Hello UK players!
We hope your year has got off to a good start and that lots of you are planning a year full of mahjong.
This is an announcement for anyone planning to attend an EMA tournament in the near future.
Please be advised that results at EMA tournaments from 1st Jan 2026 onwards may be considered when the UKMA next selects players for invitational events such as the European Riichi Mahjong Championship and World Riichi Championship.
What’s this, you might ask? You may or may not be aware that a UKMA committee has been working in the background on a new selection process for these events.
That committee’s work is nearing completion and will be shared as soon as possible. The survey that you should have received in November was a part of this work, and the responses are being carefully considered.
Three points are pertinent right now:
- The next major invitational is expected to occur next year (ERMC 2027)
- If the selection process ends up being based on tournament results, then a broad window of tournament results would be desirable
- It is not entirely fair to ‘backdate’ this window when results are already known
So, consider this your notice that the window is now open! At this stage, the message is simply “do as well as you can and play as much as you can”. We will be back to elaborate on that very soon!
Please note this will not affect selection for the OEMC MCR Tournament in July.
Best wishes
The UK Mahjong Association