Noah Schaar

Region: Berlin, Germany, Europe
Joined: Spring 2026
Achievements: Winner: Berlin Mahjong Club World Riichi Mahjong Champions League 2025
Background: I first came in contact with mahjong through anime, roughly 11 years ago, when my brother and I stumbled upon the Saki anime. We were hooked by the game immediately, and coming from an avid board game family, the two of us sought out rules and explanatory videos to teach ourselves the game. For a while, we tried to convince our family to play with us, but we never really managed to establish the game as most of our family struggled too much with the Japanese symbols. When I studied abroad in Tokyo in 2015, I wanted to play mahjong in Japan, but was turned off by the jansou environment. I am really bad with smoke, and every jansou I stumbled upon was filled with it. In the end, I only played a few rounds with some of my japanese roommates. For many years, riichi mahjong disappeared from my mind. In 2023, my brother discovered the Berlin Mahjong Club by chance, and invited me to join. Ever since I attended the first real-life meeting at the club, Mahjong has dominated my every waking thought. I got sucked into the game quickly and absolutely. By the end of 2023, I attended my first EMA tournament (which went horribly, but could not discourage me) and started to practise every day. In 2024 I started watching M-League too, which also revived my interest in Japanese (which was my major in university, but after graduating I gradually lost touch with Japanese and Japan). Nowadays I watch almost every hanchan played in M-League, and a ton of content by and about the M-leaguers too. My favourite player is Shibikawa and I would love to play against him at some point. My long-term goal would be to establish a team competition in Europe like M-League with games every week and an active following (I'd be interested in commentating too). I would like to play (and win) in japanese tournaments, and also to win the World Riichi Championship.

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