英語検定ライティング準１級（第134回）

Mリーグ「エンタメ重視でいいのかという話」

A female player makes a difference in M-League.

初めて麻雀をしたのは就職して１年目のことで、つまり大学時代は触ったこともなかった。こどもの頃に親戚の集まりがあると、各家庭の父親たちは夜通し麻雀をやっててうるさかった。
I have never had an experience to enjoy mahjong during my university days, but my colleagues loved this strategic game and they kindly invited me to the entertainment hour when I started to work in my first workplace in1987.
Around five decades ago, my family visited the relative’s session or assembly, where four or five fathers enjoyed this complicated game through the night, which was too noisy for us to gain enough night sleep, we remember.

大学を卒業して同僚との関わりの中で麻雀を始めだが、家庭用ゲーム機は重宝した。ミスをすると大音量で負けを知らせる。屈辱的な負け方なので、相手は人間ではないが悔しかった。
Graduating from my university, I could luckily started enjoying mahjong with several coworkers, then a home game machine was extremely helpful for a beginner like me, which made me feel regrettable when the machine defeated me because a disgusting and uncomfortable sound hit on my ears suddenly.
I became careful not to lose this smart machine.

Mリーグが始まって６シーズンが過ぎた。現在９チームある。４人の中には女性選手が必ず１人所属しなくてはならない。年季の入った高齢者が強そうだが、雀歴の浅い女子も弱くない。
Six seasons have passed since M-League started, which is composed of nine teams.
One female player must absolutely belong to each team, which is a compulsory regulation.
Most of us might safely imagine that a senior male player with enough experiences always wins the game, but it isn’t the case, where several young female players show us their aggressive and enthusiastic techniques, so that they could win the game, not frequently.

チームによっては実力よりも集客を重視して、マスコット的なアイドルを加えているチームもある。反対にガチガチに勝つことだけを重視してタイトル保持者だけのチームも当然ある。
A certain team emphasizes a player’s ability to attract many viewers and supporters, which makes an ex-idol female join the team with few thrilling experiences.
On the other hand, another team only emphasizes its members’ victorious faculty to win the championship, which is composed of four title holders.

あるチームは４人の中で３人が女流という特異な構成だった。３人とも見映えのする女子で、成績は悪いが楽しい雰囲気を醸し出していた。突然の契約解除は多くのファンを混乱させた。
A certain team was composed of four members, including only one male player, which we found strange at first, but the rest three players were extremely refreshing females.
They couldn’t show stable performances on TV program, however, they had an atmosphere with amusement or entertainment, which attracted many supporters.
The other day, two of them were suddenly fired, which brought us to a disappointing and confusing situation.

麻雀は賭博要素が抜けきれないのでイメージも良くはない。メディアも取り上げることなく裏稼業に近い。それを払拭するために始まったと思っていた。勝利至上主義に変わりつつある。
This strategic brain sport on the table has suffered from notorious reputations that four guys with unforgiven attitudes enjoy gambling while they are smoking, which M-League has wanted to abandon, so these negative reputations have been vanishing from our society little by little.
When major mass media feature this league more on TV, more ordinary citizens could recognize that this strategic brain game makes positive contributions to their pleasant life.
The concept that “victory is everything” is unlikely to make mahjong prevalent all over the globe, we assume.

We hope that new two male players would make it.