Hello Lumia Island survivors,

After an intense competition at the 2024 PlayX4, where BNK FearX's victory at the Season 3 Finals marked S3’s end, we now welcome Season 4: Sunset!

Eternal Return Esports is now preparing for the new tournaments in Season 4.

Thanks to your interest and support we’ve made it this far! In fact, we celebrated the growth of our Eternal Return Esports with over a thousand spectators at PlayX4. Now, let’s look back on the memories we made along Season 3 and take a look at the upcoming changes to ER’s Esports during Season 4.

§ Unified Branding for Eternal Return Masters and Season Finals

Previously, many referred to the Season Finals event as the Masters Finals. Although technically the Season Finals was not branded as Masters due to the ability to earn points through other A-tier tournaments, even our casters often found it difficult to distinguish between the two.

With the integration of the National League into the tournament structure, hosting external tournaments during the Masters (circuit points competition) period has become impractical. Therefore, we aim to streamline the brands by merging the Masters and Season Finals under one umbrella. Future third-party tournaments will be held between seasons, similar to the Super Cup.

§ Eternal Return Masters Season 4 Schedule

Many might have anticipated this, given the early release of the Season 4 Finals schedule: this season, the Masters will start earlier than usual. The delay of Season 3's Masters by two weeks made the transition between Seasons 3 and 4 feel a little tight but we hope for your continued interest and participation, starting with the Phase 1 qualifiers next week.

The Season 4 Finals will take place at the Daejeon Dream Arena, coinciding with Daejeon’s largest regional festival, the ‘Zero O'clock Festival’. We are preparing to ensure a memorable experience for everyone visiting Daejeon during this holiday season. 

Due to the results of the Season 3 Finals, the top 8 teams listed above will directly participate in the main event of the Eternal Return Masters Season 4, bypassing the qualifiers from Phase 1 to Phase 3. Based on the final standings, the disbanded OwO team’s seed will be taken by Pray, who finished 5th in the semifinals. We look forward to seeing which teams will advance to Day 2 of the Season 4 Finals.

§ Changes in Tournament Rules Due to Game System Updates

Last season, the Temporary Restricted Areas system underwent some changes, increasing the number of areas to two. Additionally, the criterion for concluding a match at a checkpoint was temporarily changed from "last survival" to "most round points". This change aimed to encourage more aggressive play by making the goal to score the highest points. However, this also posed a risk where teams might deliberately give away kills, especially when a full three-member squad wasn’t surviving and suspicion arose about which teams they were engaging with.

Under the "last survival" criterion, other teams could cooperate to target the checkpoint-achieving team. The newly introduced systems this season are expected to minimize such unfair scenarios.

Firstly, with the 1.23 patch, the Kill Bonus system change means that recovering the restricted area count will now be triggered when a character is downed rather than when they are killed. This allows teams to recover the restricted area count by downing opponents even within the Temporary Restricted Areas.

Similarly, the 1.23 patch will also hide the number of surviving teams, making it difficult for teams to strategize based on the survival status of other teams.

The most significant change in the Temporary Restricted Areas system ensures that even if a team suffers losses (deaths), the final 3v3 showdown will still be guaranteed if they emerge as the last team standing in that area. Also, interference between the two Temporary Restricted Areas will be prevented, giving the team that surpasses the checkpoint a better chance to secure the final 1v1 fight on their own merit.

Both the "last survival" and "most round points" criteria have weaknesses in maintaining fairness during the checkpoint targeting process. The key difference lies in whether the process is actively controlled by the team or if the targeted team can overcome the challenge independently. We expect that the new systems will significantly improve the checkpoint rules based on "last survival", but we are open to adjustments based on how the situation evolves after this implementation. While the live version of ER will see changes to the Temporary Restricted Areas system in update 1.25, the Tournament version will pre-implement these changes in update 1.24. Hence, the qualifiers for Phase 2 of Masters Season 4 will be conducted using the tournament client to ensure consistency with the finals. We will continue to encourage active scrimmages in the tournament client to prepare for the competitions and to closely monitor the changes in the Temporary Restricted Areas system. And if needed, we will carefully decide to apply changes based on the data gathered from the qualifiers and scrimmages.

§ Esports Support Program

We aim to release the 'Esports Team Support Bundle’ and the 'Esports Support Bundle' during Season 4. These bundles will allow teams, players, and spectators participating in Eternal Return Esports to support and connect with each other.

The Esports Team Support Bundle is an item that allows you to directly support your favorite team. Each team can release up to one bundle per season, and the design will be created according to the team's preferences. The expected price for each bundle is 9,900 KRW (7.21 USD), and the contents are as follows:

• Esports Team Support Bundle (*Name subject to change)
  • Profile Icon
  • Background
  • Border
  • Team Slot BG
  • Emote

The Esports Support Bundle is designed to help the Eternal Return Esports ecosystem. It will include a special animated emote, and other items at a discounted price. The revenue from the Esports Support Bundles will be used as prize money for tournaments. The expected price is also 9,900 KRW (7.21 USD), and the contents are as follows:

• Esports Support Bundle  (*Name subject to change)
  • Esport Season Animated Emote
  • Skin Data Set
  • Research Center Data Box
  • 400 NP
  • XP Boost (14 Days)
  • A-Coin Boost (14 Days)
  • ER Point Boost (14 Days)

The revenue from the Esports Support Bundle sales during Seasons 4 and 5, after deducting platform fees, will be fully distributed as prize money for the regular season of the National League. In 2024, the primary focus will be on supporting the newly launched National League, but we plan to refine and expand the benefits to more tournaments in the future.

§ The Future of Eternal Return Esports

Eternal Return is committed to creating Esports experiences with our fans, offering a platform where anyone can chase their dreams. In the ever-changing Esports market, we’ve carefully considered our path forward. Our decision to introduce the National League in Korea as a 'semi-pro league' reflects this thought process. We believe that progressing step by step in the right direction is more important than rapid growth. Through this journey, we hope everyone in the Esports ecosystem can gradually have the chance to make their dreams come true. We’ll continue to listen to all your feedback and strive to deliver even better tournaments and broadcasts.

We look forward to bringing you thrilling matches in the upcoming Season 4 Esports.

As always, thank you to everyone participating in our competitions and for sticking with us! 

Sincerely, 

Eternal Return Esports Team