In addition to the usual ranked competition, Valorant offers a variety of game modes. These include a casual mode where you don't lose your rank, solo and team deathmatch, and several others. While most modes are just for entertainment, there is one significant mode that can change players' fates, the Premier mode. Designed as an analogue of professional tournaments, it allows the community to feel like esports stars competing in a full-fledged tournament table and by official rules. Today, the Premier mode has evolved into something more, and soon it will become the main way for regular players to enter the tier-2 Valorant scene. The Bo3 editorial team has created a guide for the Premier mode, so our readers can learn about all the nuances of this potential path to the professional scene.
What is Premier Mode?
Premier is an in-game tournament mode in Valorant, first introduced in the game during open testing with patch 6.08. Its purpose is to give players an opportunity to understand what it's like to perform in professional tournaments, with a set of rules, one team, and other important aspects.
The essence of the mode is that a player assembles their own team, with 5-7 members, and competes with them until the end of the stage. In Premier, players compete according to professional scene rules and can manually choose and block maps for matches, as well as use time-outs. Starting from 2024, the Premier mode has become a sort of ticket for regular players who want to enter the professional tier-two Valorant scene.
How to participate in Premier Mode
Firstly, it's worth noting that a similar Premier mode exists in other competitive disciplines, like Battle Cup in Dota 2 and similar. But in Valorant, this mode is free, so you don't need to buy a pass with real money, making Premier better than its counterparts from other games. To participate in the competitions, players need to perform a series of simple actions and meet certain conditions.
Assemble a team
First of all, you, or your partners with whom you plan to participate, need to assemble your own team. The number of players in it must be no less than five, but no more than seven. To create a team, you need to meet two simple conditions. Firstly, you need to verify your account via your mobile phone number, and also complete calibration and obtain a rank in the competitive mode. If you and your partners meet these conditions, go to the main menu under the Premier tab, and create your own team.
Assign roles
The structure of your team should consist of regular players and a leadership equivalent, which includes the team owner and captain. The team owner is a player who manages it at the organizational level. They can invite participants, choose the team logo, delete it, and also transfer their duties to other players. Note that if the owner leaves the team themselves, their role goes to the member who has been in it the longest. The most important thing the owner can do is choose the zone and register the team for participation in Premier competitions. Also, the team owner doesn't necessarily have to participate in matches personally, so this role can be given to someone who doesn't plan to compete. The team captain is responsible for choosing and blocking maps before the match starts and also starts the search themselves.
Complete registration
After the roles are distributed and players are confident that they want to participate, the team owner should register it and choose one zone. They are divided into Pacific, EMEA, and Americas, and each has its own region. You need to choose based on your location to minimize the distance to the servers and accordingly have an appropriate ping for comfortable gameplay. If the team owner needs to cancel the registration application, they can also do so. After registration, a “revoke application” button will appear.
After completing all the conditions and the team is ready for future achievements, you can start searching for matches. For this, in the Premier menu, you need to press the necessary button, and your team will automatically queue up.
Who cannot participate in Premier competitions?
The mode has certain restrictions that prevent some players from joining a team and participating in matches. First of all, these are players who have not met the conditions described above, i.e., have an unverified account and have not passed calibration and received a rank in competitive competitions. Additionally, there is a ban for players who have a match-finding lock. This means that players who received a lock from Riot Vanguard within 30 days before the start of the Premier registration cannot join a team and start searching for matches. Also, note that if you participate in Premier mode matches and receive a chat ban or a ban from Vanguard during one of them, you will be disqualified until the end of the current stage. Additionally, professional cyber athletes from the tier-2 and tier-1 Valorant competitive scene cannot participate in Premier.
How Premier mode works
Each new Premier stage is divided into three stages. The first is registration, during which teams are formed, recruit participants, and apply for entry into the division. It usually lasts up to 9 days so that all interested parties definitely have a chance to register. But there are exceptions, for example, in the fourth stage, which ran from November to December, registration lasted only two days, from October 31 to November 1.
After registration, weekly matches begin. This is a period that lasts seven weeks, during which teams compete on one selected map for each week. The map list is revealed at the start of each new week. During participation in weekly matches, teams receive a one-hour window, depending on their time zone, to find an opponent. In total, each competitive week teams must play two matches in a format to one victory. For each match, players receive Premier Score points, 100 PS for a win, and 25 PS for a loss. Also, on some days, players can start regular training matches, their results do not affect the overall table, and the team does not receive Premier Score after completion.
After the weekly matches, the last stage begins - the Playoff Tournament. It lasts only one day, and its end marks the end of the current Premier stage. Teams that score 675 Premier Score during the weekly matches go to the playoffs, but there are exceptions when only 600 PS is needed. Also, teams with the highest number of points get an advantage in the draw, and because of this, they can get more favourable matches. Teams that have scored the required number of points will be distributed in the tournament bracket, along with other representatives of this division. All matches in the playoffs are also held to one victory, but during them, it is not possible to take a time-out or make a substitution.
If your team is lucky enough to win the Premier stage in its division, all participants will receive pleasant rewards. Among them are unique keychains and titles, as well as player cards. Additionally, Premier participants can receive a unique emblem, but for this, certain conditions must be met. To receive a prize, players must play at least two matches during the weekly stage, or play one match in the playoff stage of the tournament. The first rewards you receive immediately after the end of Premier, and the unique emblem you will receive at the beginning of the next Premier stage.
Premier Mode - Your path to the Valorant esports scene
Premier mode is not just an interesting tournament for ordinary players. Recently, representatives of Riot Games announced that starting from 2024, Premier mode will be the way for young talented players who dream of entering the professional scene. In early October 2023, game developers announced the start of integrating Premier mode into the Valorant esports scene. On the official website of the company, there was a message in which representatives addressed the players. The announcement said that Valorant Premier is preparing to become the only method for teams to enter the tier-2 league Challengers.
As we head into 2024, the VALORANT Premier system is preparing to become the entry point for teams aspiring to move on to Challengers and VCT. This change brings us closer to our ultimate goal: to enable talented players to rise to the Champions Tour. In the future, our long-term mission is to promote teams to Challengers exclusively through Premier.
To get into the professional scene, ordinary players and their friends need to meet several fairly difficult conditions. First of all, participants must have a rank in the normal competitive mode Immortal 3, or higher. But also, this rank must be at the start of the first episode of the eighth act, i.e., all previous achievements will not be taken into account. Also, the team must have the highest-rank Contender in Premier mode. Additionally, all participants must be 16 years old and older, players who are 15 years old and younger will not be allowed to participate. Players must participate in Premier only from their main account, smurf accounts will be tracked, and their classmates will be punished by exclusion and other penalties. As in the normal Premier mode, professional tier-2 and tier-1 scene players cannot participate in Challengers qualifications. However, participants of the women's league Game Change have the opportunity to apply. Qualifications for the professional scene will be held twice in 2024, in the periods from January to February, and from March to April.
Now you know all the details and nuances of the in-game tournament mode Premier. Whether you plan to just have fun with friends or try your hand at the professional scene. If you do not want to participate in the professional scene, but just follow the results of the matches, you can follow the link. You will have access to all the statistics on professional matches. Note that Premier is a free mode, so at any time you can gather a group of friends and have fun in one of the most popular modes of Valorant.
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