World Series of Mahjong

The World Series of Mahjong, abbreviated as WSOM, has a very catchy scoring
system that is pattern based. The scoring system is called Zung Jung and it was
invented by a guy called Alan Kwan.

World Series of Mahjong is similar in style to Hong Kong New Style or Chinese
Official Mahjong. What makes this game superior to the other two mentioned here,
is that it is much simpler to learn as it has far less scoring elements. Unlike the other
two, HKNS and CO, the Zung Jung scoring style does not require a minimum score
for a winning hand. The World Series of Mahjong, however, did adopt this rule
during its 2008 tournament.

World Series of Mahjong has been seriously developed over the years. The Zung
Jung rules in particular have been in a development process for more than ten years.
The reason why the masters are spending so much time with the development of
World Series of Mahjong rules is that they would like to develop one international set
of rules that will be easy to learn and teach for all players.

The game of World Series of Mahjong has a pattern-focused payoff scheme. If you
look closely you will notice the scientific approach of the game, and see that you get
points for creating logical patterns, while obscure patterns appearing in the regional
variants of mahjong is ignored.

The World Series of Mahjong uses Zung Jung mahjong rules but adapt these to
create smoother game and tournament play. The equipment needed to play this
game include tiles called dragons, winds, dots, cracks and Bams, and the use of
pushers / straighteners is optional.

World Series of Mahjong Terminology

• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Chi means that you have
claimed a sequence of 3 tiles.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Dead wall means that
the game has reached a stage where the last remaining 14 tiles of the game’s
tile wall have not yet been played.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Kong means that you
are declaring that you have claimed 4 of a kind.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Pong means that you are
declaring that you have claimed 3 of a kind.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Riverbed tile is used to
describe the last tile that is discarded before the players reach the dead wall
stage.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Seabed tile is used to
describe the last tile that is drawn before players reach the dead wall stage.
• When playing the World Series of Mahjong, the term Win is quite simple, it is
declared when one wins the game.

The seating arrangements for the World Series of Mahjong game are quite simple.
When playing a casual game you can sit in any order but each player will be assigned
a ‘wind’ although prevalent winds (another Mahjong concept) do not apply.