With the Asian Football Confederation revamping its club competitions at the start of the season, it led to the top-tier tournament being rebranded to the AFC Champions League Elite.
The first notable change was a switch from a 'group stage' to a 'league stage', not dissimilar to what UEFA have done with its own competitions.
But now that the ACL Elite has reached its business end, the time has come for another prominent tweak to the competition format.
So, with the quarterfinals about to kick off on Friday, just what exactly are the ACL Elite Finals?
First and foremost
In order to paint a holistic picture of how Asian football's premier club competition has changed this term, perhaps it is imperative to go back to the start.
Setting aside teams that featured in the qualifying rounds, the ACL Elite proper boasted just 24 teams -- a significant downsizing from the 40 that participated in its previous iteration.
The decision to reduce the number of clubs was said to have been to increase the competition's level of competitiveness.
The 24 teams were split by East and West Asia, with each club drawn to face eight other sides in their region.
In addition to zonal segregation in the league stage, country protection was also in place -- meaning teams would avoid clashing with any of their compatriots at this point.
What about the round of 16?
The last 16 was the sole round that remained relatively unchanged, although the introduction of the league stage resulted in a change to the drawing of ties.
With eight teams qualifying in each region, it meant straightforward pairings of 1-vs.-8, 2-vs.-7, 3-vs.-6 and 4-vs.-5.
Due to these predetermined pairing, "country protection" was no longer in place but, as fate would have it, no teams from the same nation would face off at this stage.
Onto the Finals
With eight remaining teams left in the competition, it is now time for the brand-new ACL Elite Finals.
While the quarterfinals and semifinals were previously two-legged affairs spaced out across the calendar, followed by a similar home-and-away final, all three stages will now feature single-match ties -- taking place in a centralised venue during a whirlwind ten-day period.
Zonal segregation has also now been removed, meaning that -- for the first time since 2013 -- East and West Asia will collide before the decider.
The motivation behind this move was said to be a desire of a genuine tournament-like atmosphere akin to the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup, culminating in a footballing festival.
Such a format is not without precedence although the previous occurrence was borne out of necessity rather than design.
Back at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 edition of the ACL was the entire knockout round held in Qatar.
The West region matches up to the semifinal concluded at the start of October, meaning it was the East region who really experienced this "tournament atmosphere" with the round of 16 beginning on Dec. 6 before Ulsan HD went all the way to defeat Persepolis in the final on Dec. 19.
Likewise, the 2021 edition continued to be affected by the pandemic, which meant that group-stage matches were also held in centralised venues.
Will the Finals be a hit?
Although out of necessity, the centralised format of the COVID-affected campaigns actually garnered a positive response -- which is likely to have played a part in AFC's decision to introduce the Finals.
Given this will be its first official edition, only time will tell if it will be a success.
There will certainly be a fair number of fans flying into Saudi Arabia to support their respective clubs, but it remains to be seen if any of the Jeddah public will be interested enough to stumble into the stadium for the Kawasaki Frontale vs. Al Sadd clash, for example.
Otherwise, the tournament runs the risk of having these crucial fixtures playing out to half-empty stadiums, whereas they usually would have been sold out if played on the non-Saudi Arabian teams' home soil.
Still, if 2020 is anything to go by, there is every chance the festival atmosphere of a centralised tournament could make the first ACL Elite finals a hit.
AFC Champions League Elite quarterfinals
Al Ahli vs. Buriram United (April 26, 7:30 p.m.)
Yokohama F. Marinos vs. Al Nassr (April 26, 10:30 p.m.)
Kawasaki Frontale vs. Al Sadd (April 27, 7:30 p.m.)
*All times listed are in Saudi Arabia Standard Time (UTC+3)