Hello Lumia Island survivors,
We want to express our sincere gratitude for the overwhelming interest and support shown during the Esports events held throughout Season 4—especially the Masters Season 4 Finals in Daejeon, which saw three times more spectators than usual!
Many of you were deeply moved by the moment when the players of MIRAEN SEJONG, who overcame previous disappointments in the Finals, lifted the championship trophy at the Masters Season 4 Finals. Emotions overflowed across the venue as these top-tier players finally raised the trophy, and we believe many of you were completely captivated by the allure of Esports as you joined in chanting for MIRAEN SEJONG.
Season 5 is set to be a pivotal season as we wrap up the year 2024. In today’s announcement, we’d like to provide you with details on the remaining Esports schedule for 2024, as well as give you a glimpse into what we are preparing for 2025.
Eternal Return Season 5 Masters Schedule
First of all, here is the full schedule for the Masters tournament in Season 5. The journey begins with the Phase 1 qualifiers on Sunday, October 6th, and continues for about two and a half months, culminating in the Season 5 Masters Finals on Friday, December 6th, and Saturday, December 7th.
The eight teams that secured seeds and will participate from Phase 1 through Phase 3 in this season's Masters are listed below. This season, all eight teams retained their seeds, with none forfeiting, ensuring that all teams that made it to the finals in the previous season will be competing again. Since these teams showed the best performances during Season 4, we are excited to see what they will bring to the table in the upcoming season!
We are also excited to introduce the main sponsor for this season's Masters. Our partner for Eternal Return Masters Season 5 is none other than AMD. As a leader in high-performance and adaptive computing, AMD is at the forefront of shaping the future of data centers, embedded systems, gaming, and PC markets. We anticipate a great synergy through this collaboration with Eternal Return Masters. We look forward to your support for Masters Season 5, brought to you by AMD!
Season 5 Masters Finals in Daejeon (December, 2024)
The S4 Masters Finals, held on August 9th and 10th in Daejeon, attracted an overwhelming number of attendees, turning the venue into a packed event with barely any room to move. However, due to the unexpected large turnout and limited space, we faced challenges in managing the crowd. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize once again for any inconvenience caused to those who attended.
We are passionate about Esports fan culture so we fully understand the shortcomings of the previous event from a fan’s perspective. As such, we are carefully considering how to improve the environment for the next event to address the issues that arose last time.
At the very least, we can assure you that we will prioritize the following improvements:
- Installing more barriers to prevent lines from merging.
- Moving the Lumia Night Market to a separate space, allowing the second floor of the arena to be used exclusively as a waiting area for spectators.
- Increasing the number of staff to maintain order.
The Masters Season 5 Finals will be held on December 6th and 7th and you can look forward to significant changes in the venue’s setup and side events between the 2 dates.
Additionally, the Daejeon Dream Arena has informed us that they plan to improve their heating and cooling systems following this event. Interestingly, when we held the Masters Finals and side events in August 2022 at the Busan Esports Arena, the cooling system struggled to keep up, which also led to an upgrade of their facilities afterward. It seems that Eternal Return events are becoming the kind of large-scale gatherings that local arenas have never experienced before!
Circuit Points Improvements
Currently, there are two main ways to advance to the Season Finals: earning Circuit Points by participating in each phase of the Masters and reaching the finals, or securing a spot through the last-chance qualifier (LCQ). However, even if a team qualifies for all three phases, there are cases where they might not earn any Circuit Points if they are eliminated in the Group Stage or Wildcard Round. Starting this season, Circuit Points will be distributed through the Wildcard Round, meaning that simply advancing to the Wildcard Round will guarantee a certain amount of Circuit Points. The specific allocation of Circuit Points by rank is detailed below.
However, reaching the Finals will still secure significantly more points, so if you want to guarantee a direct advance to the Season Finals, aiming for the Finals is still the best strategy. The purpose of this adjustment is to allocate more Circuit Points to teams that manage to break through the difficult qualifiers and reach the main event, even if they only make it to the Wildcard Round. As a result, progressing to the Wildcard Round after qualifying will become even more crucial in the future.
3-Pick Ban in Masters
Eternal Return does not have a draft pick-ban system where characters are selected and banned in sequence. However, there is a character ban method specifically applied in Masters. One of the suggestions often made by the community regarding character bans is to give each team a character ban card. However, this approach poses a significant risk of collusion outside the game, making it difficult to implement. We believe that the current character ban method is serving its purpose well. Masters is a tournament open to everyone, from amateurs to semi-professionals and even professionals, that is considered to be a tournament where teams bring out their sharpest weapons to compete. However, the 3-Pick Ban system is designed with the intention that these sharp weapons shouldn’t be the ones everyone else is using.
S6 ERM Changes
The Eternal Return Masters, a tournament cherished by many, has been thrilling audiences for over two years. What makes the Masters so exciting is the intense pressure at every stage—teams face elimination at every turn in this fast-paced competition, creating a unique tension that keeps fans on the edge of their seats.
However, with the 16 teams in the finals consisting of 8 seeded teams and 8 teams that qualify through the qualifiers, the difficulty of advancing through the latter has increased significantly. This has led to the use of various methods—some might say shortcuts—to more easily pass the rating cut. While these tactics aren’t against the rules and removing the rating cut isn’t a practical option for keeping the tournament running smoothly, we recognize that the entry barrier is quite high. To address this, we’re exploring changes to the Masters format.
The method we’re considering is similar to the format used in the previous SUPER CUP. This would involve a total of 32 teams, with 8 seeded teams and 24 teams advancing through the qualifiers. With the increase in the number of teams able to advance from the qualifiers, we anticipate a larger pool of participants. To help those who missed the SUPER CUP understand, we've included a simple explanation of the tournament format.
As the burden of the qualifiers lessens and the number of teams in the finals increases, the load on each team is also expected to decrease slightly. Currently, players participating in multiple events at the same time, including scrims, often have to endure a rigorous schedule throughout the season. This change is expected to alleviate some of that scheduling pressure. However, if a team falls to a lower seed in the new format, they may still face a demanding schedule, similar to now, where teams participating in both the qualifiers and the Wildcard often have matches every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The new format will require six days just for the finals. As a result, the Masters schedule, which currently consists of three phases and one LCQ per season, is likely to be adjusted to two phases and one LCQ. The information provided here is still under consideration and not yet finalized. We will provide detailed information in the official announcement for the next season's tournament.
2025 Esports Plan
As we approach the end of 2024 with Season 5 just around the corner, we’d like to give you a sneak peek into our Esports plans for 2025.
In the first half of the year, each season will include 2 Masters phases, 1 LCQ, and 1 Season Finals, along with 1 Super Cup, which will be held in a new format. Since the Masters will adopt the previous Super Cup format, the Super Cup itself will be conducted differently. While the details haven’t been finalized yet, we plan to introduce a fresh and exciting approach befitting the Super Cup name, so please look forward to the announcements in next season!
In the second half of the year, each season will consist of 2 Masters phases, 1 LCQ, 1 Season Finals, and 1 KR National League.
As Season 5 marks the end of 2024’s Esports activities, we anticipate it to be an especially meaningful season. With the Season 5 Eternal Return Masters Finals taking place from December 6th to 7th at the Daejeon Esports Arena, we expect many teams to give their all to secure a spot in this major event.
Eternal Return Esports strives for its sustainability through a positive synergy between the game and Esports act. We believe that the long-term success of Esports lies in the growth of all its members within the broader framework of Eternal Return Esports. Observing Season 4, we’ve seen how Masters, the Esports Support Bundles and Team Support Bundles have come together to create a positive synergy, making our vision more attainable.
We want to sincerely thank all the fans who continue to support Eternal Return Esports. We'll do everything we can to make this tournament season rewarding for the participants and truly enjoyable for everyone watching or attending.
Sincerely,
Eternal Return Esports Team
