How to Run a Mahjong Ladder or Season League

Once a mahjong group plays every week, people start asking who is actually top. A season league answers that question: a fixed run of nights, a clear way to rank players, and a finals night at the end. This guide compares the three common formats, the ranking methods and their trade-offs, a minimum-games rule that keeps the standings fair, and how to handle absences, seating and the season finale. There is a worked standings table halfway down.

Free, no sign-up. One link for the whole league; anyone at any table logs their game.

Ladder, season table or rolling ranking?

Three formats cover almost every social mahjong league. They differ in how long a season lasts and what decides your position.

You can combine them: run a ladder for seating each night and keep a points table for the season. The rest of this guide focuses on the points-table season, since it is what most clubs choose.

How to rank players

Mahjong is zero-sum in most variants, so the scores themselves are the obvious thing to rank by. The question is which number.

• Total (net) score. Add up everything each player won and lost. Simple and hard to argue with, but it rewards attendance: someone who plays every week has more chances to build a big total, and a bigger hole to dig, than someone who plays half the nights.
• Average per game. Total divided by games played. Fairer to people who miss weeks, but on its own a player who wins their only two games tops the table.
• Win rate. The share of games a player finished up. Easy to understand and less swingy than money, but it ignores size: finishing +2 counts the same as +200.

A good default for a social league: rank by average per game, with a minimum-games rule, and use total score as the tiebreak. If your group plays every week and attendance is steady, total score is simpler and works just as well.

The minimum-games rule

Small samples are the biggest source of odd standings. Mahjong has a lot of luck in any single game, so two good nights can put a newcomer above someone with a solid season behind them. A minimum-games rule fixes this.

• Set the minimum before the season starts, and post it with the rules.
• About half to two thirds of the season's nights is typical: 6 games in a 10-week season, 8 in a 12-week one.
• Keep everyone visible. Players below the minimum stay in the standings, just marked as not yet qualified. It gives them a reason to come back.
• Use the same rule for finals. Only qualified players are eligible for the finals night.

Worked standings example

Here is a ten-week season for an eight-player club, ranked by average per game with a minimum of 6 games. Scores are points (no money), and each game is zero-sum, so the net column adds up to zero.

What the example shows:

• Dan has the best average (+90.0) and a perfect win rate, from two games. Without the minimum he would top the table. With it, he is listed but not ranked until he has played six.
• By total score, Dan would be third (+180), ahead of Mei, who has played five times as many games. That is the attendance effect working the other way.
• Mei has played every week. Ranked by total, attendance helps her; ranked by average, it neither helps nor hurts. Neither is wrong, but pick one and say so before the season.

Handling absences

People miss weeks: holidays, exams, illness. Agree how absences work before the season starts, so nobody feels the rules changed on them.

• Ranking by total: a missed night counts as zero. Simple, but it nudges people to come every week, which you may want.
• Ranking by average: absences do not count at all. The minimum-games rule keeps it honest.
• Best N nights: count only each player's best 6 of 10 nights, for example. Forgiving, but more work to calculate, and it hides bad nights.
• Subs and guests: decide whether a guest's games count. Most clubs let guests play and appear in the record, but only members are eligible for the finals.

Seating and rotation on league nights

Who sits with whom matters in a league: if the same four always share a table, the standings mostly compare those four. Seating is the organizer's job each night (Mahjong Logbook does not assign weekly tables), so keep the method simple.

• Random draw. Put one wind tile per seat face down (East, South, West, North for each table, marked with a table number) and have everyone draw. Quick and visibly fair.
• Mix it up. Avoid seating the same foursome two weeks running. A quick glance at last week's tables is usually enough.
• Ladder seating. Seat by current standings: top four at table 1, next four at table 2, and so on. After each game the table winner moves up and the bottom player moves down.
• Odd numbers. If you have five or six for a table, rotate a player out every game, or play a "sit-out" rotation so everyone plays the same number of games.
• Agree what a game is. A fixed number of rounds (for example one or two full rounds of the winds) or a time limit, so every table's game is comparable.

Season end and finals night

A season needs an ending. Without one, the standings drift and the newest members never feel they can catch up.

• Announce the last night two or three weeks ahead so players chasing the minimum can plan.
• Freeze the standings after the last night and post the final table in the group chat.
• Run a finals night. Take the top 4, 8 or 16 qualified players into a few rounds with fresh scores, or seed them by season rank. Everyone else can play alongside in an open event.
• Start the next season clean. Everyone back to zero, with the old season's table kept as history.

Mahjong Logbook's tournament mode can run the finals night: pick round-robin points, points plus a final table, or multi-stage knockouts, paste the roster, and it handles seating, per-table entry and live standings. It is US$99 per event with a 3-day no-questions refund.

Running a league in Mahjong Logbook

A league is one shared room. Post the link in the group chat once; on league night, someone at each table logs their game, hand by hand or as final totals.

• Standings. The leaderboard ranks everyone by net total. You can sort the table by games played, win rate or average per game, which is how you check the example above against your own club.
• Seasons. Filter the leaderboard by year or quarter. If your season lines up with a calendar quarter, that filter is your season table.
• What it does not do. There is no built-in minimum-games rule, so check the Games column against your minimum yourself. It does not assign weekly tables either; that stays with the organizer.
• Leavers. Set a player who has left to "on a break" and they drop off the leaderboard while their history is kept. Do not use it for a single missed week, since it removes them from the standings.
• Size. A free room holds up to 10 active players. A bigger league can upgrade that room to Pro (USD 12.99 a month, or USD 7.99 a month billed yearly) for unlimited players and head-to-head analysis.

Cantonese and HK-Taiwanese games must sum to zero before they save. American Mah Jongg scores are entered per player with no zero-sum check. For the full club set-up, see the mahjong club score tracker.

FAQ

More guides: how to start a mahjong club and how to keep score in mahjong, with a free printable score sheet.