Audition. After the first day’s games, Sugawara, a mahjong player on the “precipice,” had a deep shadow of fatigue on her face.

The audition to replace the “fired” players has begun!

The M League was launched in 2006 with the aim of making mahjong a professional sport. The ’24-’25 season started in September last year and ended on the 16th of this month with the first victory of “Sega Sammy Phoenix”. BEAST X, a four-member team consisting of Sugawara, Masatoshi Sarukawa (46), Daisuke Suzuki (50), and Hanana Nakata (30), first entered the M League in the ’23-’24 season, and is now in its second year. The team failed to advance to the semi-final series in April, and ended the season at the end of the regular season at the end of March.

I have the impression that we didn’t get a second shot off this season. Even when we scored a big goal in a game, we couldn’t follow it up with a comeback loss. Even if we won one game, we often lost the next game. After falling to the bottom of the standings last November, the team was unable to get into a good mood and escape the bottom of the standings.

In fact, BEAST X had a reason not to lose.

Last season, BEAST X finished in seventh place and failed to advance to the semifinal series. This meant that if they failed to advance to the semifinal series again this season, someone had to leave the team.

And so it came to pass that the team captain Sarukawa was tapped on the shoulder. And then there was Sugawara.

Sugawara recalls, “Around the beginning of April, right after the regular season ended, I was told that Mr. Sarukawa and I would be auditioning to remain on the team. But I didn’t feel like, ‘Why me? I was the only one of the four to audition for the team. I was the only one of the four who had won the audition held two years earlier and joined the team. I was the only one of the four to make the team after winning the audition two years ago, and I was expected to play an active role in the team, but I had a disappointing record, with negative individual points for two years in a row. Of course, I was hoping to stay on the team, so I can’t say I wasn’t shocked, but on the other hand, I was somewhat satisfied with my performance.

If he wins the audition, he will stay with the team, but if he does not win, he will have to leave the team. Sugawara is now half fired, so to speak.

There were a total of six participants in the audition, including Sugawara, Sarukawa, and four potential new members. 1 in 6 might not sound like a bad chance to remain on the team, but the participants were all fierce competitors. In fact, Sugawara is having a tough time. On the first day of the qualifying round, while Gege Shimoishi (Geki, Japan Professional Mahjong Association) rocketed to the top in two consecutive games, he fell behind, finishing in fourth place out of six players with a total score of two games. Nevertheless, he has no intention of relinquishing his M-League title, which he has finally won.

I never want that match to be my last.

Sugawara became interested in mahjong after reading the manga “Tetsuya: The Man Called Jansei” when he was in junior high school, and passed the professional test in 2012 while a student at Takachiho University. From the time the M-League was established in 2006, he thought, ‘I want to play in the M-League someday,’ but he did not have the track record or name recognition to be selected in the draft, so he was never approached.

His first attempt to enter the M-League came in his 10th year as a pro in 2009, when he participated in an audition for the M-League team “EX Fu-Rin-Kazan,” but he finished 80th out of 160 players in the preliminary round and failed to make it to the semi-finals. Two years later, in 2011, he won the audition held at the time of the launch of “BEAST Japanext” (now BEAST X), which led to his long-awaited entry into the M-League.

For a professional mahjong player, there is a huge difference in the level of attention between being an M-League player and not being an M-League player. Sugawara realized this immediately.

Even if you become an M-League player, you still have to work diligently on the game in front of you. However, as an M-Leaguer, I am much busier than I used to be, not only in M-League and title games, but also in events and writing. I think it has been two years of selfless running through a busy schedule, with only one day off a month or so.

On the 15th of this month, she released her first essay, “Watashi wo Tsuyoku Suru Mahjong Diary,” (KADOKAWA). At the time, he recalls, “I had a very busy schedule.

The filming took place last summer, and I wrote the book until around March of this year, which coincided with the M-League season. I would go home at night after games and write until morning. I went to bed in the morning, got up in the evening to prepare for the games, and wrote until morning again after the games were over. I had originally planned to release the book in January, but after much rewriting and other difficulties, it finally made it to the market.

He also never misses his mahjong practice. Although she did not do well on the first day of the audition, she is getting better, winning the Sankei Shimbun Cup Contest Mahjong Women’s League 2025 for the first time on the 9th of this month.

In the final of the “Sankei Shimbun Cup” five years ago, I won the first game of the third round and took a huge lead by winning yaku-man (the highest scoring yaku in mahjong), but in the end, the game was reversed and I lost the championship. I had been frustrated for a long time and finally got my revenge over the past five years!　This is exactly what I experienced, but even if you get a yakuman, it does not necessarily mean that you will win the championship. The first day of this audition has only just ended. I will try to make up for it from now on.

My last M League game this season was on March 24. That game was one of the worst in my two years in the M-League, and I was unable to get anything done. I didn’t want that game to be my “last game in the M-League. I want to win this audition and play as an M-League player next season to make up for that game. That’s what I want to do.

The second day of qualifying for the BEAST X member replacement audition will be held on June 25, and the third day on June 1. The finals will be held on June 8 and 15. All matches will be broadcast live on BS10, a nationwide free-to-air broadcasting station.

Will Sugawara be able to stand on the M-League stage again? The big game of Sugawara’s life has just begun.