Premier

Premier is a tournament game mode in VALORANT. Matches use the same in-game rules as Competitive, but with a focus on top-tier competition and playing together as one squad throughout a tournament structure, including additional features taken from pro play such as map pick/ban phases and timeouts. At its highest level, it will serve as a direct connection from the playerbase to the professional scene.
Premier allows players to build a full team together and join a division, where they will compete across a season made up of a mix of weekly matches and tournaments. Each season (also referred to as a Stage) lasts for most of the act it occurs in, after which the best performing teams can qualify into a playoff tournament to claim the title of Division Champion.
==Gameplay==
:See also: Competitive and Unrated
===Team Creation===
Premier Divisions	Premier Divisions
Division 	Image
Invite 	
Contender 	
Elite 	
Advanced 	
Intermediate 	
Open 	
For a player to be eligible to participate in Premier, they must verify their account through SMS verification and they must have completed the five Competitive placement games required to earn a rank at any point during their account lifetime. Their account must also be in good standing, and if they have received a game ban, Vanguard intervention, Competitive restriction, or comms restriction in the last 30 days, they will be ineligible to participate in Premier, and receiving any of these restrictions during Weekly Matches or the Playoff Tournament will also disqualify that player from participating in any further matches for the rest of the Stage. Professional players (defined as someone on an active Challengers League or International League team roster) are also unable to participate in Premier.
Premier teams must have 5-7 players. Each team is set up and managed by a team owner. The owner can invite new players, remove current team players, set the team's zone, customize the team logo, and delete the team. If the owner leaves the team, ownership will be passed to the next remaining player that's been on the team the longest. Owners are also able to select a team captain, who is able to invite and remove other team members. During team creation, there are no restrictions related to Competitive rank on who can be invited to a team so long as they are eligible to participate in Premier. 
Teams will be placed in a division based on the MMR of their top 5 players. Premier has five divisions; Open, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite, and Contender. Divisions Open to Elite are divided into five tiers (some zones may have fewer tiers per division due to lower populations), with Contender currently being the highest division. From Stage E9A1, a new Invite division will be added above Contender as the final step on the Path to Pro. For teams with players who are really far apart in skill, placement will be weighed by the best player's MMR more heavily.
Once a team participates in its first match of a Stage, its division and zone will be locked in, and only players that can be invited to join the team after this point are those who would not cause the team to change divisions.
If players participated in previous Stages, their team, match history, and Premier MMR will carry over, however the team's Premier Score will be reset with each new Stage.
====Zones====
Americas
		Zone 	Servers 	Challengers League
		US East 	Ashburn Atlanta Chicago Dallas 	North America
		US West 	Chicago Dallas North California Oregon	North America
		Latin America North	Chicago Mexico City Miami 	Latin America North
		Latin America South	Bogotá Santiago 	Latin America South
		Brazil 	São Paulo 	Brazil
EMEA
	Zone 	Servers 	Challengers League(s)
	IBIT 	Madrid 	ItalyPortugalSpain
	France 	Paris 	France
	North Europe	London Stockholm	North Europe
	DACH 	Frankfurt 	DACH
	East Europe 	Warsaw 	East Europe
	Türkiye 	Istanbul 	Türkiye
	Middle East 	Bahrain 	MENA
Pacific
	Zone 	Servers 	Challengers League(s)
	South Asia 	Mumbai 	South Asia
	Asia 	Hong Kong Singapore	Hong Kong/TaiwanIndonesiaMalaysia/SingaporePhilippinesThailandVietnam
	South Korea	Seoul 	South Korea
	Japan 	Tokyo 	Japan
	Oceania 	Sydney 	Oceania
===Weekly Matches ===
The Weekly Matches phase lasts for seven weeks, with all matches within a single week being played on one predetermined map. Across the seven weeks, all seven maps in the current map rotation will be featured. For each week, teams will play up to two Bo1 matches. Any of the 5-7 players on the team can play in a match and the team owner is not required to be one of those players, with the team having one of the players be the party leader instead who is responsible for getting the team into queue. Individual players can only play in a maximum of two Premier matches per week, to prevent players from jumping in between teams within a week. 
Each day, a 1-hour queue window opens in the evening for the team's local time zone for them to find a match. If a team finishes their first game for the day and has yet to play their second weekly game while the queue window is still open, they may enter queue again to potentially find another match and play their second game on the same day. Weekly matches have protection to avoid any rematches as much as possible, but rematches may still occur occasionally in cases of excessive queue times.
Premier matches use the same in-game rules as Competitive but also grant timeouts to teams. Each team receives one timeout that will refresh at the start of the second half as well as Overtime, if reached. Overtime in Premier is modified to not continue endlessly and make sure games fit within schedule, as Premier does not allow for games ending in a draw. Once Overtime is reached, the team that got their twelfth round win first will gain Overtime Priority, allowing them to choose which side they start on for each set of Overtime by having each team member cast a vote. Once a side is selected, two sets of Overtime will then be played, with standard rules for Competitive Overtime applying. If a winning team has still not been decided after these two sets have been played, a final round of Sudden Death will occur. Side selection for Sudden Death will follow whatever choice the team with Overtime Priority made at the start of Overtime. The team that wins this Sudden Death round will then win the match.
Upon completing a match, the team will receive Premier Score (PS) points based on their result. Wins award 100 PS while losses award 25 PS.
On select days during the week when the regular matchmaking queue window isn't set to be open, the queue will be replaced with a practice match queue instead that teams can play in. These matches follow the same structure as regular matches but do not affect participating teams' weekly match limit or PS.
===Playoff Tournament===
Once the Weekly Matches phase for a Stage is complete, all teams with a score of 600 PS and above will qualify for a Playoff Tournament. Teams that qualify will then be placed in a single-elimination Main tournament bracket with other qualified teams from the same division. A Main tournament bracket will have 5-8 teams in it. For the Playoff Tournament, the queue window is much shorter than the Weekly Matches window at only 15 minutes instead, after which teams will be matched at one time into evenly distributed brackets seeded by PS, giving teams with higher PS scores more favorable matchups.
Tournament matches are also Bo1s, but start with a map pick/ban system. Both teams will get to ban some of the maps from the active map rotation pool, before one team gets to pick a map, with the other team getting side selection. The team's party leader is responsible for locking in their team's choices. The same Overtime Priority system applies for tournament matches.
Teams that go on to win the Playoff Tournament and become champions will qualify for a promotion to the next highest division for the next Stage. Adding or removing players from the team before the next Stage will not cause the team to lose its promotion, however adding players with significantly higher Competitive MMR may then cause the promotion to push the team up by multiple divisions. The team must play in the following Stage to utilize the promotion, otherwise it will be annulled. 
==Stages==
Stage 	Episode + Act	Dates (UTC) 	 	 	
Open Beta 	EP 06 Act 3 	April 25th – May 21st, 2023Enrollment: Apr 25–28Weekly Matches: Apr 29 – May 20Playoff Tournament: May 21 	
*Week 1: Ascent
*Week 2: Pearl
*Week 3: Bind
*Week 4: Haven	 	
Ignition (Beta)	EP 07 Act 1 	July 11th – August 13th, 2023Enrollment: Jul 11–20Weekly Matches: Jul 20 – Aug 12Playoff Tournament: Aug 13 	
*Week 1: Bind
*Week 2: Split
*Week 3: Lotus
*Week 4: Ascent	 	
Launch 	EP 07 Act 2 	August 29th – October 22nd, 2023Enrollment: Aug 29 – Sep 7Weekly Matches: Sep 7 – Oct 21Playoff Tournament: Oct 22 	
*Week 1: Haven
*Week 2: Breeze
*Week 3: Lotus
*Week 4: Bind
*Week 5: Ascent
*Week 6: Split
*Week 7: Sunset	 	
E7A3 	EP 07 Act 3 	October 31st – December 17th, 2023Enrollment: Oct 31 – Nov 1Weekly Matches: Nov 1 – Dec 16Playoff Tournament: Dec 17	
*Week 1: Split
*Week 2: Sunset
*Week 3: Ascent
*Week 4: Breeze
*Week 5: Bind
*Week 6: Lotus
*Week 7: Haven	 	
E8A1 	EP 08 Act 1 	January 9th – March 3rd, 2024Enrollment: Jan 9–17Weekly Matches: Jan 17 – Mar 2Playoff Tournament: Mar 3 	
*Week 1: Split
*Week 2: Ascent
*Week 3: Breeze
*Week 4: Sunset
*Week 5: Icebox
*Week 6: Bind
*Week 7: Lotus	 	
E8A2 	EP 08 Act 2 	March 13th – April 28th, 2024Weekly Matches: Mar 13 – Apr 27Playoff Tournament: Apr 28 	
*Week 1: Ascent
*Week 2: Icebox
*Week 3: Bind
*Week 4: Lotus
*Week 5: Sunset
*Week 6: Breeze
*Week 7: Ascent	 	
E8A3 	EP 08 Act 3 	May 8th – June 23rd, 2024Weekly Matches: May 8 – Jun 22Playoff Tournament: Jun 23 	
*Week 1: Bind
*Week 2: Lotus
*Week 3: Ascent
*Week 4: Sunset
*Week 5: Breeze
*Week 6: Split
*Week 7: Icebox	 	
E9A1 	EP 09 Act 1 	June 27th – August 11th, 2024Weekly Matches: Jun 27 - Aug 10Playoff Tournament: Aug 11 	
*Week 1: Lotus
*Week 2: Bind
*Week 3: Haven
*Week 4: Icebox
*Week 5: Sunset
*Week 6: Abyss
*Week 7: Ascent	 	
Notes: 	Notes: 	Notes: 	Notes:	Notes:	Notes:
== Rewards==
:Main articles: Buddies → Premier, Player Cards → Premier and Player Titles → Premier
Players can earn player cards, player titles or buddies for participating in Premier matches in each Stage during the beta period. 
Starting from Launch in Episode 07: EVOLUTION: Act 2, winning players receive a buddy and player title based on the division their team was placed in. All players who played at least one match within the Stage will receive a player card.
== Update History==
==Gallery==
Global Open Beta- How to Play -- Premier - VALORANT
Global Open Beta Announcement -- Premier - VALORANT
Premier Team Icons
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Banana.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Bear.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Boba.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Bolt.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Bomb.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Bot.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Brain.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Bulldog.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Burger.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Cat.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Coffee.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Crosshair.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Crown.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_D20.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Dagger.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Dragon.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Fade.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Fireboy.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Flower.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Gamepad.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Ghost.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Goat.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Hammer.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Heart.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Jeepney.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Kingdom.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Mask.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Masked.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Meat.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Mouse.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Mushroom.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Penguin.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Pinata.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Portal.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Ribbon.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Rocket.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Shark.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Shiba.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Ship.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Smoke.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Sneaker.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Spike.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Spray.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Star.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Swords.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Tornado.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Tracker.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Warrior.png
File:Premier_Team_Logo_Waves.png
Crests Assets
File:Premier_Crest_Open.png
File:Premier_Crest_Intermediate.png
File:Premier_Crest_Advanced.png
File:Premier_Crest_Elite.png
File:Premier_Crest_Contender.png
File:Premier_Crest_Invite.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Open.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Intermediate.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Advanced.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Elite.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Contender.png
File:Premier_Crest_Mini_Invite.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_0.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_1.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_2.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_3.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_4.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_5.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_6.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_7.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_8.png
File:Premier_Crest_Frame_9.png
File:Premier_Crest_Background.png
File:Premier_Crest_Background_2.png
File:Premier_Crest_Background_3.png
Category:Game Modes