Hello Lumia Island survivors!

The  Eternal Return Masters 2023 Season 1 Phase 1, held from August 25th to 27th last week, has concluded!

As the first Masters series since Official Launch, many fans came to visit us on Stream as well as cheer for their favorite players. 

Here's how the three-day battle ended.

DAY 1 : GROUP STAGE

Group A was played out first, and the group included Naerreum, who led the leaderboards by a large margin. OneCircle, danana, gwork all worked together as a team to win 4 rounds in a row as Naerreum took over, closing the Group Stage with 80 points. 

OneCircle had a highlight moment where he took on two of the enemies by himself as Tazia. Team STERN took the initiation in the final restricted zone, but they were not able to beat OneCircle’s patented Tazia. 

Following the first group, Group B’s victor was team OwO. They brought a unique combination of Hart’s ultimate and Nullification (Tactical SKill) to defeat enemies. Asher and Family Man closely followed them in the leaderboards. 

OwO focused on getting level 3 for Nullification, which allowed them to combine their attacks on top of Revolu Hart’s ultimate. Revolu also showed an overall strong performance, often clutching the fights.

DAY 2 : WILDCARDS

와일드카드전에서는 ‘Beobeo’의 엠마와 ‘100soo’의 리 다이린을 활용하며 팀명처럼 재치있는 플레이를 보여준 Tricksters가 선두를 달렸습니다. 아쉽게 탈락한 팀들도 자신만의 매력을 확실하게 보여준 와일드카드전이 아니었나 싶은데요, ‘선창 전투’를 보게 해준 UnderDog 팀도 그 주인공 중 하나였습니다.

In Wildcards, ‘Beobeo’ on Emma and ‘100soo’ on Li Dailin did their team name of Tricksters justice. Sadly not all teams were able to make it into the finals, even though many of them showed strong performance. Team UnderDog even showed the viewers an escape fight in the Abandoned Dock. 

ER Fighting showed us an aggressive composition where Jan and Hyunwoo were backed by Theodore and his ultimate. With their ability to initiate in sudden bursts, enemies were often caught off guard. We’re sure the viewers were in awe of the melee focused composition they brought, especially in their fight against Laura, Eleven, and Jan played by exTRA. 

Romatic picked Bernice to set his enemies on fire. Romatic also showed a high accuracy with his weapon skill and ultimate and was able to prove himself as a strong ranged character player.

We were able to see our first fight at the Abandoned Dock. Team exTRA collected a Rootkit in order to escape, but team UnderDog quickly followed after. After a close fight, UnderDog was able to escape with 3 more kills in their pockets.

DAY 3 : FINALS

The victor of the first Masters series since Official Launch is the returning fan favorite, Naerreum. They were behind in the early set of games, and many started counting them down. However, after the break, Naerreum was able to come back and win the event in 8 rounds. 

This Finals was different from other Masters finals that were previously shown. Teams had to win a round after reaching 55 points, and this new rule led to a close race between teams. Team OwO led to the 55 point mark first, with Naerreum, Asher, Newclear, HappyGaming, and Tricksters all following after, until Naerreum won in the 8th round. 

Haemyu on Felix was locked in. Even after losing their Mai early in the fight against Naerreum, Haemyu clutched the moment for his team. Mangnani’s Bianca also played a big role in holding the team steady. We hope to see more of Asher in the upcoming events!

Li Dailin, Fiora, and Emma - Tricksters showed flashy plays throughout the finals. Especially against HappyGaming in the final zone, Fiora and Li Dailin took turns engaging against the Hart as if they were a tag-team duo. Tricksters focused on until the end, and was close to overturning the whole event!

While STERN’s games did not go as planned, The player, Mandarin, brought out his Rozzi. The pick impressed viewers, using the mobility to tread through fights. Players were reminded why Mandarin was part of the Eternal Return Finals in Busan in the past. We hope STERN can come back even stronger in the next event. 

In the end, Naerreum was able to grasp victory themselves. ER Fighting’s Chamyeon engaged from their blind sight, but Naerreum was able to respond calmly and accordingly to flip the fight into their favor. Naerreum in the end proved themselves, once again. 

This marks the end of the summary for the first tournament post-Official Launch. Here is what the current standings for this season’s circuit looks like. 

Players can gain circuit points throughout the season from multiple tournaments.
The top 4 teams in the circuit will confirm their spot in Day 2 of the Season Finals.
The next top 6 teams in the circuit will proceed to Day 1 of the Season Finals.
The bottom 2 teams will have a spot in the LCQ.
Season Finals will take place in Daejeon, but there are many events to achieve circuit points. Check out the schedule below.

• Event Schedule

• Registrations

• Official Channels
  - Korean: https://www.twitch.tv/nimbleneuron
  - Chinese (Simplified) : http://live.bilibili.com/21456983
  - Chinese (Traditional) : https://www.twitch.tv/eternalreturn_tpe
  - Japanese: https://www.twitch.tv/eternalreturn_jp
  - English: https://www.twitch.tv/eternalreturngame

Thank you for your support and interest in Eternal Return Esports!