Capital Riichi Club

Ottawa-Gatineau's Premier Riichi Mahjong Club

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Dates and Location (WIP)

The Capital Riichi Open is a two-day tournament.
Day 1: Saturday, April 24^th, 2027. 8:30 am – 9:00 pm EDT (UTC-4)
Day 2: Sunday, April 25^th, 2027. 8:30 am – 9:00 pm EDT (UTC-4)


The tournament will be held at Tom Brown Arena:
141 Bayview Station Road
Ottawa, ON K1Y 4T1
Canada

Transit and Parking (WIP)

[This section is pending updates]Tom Brown Arena is a 5-minute walk from Bayview Station — the hub where OCTranspo's LRT Line 1 and Line 2 intersect.Line 1 runs east to west through downtown Ottawa and Line 2 runs north to south. Trains on Line 1 arrive approximately every 8 minutes, and Trains on Line 2 arrive approximately every 12 minutes.[Provide walking directions + pic]We will aim to have signage inside to direct you upon reaching the building.There is complimentary on-site parking at the lot in front of the venue for participants looking to drive (approximately 50 to 70 spaces are available).

Fees and Registration (TBD)

The early bird tournament fee is [$60] CAD if you register and pay by March 31st, 2026 11:59 pm EDT (UTC-4). After that date, the fee will be raised to [$70] CAD.Registration is now open! Please find the form at the following link: [N/A] Registration formally closes on April 24th, 2026 at 11:59 pm EDT. This tournament will be capped to a maximum of 80 players. Additional registrants beyond the cap will be added to a wait list and will only pay registration fees should a spot open for their attendance.The event has concluded! Thank you to all who have made this year's tournament possible! Results can be found here: 2026 ResultsTournament fees are due by April 24th, 2026 at 11:59 pm EDT, and shall be paid via Interac e-Transfer to [email protected] (preferred) or via PayPal to the Capital Riichi Club PayPal account at [email protected]. If your payment is not received by that date, you forfeit your spot to the next person on the waiting list. Cash payments are not accepted — our apologies for the inconvenience.The registration form has been translated into French with the help of Grant M. from the Montreal Riichi Club.Le formulaire d’inscription a été traduit en français avec l’assistance de Grant M. du Club riichi de Montréal.


Important note regarding refunds:
Refunds will only be issued in case of emergencies. If you have an emergency and need to withdraw from the tournament, please contact [email protected].

Food and Accommodations (WIP)

There will be no catering provided at our event, however light snacks and beverages will be provided free of charge. Tom Brown Arena is close to both Chinatown and downtown Ottawa, so there are plenty of food options within a reasonable distance.Please note that the Capital Riichi Club does not have an accommodation partner for this event. We recommend searching for hotels or AirBnBs that are close to either of OCTranspo’s Line 1 or Line 2 for ease of transportation should you need it.

Rules and Format (TBD)

The tournament will follow the WRC 2025 Ruleset with the following optional rules active:Modification 2.1: Red Fives
The Capital Riichi Open will make use of three red fives as additional dora in tournament matches.Modification 4.1: Uma
To account for the use of red fives as additional dora, the Capital Riichi Open will make use of modified uma values of +30 pts / +10 pts / -10 pts / -30 pts for 1^st / 2^nd / 3^rd / 4^th place results respectively.


The tournament will also follow the latest Lower Penalties table (found in the Optional Rules document), along with the following additions/exceptions/clarifications:Wrongly revealing tiles:
• 1-3 tiles: No penalty (upgraded to warning, then -5.0 pts penalty for repeated offences)
• 4-6 tiles: Dead hand
• 7+ tiles: ChomboIncorrect all-last sheet:
-8.0 pts penalty for the offending player, if it changed the result of the gameIncorrect report sheet:
-2.0 pts penalty per playerIf an exception/addition/clarification is not listed above, the referees will use the WRC 2025 rules as the basis of their judgment on a given matter.

Regarding warnings and penalties (New):
Starting this year, players assessed a warning under the lower penalties table will have their warnings tracked across the event.In the event three warnings are provided to the same player over the course of the event, their fourth warning and subsequent warnings will each incur a penalty of -10.0 points, applied to their score at the end of the round.

Players must not abuse the rules or exploit loopholes in the rules. Tournament etiquette will be observed during the tournament as well. If this is your first event, we strongly encourage you to review the Toronto Riichi Club’s Tournament Etiquette webpage, as well as Riichi Nomi’s YouTube video on the subject.

Format
• 4 hanchans per day, for a total of 8 hanchans over the 2-day event.
• 80+0 hanchan time limit (80 minutes total for the hanchan; no additional time provided) — Unfinished hands being played at the time limit will be played to completion ¹.
• Round 1 pairings will be randomly determined.
• Pairings starting from Round 2 will be generated using a Swiss matchmaking system (Kudos to Riichi Nomi NYC for providing the references and resources to make this possible!)
• The Swiss system will match players of similar rankings and try to minimize repeats as much as possible.
• There will not be a top 8 cut after Hanchan 6 — the top 8 players will be determined by their cumulative score after the end of Hanchan 8.The tournament will divide groups into several buckets following this configuration for matchmaking:
[1,2,2,2,3,3,3,3]-------
¹ A hand is considered finished when one of the following has occurred:
• a player has declared Ron or Tsumo
• a chombo has occurred and prevents the game from proceeding normally, thus forcing a re-deal
• the last tile from the live wall has been discarded and no win has been declared (exhaustive draw)

Schedule (TBD)

All times are in EDT (UTC-4).First day

Second day

Prizes

Trophies and medals will be awarded to the top 8 players. No cash prizes will be awarded at this event.

Participants (TBD)

TBD

CRO Past Results

The table below reflects the standings for the recently completed tournament (2026).
Older tournament results will be included as Google Sheets URLs at the bottom of this page.

About Us

Our club was informally established in July 2023 as a way to coordinate riichi mahjong meetups in Canada’s National Capital Region (NCR). On April 29, 2024, we were named the Capital Riichi Club (CRIC).CRIC’s logo — based on the 2-pin tile — was created in March 2025 and designed to represent the NCR’s two main areas: Ottawa and Gatineau. The flowers in each circle depict the official provincial flowers for Québec and Ontario (top and bottom, respectively) and the colours used directly match the colours of both cities’ logos.Official club meetups are held once a month at Level One Game Pub in the downtown area (14 rue Waller Street, Ottawa, ON) and club members often host pick-up events on weekends in various locations across the NCR.Since our founding in 2023, we have been actively participating in local community events — especially those that celebrate the creative arts and culture. We hosted a riichi mahjong booth at Anime Ottawa 2025 and were featured on CBC Ottawa’s All in a Day Book Club hosted by Alan Neal (featuring Wayne Ng, author of Johnny Delivers, a novel that heavily incorporates mahjong elements into its storytelling).Our club has since grown to over 200 members with regular member engagement and we hope to continue growing the NCR’s riichi mahjong community in the years to come. Whether you are a new player, or a seasoned veteran, all skill levels are welcome at the Capital Riichi Club!

Meet Your Team

Paul Chang-Richardson
Co-Founder & President
Paul started playing riichi mahjong in 2022 with friends amongst the Ottawa fighting game community and was quickly hooked by the game. He eventually crossed paths with CRIC's other founding member Amy and decided to create a club to represent the NCR's riichi mahjong community.Paul is the primary event organizer for CRIC activities and is the liaison for both club communications and public relations.Favourite tile: 7-pin
Favourite yakus: pinfu, sanankou (three concealed triplets)Amy Situ
Co-Founder & Digital Media and Community Manager
Amy also started playing riichi mahjong in 2022 through the online client Mahjong Soul and later discovered the joys of in-person play at an anime convention in 2023. She sought out players from the NCR who also shared the same passion for riichi mahjong and eventually co-founded CRIC with Paul.Amy primarily handles the online and technical aspects of the club such as media design, server moderation, and social media.Favourite tile: 1-sou
Favourite yakus: riichi, ippatsu, tsumo

Contact

Club activities, announcements, and event planning are hosted primarily on our Discord server.Follow us on Instagram @capital.riichi.club to see more mahjong related content such as previews and behind the scenes!For business inquiries, please contact us via email at [email protected].