The very first World Championship has come to an end marking the close of an incredible first year of organized play, full of color and emotion. Congratulations to Rinku, our new World Champion, and thank you all for taking part!

With the upcoming Gamefound campaign and the new distribution strategy that comes with it, it’s time to share our plans for the coming year. Many of the reflections and decisions we’ve made are based on your feedback from both the community and retailers. Some announcements aren’t fully finalized yet, but at least you’ll know everything we’re currently considering for organized play in 2026.

The Adventure Pass is evolving! After four seasons of loyal service, it was time to refresh it.

Each Faction Pass will now have 9 levels instead of 15. The 9 remaining levels will continue to grant an exclusive Alt Art per faction, available in 3 copies and 3 rarities.

In short, a Pass will look like this:

• Level 1: x1 Common Alt Art
• Level 2: x1 Rare Alt Art
• Level 3: x1 Rare OOF Alt Art
• Level 4: x1 Common Alt Art
• … and so on, up to Level 9.

• Cards will appear in your collection as soon as you unlock them, not at the end of the season.
• Once completed, you’ll be able to choose another faction, and so on, until you’ve completed all six factions available for the season.
• Participating in-store will still earn you 1 Adventure Pass point, and now 15 games on BGA will also grant 1 point.

Many players told us they wanted to take part in organized play around the world without necessarily being able to visit stores so we wanted to listen, while still maintaining a fair balance that supports both local stores and online players.

More details about the new Adventure Pass system will be shared closer to the release of Set 5.

Designed to promote play throughout the season, these rewards have so far included promotional boosters (the so-called “OP Boosters”) containing 3 cards each. In order to adapt to our new distribution format with a Kit that’s easier to grasp and to distribute, these boosters are being replaced with a selection of 6 collectible card families (one per faction: C/R/OOF), for a total of 18 unique cards. We’ve worked with the Game Design team on these in order to offer exclusive versions of the most impactful common cards of the set. These cards come from the current set and feature an exclusive “Expedition” stamp.

The cards will be revealed before the release of Set 5.

Held at the start of each season, pre-releases are a key moment in the life of the game, eagerly awaited by players for the excitement and freshness they bring. As such, they’re part of the Altered 2026 adventure.

The pre-release kit for Set 5 is called the "Adventure Kit." To give it a clear identity in our Retail Pledge, this kit is similar to our other OP kits, where all products are delivered in a single box. This edition will therefore be slightly different from what you experienced with Skybound Odyssey. For this set, the storage box and the first-player token will not be making a return, but we hope to reintroduce them as soon as Set 6.

For this campaign, stores will receive the Adventure Kits as separate components and will distribute them directly to players. Each participating player will receive:

• 7 Boosters from the new set (from the store’s purchased stock)
• 1 foil Adventure Pack (from the new set)
• 1 random foil Unique card (from the new set)

A highlight of each Altered season, the Tumult Championship will unfortunately be absent for Season 4 (we didn’t have time to produce it amid all the changes), but it will return for Season 5: “Seeds of Unity”

In Season 5, each store will be able to host up to two Tumult events instead of just one, and these events will no longer be tied to specific dates within the season.

In other words, your favorite store can organize its Tumult events whenever it wants, as it will receive its Tumult Kit(s) at the start of the season along with its other products.

• 1 “Tumult Champion” Playmat
• 4 “Top 4” foil cards
• 4 “Top 8” foil cards
• 6 “Faction Champion” foil cards (one per faction)

The cards and playmat will be revealed before the release of Set 5.

We are currently working on implementing new formats on Board Game Arena that could be integrated into the life of Altered Organized Play. Formats like "No Unique" and 39-card Singleton are currently being explored, with the hope that even more formats will be available in the future.

We’re extremely proud to have held a World Championship in our very first year and deeply moved by all your kind words and enthusiasm throughout last weekend, culminating in the victory of Rinku. Thank you all for your positivity and warmth!

Looking ahead, we already have new ideas for next year. Though we’re still far from the Finals, we want to share the foundations of our ambitions (at least those already discussed) with you.

As with this past year, we’re planning another 32-player format, likely with 24–28 pre-qualified players with the remaining spots to be won during a Last Chance Qualifiers held the day before the finals.

The circuit will again be split into three distinct paths:

• Live Tournaments
• BGA Tournaments
• Last Chance Qualifier

Following the same principle as this year, we want to offer competitive, high-stakes in-person Altered experiences to all our communities.
We’re planning 8 to 12 qualifiers worldwide, organized in partnership with local partners, as before.

Alongside the evolution of the Adventure Pass, we also want to give stores the opportunity to join the WORLDS experience via BGA, using the qualification system below.

We’re also aware that some online tournament organizers are key to keeping the Altered community active, so we wanted a system that brings both worlds together — simple, attractive, and accessible to all.

16 players will qualify via BGA end-of-season tournaments:

• Season 4 Finals Tournament → 4 qualifiers
• Season 5 Finals Tournament → 4 qualifiers
• Season 6 Finals Tournament → 4 qualifiers
• “3-Season Grand Finals” → top 64 players from each seasonal Final (who haven’t yet qualified) compete for 4 final spots.

To qualify for these end-of-season tournaments:
Each season will feature 4 monthly BGA tournaments (at the end of each month), with each qualifying 32 players for the Seasonal Final.

To qualify for these monthly tournaments:

• Each store will receive one invitation per month to award.
• A system of certified partners will also allow certain BGA tournament organizers to offer qualification spots for these monthly finals.
• We would also like to offer those qualifying spots to tournament organizers who organize live competitions.

Note: Since Season 4 has already started, we’ll adapt this system as best we can if it’s implemented before it ends. If not, it will be slightly adjusted to fit this transition year.

Until now, various event support requests were typically handled by local Asmodee teams, with additional support offered depending on the event’s size (as historically described in an earlier article).

With the organizational changes, we’ll be revamping this support program in the coming months.

In the meantime, you can send your requests to [email protected], including as much detail as possible:

• Description of your event
• Event size (number of players for tournaments, or number of days/tables for conventions)
• What kind of support you’re requesting (if any specific needs)

Please note: we’ll only consider events of significant scale — for example, 64 players minimum for a tournament. We recommend contacting us 2 months in advance for complex events, or 1 month in advance for smaller ones.