Valorant Game Director Andy Ho and Global Head of Esports Leo Faria revealed some of the details pertaining the roadmap for the Premier mode in 2024.

Premier will leave its beta stage and be officially launched next week, on Aug. 29, when Episode 7 Act 2 lands. Premier will be present in every Act going forward, making for non-stop competition. With its release, one of the many nominal changes comes to the divisions. Every level of Premier, barring Contender, will have 5 divisions. Premier will now have:

  • Open
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
  • Elite
  • Contender

Going forward, weekly matches leading up to the playoffs will cover the entire competitive map pool. Riot will also begin tracking players' Premier history and results.

After several months of promise, Premier will be finally and directly connected to the VCT starting from next year. Instead of the current Immortal+ minimum rank requirement, players that want to compete in open qualifiers for Challengers Leagues will now need to have played in Contender in Premier. This requirement will take effect from January, giving teams four months to practice and reach that level.

In Q2 2024, the top Contender-level teams in Premier will play against the bottom teams from VCLs in the first promotion/relegation tournament of the year, lining up with the 2024 esports calendar. The first chance at promotion will only see Premier teams fight the bottom two teams of each VCL, but Riot hopes to eventually grow this number. These relegation tournaments will take place at the end of every VCL stage.

By the end of 2024, Riot states all new teams entering the VCLs will have to climb through Premier first in order to be promoted upwards.

Players who are active on rosters in either the International Leagues or the VCL system will not be able to participate in a Premier team.

The first open beta of Premier was launched in late April. Premier is an in-game competitive mode where players can form or join a team of up to seven players. They will be drafted into the divisions based on average MMR of the five best players, and play two games a week in pre-selected maps. Teams can then qualify for their division's Playoff Tournament, claim that division's title and now receive a chance at VCL qualification.