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4Setup When automatic tables are used, the setup procedure can be amended to match automatic tables' features, when relevant.	4Setup I know this remark about automatic tables is not really helpful; it's just here to not accidentally forbid them. Since different tables have different features, I can hardly be more specific. Their exact usage is let up to the organizers' and/or head referee's common sense.
4.1Starting points Each player starts the hanchan with 30,000 points. The game continues when a player's score goes below zero.	4.1Starting points Using stating points have several advantages: • Consistency with other rule-sets (AFAIK, EMA is the world exception for not mentioning them). • Organizers can use scoring sticks or score sheets transparently. • When using score sheets, players have only to compute positive scores, which should be easier/faster than constantly juggling between positive and negative. (It's not uncommon to have scoring errors because of a negative score losing it's sign, or points being added instead or subtracted.) • Since the starting points are eventually subtracted from the score, WRCR scoring is fully compliant with EMA scoring (with a by1000 conversion). There is no bankruptcy rule, because stopping the game when someone goes below zero serves to avoid players betting money to lose too much, and to avoid dealing with lack of scoring sticks. Since you don't bet money in tournaments, and the lack of sticks being a false problem, there is no need to stop the game. Also, stopping the game forbids the broke player to come back and denies other players' right to get more points, which is especially unfair in a tournament where you have to win not only against other players at the table, but against every other players in the tournament.
4.2Seat wind Mahjong is played by four players. Each one is associated with a wind, denoted the player’s seat wind. East is the starting player. South is sitting at East’s right, West is sitting across from East, and North is sitting at East’s left. Note that the counter-clockwise order East-South-West-North is not as could be expected from the compass directions. Between hands the seat winds will change, see the "dealer rotation" section. During a full game, each player is East at least twice.
4.3Prevailing wind When the game begins, the prevailing wind is East. When the player who started the game at the East seat becomes East again, after all other players have played at least one hand as East, the South round begins, and South becomes the prevailing wind. A wind marker should be placed permanently by the player who begins as East, and when this player becomes East again after the first (East) round of the game, the marker is flipped to indicate the new prevailing wind: South.
4.4Seating at the table The players’ positions at the table are either determined by drawing lots, or predefined by a tournament schedule. For drawing lots, one of each wind tile is used. The four tiles are shuffled face down and each player picks one of the tiles; the player who shuffled the tiles is the last to pick a tile. The player who picked the East tile will begin the game at the East seat. The player who picked the South tile will begin the game as South. The player who picked the West tile will begin the game as West. The player who picked the North tile will begin the game as North.	4.4Seating at the table There are different ways, used by different rules and groups of players. While they don't make much differences, any competition rule has to chose one and only one.
4.5Building the wall The tiles are thoroughly mixed. Each player builds in front of himself a wall of face-down tiles, seventeen tiles long and two tiles high. The four walls are pushed together to form a square.	4.5Building the wall There is no need to make a prefect square with right angles, and it's better to let the walls not touching each others.
4.6Breaking the wall The East player rolls two dice and counts that number of players counter-clockwise, starting with himself. The player thus determined breaks the wall in front of him, by counting from the right the same number of stacks as indicated by the dice. After the last counted stack the wall is broken by pushing the two wall sections a bit apart. For example, if East’s dice roll was 12, North breaks the wall as shown:
4.7The dead wall The seven stacks (14 tiles) to the right of the break make up the dead wall. The dead wall continues around the corner to the next wall, if the end of the wall is reached. The tiles in the dead wall are not used in the play, except for the providing of replacement tiles for kongs. It is recommended for the player who has the dead wall in front of him to place the first replacement tile to the immediate left of the dead wall, so that it has first two single tiles and then six tile stacks. This is in order to decrease the risk of knocking down and revealing the first replacement tile.	4.7The dead wall Ironically, the "dead" wall is the last one standing. [insert recorded laughs here]
4.8The dora indicator Count three tile stacks into the dead wall from the original break in the wall, and turn the top tile face up to determine the dora indicator. This tile indicates which tile is dora. If the dora indicator is a suit tile, the dora is the next tile in the same suit, e.g. if six bamboo is the dora indicator, then the dora is seven bamboo. If the indicator is a nine, the dora is the one in the same suit. If the indicator is a dragon, the dora is also a dragon, and the following order applies: Red points to White, White points to Green and Green points to Red. For winds, likewise, the following order applies: East-South-West-North-East.
4.9The deal The East player takes the first four tiles in the wall after the original break in the wall. Tiles are taken clockwise from the wall, while the players’ turns proceed counter-clockwise, South takes the next four tiles, West the next four, North the next four and so on until all players have twelve tiles. East continues by taking two tiles: the top tiles in the first and third stacks in the wall. South, West and North take one tile each, in order. (This corresponds to East taking one tile, waiting for the other players to take one tile each, and then East taking his fourteenth tile). East now has a starting hand of fourteen tiles, whereas the other players have thirteen tiles each. Each player arranges his tiles upright in front of himself, so only he can see their faces. The dice are placed at East’s right; in this way it's always clear to all players which player is East.