To achieve beyond ranked and reach the next level, Riot Games created a unique tournament mode called Premier for aspiring amateur players. It’s designed for PC and allows players to form teams, compete, and try to reach the professional level. Premier is like the Ranked mode but includes strategies from professional play, making it a unique challenge. What separates Premier from regularly ranked matches is the next level of strategy, teamwork, and effort put into these games, giving them a pro-level feel.
Want to see how rank works? Check out the Valorant Ranked System for a more in-depth look.
Contents
How Premier Works:
Premier is all about building and developing a team. Players need a team of 5 to 7 members. The team plays together weekly during each season, ending in a playoff tournament. Each season is called a Stage and lasts most of an Act. The top teams get the chance to compete in playoffs, where a division champion is selected.
Team Creation:
Premier in-game
The core of Premier is team creation. Players build squads managed by a team owner. The owner handles invites, removals, zone selection, and logo design and can delete the team. If the owner leaves, leadership goes to the longest-standing member. The owner selects a team captain who can also invite and remove members.
There are specific requirements for joining Premier. A player’s account must be SMS-verified and have completed five competitive placement games to get a rank. Accounts with a ban, Vanguard action, or restrictions in the last 30 days can’t join Premier. If these restrictions occur during Weekly Matches or the Playoff Tournament, that player cannot play for the rest of the Stage.
Premier Division
Teams get divided into divisions based on the skill level of their top 5 players. The divisions are Open, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite, Contender, and Invite. Divisions from Open to Elite have five tiers each. Invite is the top division. Winning in the Invite division can lead to chances to qualify for Challengers leagues and hope to compete in the VALORANT Champions Tour.
Premier League Structure and Match Rules
Weekly Match Schedule and Participation Rules
The season runs for seven weeks. Each week centers on one specific map from the current rotation. Teams can play up to two matches weekly, each following a “best-of-one” format. Teams can have 5 to 7 players; the team owner does not need to play. Players can join only two Premier matches weekly to avoid frequent team changes.
A one-hour matchmaking window opens every evening according to the team’s local time. If the team finishes their first match and the queue is still open, they can try for a second game. The system attempts to avoid having teams face the same opponents repeatedly, but sometimes, this happens if the wait in the queue is too long.
Premier Match Rules and Overtime
Premier matches use Competitive in-game rules and allow each team one timeout. The timeout refreshes at the start of the second half and Overtime. Overtime must end with a winner; there are no ties. The team that wins twelve rounds first gets Overtime Priority, meaning they can choose whether to start on attack or defense. Two sets of Overtime are played. If there is still no winner, a sudden-death round decides the match. The team with Overtime Priority also chooses the starting side for Sudden Death.
Playing matches earns teams Premier Score points. Winning gives 100 PS, while losing provides 25 PS. There are also special practice match queues during the week. These practice matches don’t count towards weekly match limits and don’t affect PS, letting teams improve their skills without pressure.
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Playoff Tournament and Promotion Rules
Premier Playoff
The season wraps up with a Playoff Tournament. Teams need a score of at least 600 PS to qualify. Those who qualify are placed in a single-elimination Main tournament bracket with other teams from their division. Each bracket usually has between 5 and 8 teams. There’s only a 15-minute window for teams to join, and they are matched into brackets based on their PS scores.
During the tournament, matches follow the usual rules, but there is also a system for picking and banning maps. Each team bans specific maps, then one team picks a map to play, and the other chooses which side to start on.
Winning the Playoff Tournament means a team gets promoted to a higher division in the next Stage. Teams must play in the next Stage to take advantage of this promotion.
Premier: A Bridge to Pro
While other Valorant modes may feel like running in circles, Premier is different; thriving and having a chance to go pro and compete in VCT is a game-changer for many talented players. The competition is fierce, the stakes are high, and the rewards are massive. For those with the dedication and teamwork required, Premier offers a legitimate pathway to chase their dreams of becoming a Valorant pro.
