VALORANT Premier Mode Explained
While VALORANT’s current ranking system is excellent, it is geared toward solo progression. Players are ranked based on their individual performances. However, VALORANT is fundamentally a team game, which necessitated the development of a team-based competitive system in which teams compete against other teams. This system is finally here. VALORANT Premier Mode is a fully team-based competitive system. Keep in mind that, despite their shared name, it bears no resemblance to CS2’s Premier Mode at all.
Premier aims to provide gameplay that surpasses the normal ranked experience, as it focuses more on teamwork than individuality. So, invite 5 or 6 of your friends, register yourselves, name your team, and start competing with teams with a similar skill set.
If you’re interested in what VALORANT Premier is all about, here’s a rundown of everything you need to know.
What Is VALORANT Premier
VALORANT Premier was released in Episode 7 Act 2. Riot aims to make this mode an even higher level of competition than Radiant. It’s supposed to provide a path to professional VALORANT for players from the comfort of their homes.
In Premier, VALORANT Players can register teams and compete against other teams in a ranked format, all within the game itself. Everything is handled automatically, so player basically only have to show up and play.
Eventually, Premier aims to replace the current Challengers League Open Qualifying System (the current system for qualifying into esports events). If you’re aspiring to be the next Sentinels or Fnatic then Premier is a good starting point.
Who Can Play VALORANT Premier
All you need is a team of 5 to 7 people. Five is the minimum amount of players you need, seven is the maximum amount of players you can add to a Premier team.
All VALORANT accounts of the team members must be in good standing (not banned in the last 30 days) to be eligible to play Premier. Players must then verify their account with a 2FA system (code via SMS), which should not take more than 2 minutes.
As soon as you confirm your team, you’ll be assigned a division (more on that in the next section) and be able to select a region.
VALORANT Premier Divisions
There are currently 5 divisions in Premier. Each division is separated into 5 subdivisions, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Contender is the only exception to this rule; it has no sub-divisions.
The VALORANT Premier Divisions are, from highest to lowest:
- Contender
- Elite (1-5)
- Advanced (1-5)
- Intermediate (1-5)
- Open (1-5)
While you may invite anyone to your Premier team, your division is selected based on the MMR of the top 5 players on your team, and all division standings are viewable to all players. It’s therefore a good idea to make sure that all your teammates are of roughly. If the team is very far apart in skill, then the MMR of the highest-skilled player will be taken into consideration.
The division that your team plays in is locked once you play your first match. Your division will be calculated again once a new Premier season or stage comes around. If your team or roster changes, the division is recalculated as well.
If everything goes well and you make it to the Contender Division, you will be able to begin playing in Tier 2 of the pro scene, and eventually advance to the top level of the franchise leagues.
VALORANT Premier Match Timings
Unlike the standard competitive mode, you can’t queue into Premier anytime you want. There are selected times for matches that you must abide by.
Match times for VALORANT Premier Mode vary from region to region, but you’ll mostly be playing in the evening. You can check out the timings of your matches in the Team Hub.
All teams have two matches every week that they can either play on the same day or on different days throughout the week. The maps remain the same for both games in that week.
VALORANT Premier Structure
A VALORANT Premier season is made up of three phases:
- Enrollment.
- Weekly matches.
- Playoff tournament.
After your team is enrolled, it gets assigned a region that determines when and where your matches will be played. You can then start playing weekly matches.
Weekly Matches
Maps are pre-scheduled every week and all teams play the same maps. These maps rotate every week.
Teams that win their matches will be awarded a certain amount of points. Losing teams also get points, albeit a reduced amount, so do not be discouraged if you lose. Teams accumulate points throughout the season, and your points at the end of a stage (so not your team’s standing) decide whether or not your team is eligible to play in the playoff tournament.
Playoff Tournament
Qualified teams play in a single elimination tournament bracket alongside other winning teams. These matches will be BO1 (Best Of 1).
There is also a map ban/select system taken from the tier 1-2 tournaments. Each team can ban a map from the current map pool. One team selects the map, while the other gets to choose the side they want to play on.
Overtime on all Premier matches is similar to standard competitive matches. However, the team that reaches 12 rounds first receives overtime priority and can choose which side to play by a simple vote among the 5 players. Teams must win by two rounds. If three sets of overtime are played, the game is decided by a round of sudden death. The sudden death sides are also decided by the team that got overtime priority.
From the Playoffs, you can make your way into the Challengers and the VCT (VALORANT Champions Tour). The roadmap there is a bit complicated, you can check out Riot Games’ official article on it here.
VALORANT Premier Rewards
Participating and winning the playoff tournament guarantees a couple of fun rewards for you to show off to your friends. If your team wins the whole tournament then you receive:
- A unique gun buddy.
- A title for winning.
- A player card.
Even playing only one match will make you eligible for rewards if your team ends up winning. There can be numerous winning teams in each region, as the tournament only has 8 teams max.
Conclusion
VALORANT Premier is an exciting way for teams of all levels to compete in a professional-like environment within the game itself. While we’re sure to see tweaks and changes to the system over the years, we find VALORANT Premier to be an extremely welcome addition to a team-based game such as VALORANT.
