I don't remember this episode so well, but is Nodoka's reason for getting to Nationals the same as the girl's in Side A? And FULL BLOOM there at the end. I'm not sure Saki could kiss Nodoka, those boobs would so get in the way.
Poor Nodoka. She totally feels uneasy because Saki is best at Mahjong when reading the titles. P.S. The ending was so cute they finally got along with each other.
The main reason these kinds of series work so well is that the underlying concepts are 100s, sometimes 1000s of years old. The author doesn't have to make crap up, just wrap good characters around a game millions already enjoy.
In this series the best players have a certain degree of psychic ability. Once that eye opens you'll see just how crazy a simple plot can get in an anime. <(^_^)>