Premier Global Open Beta FAQ

Premier is VALORANT’s team-based competitive system, and the Premier Global Open Beta launches April 25. Watch the video below where we run through the basics so that you and your team are ready on day one. For any additional questions, please check out the FAQ below.

Thanks for your interest in playing the Premier Global Open Beta!

After our Alpha in Brazil last year, the team went back to work on Premier, taking feedback from players, and rebuilding parts of the system in order to launch in 2023. You can test some of those changes in the Beta (like scheduling, team zones, and more) and we’ll continue to improve on other areas. The beta is a great way to release a version of Premier we think players will enjoy while also giving us an opportunity to iron out any wrinkles and ensure our foundation is solid for launch.

If you encounter any issues or discover bugs, contact Player Support using this form.

PREMIER GLOBAL OPEN BETA FAQ

GENERAL

How long is the Premier Global Open Beta?

• Apr 25–May 23
  • Enrollment period: Apr 25–28
  • Weekly Matches: Apr 29–May 20
  • Playoff Tournament: May 21

Is this the final version of Premier?

• This is a test version of Premier before we get to the full launch. We’ll share more details around what changes you can expect when Premier releases later this year.
  • For example, the Beta is using a shorter schedule then what we have planned for launch, where Premier stages are designed to last the duration of a regular VALORANT Act.

Will anything transfer from the beta?

• Match and team history will not transfer to the full Premier release.

Where do I find Premier in the client?

• On launch, a full-screen takeover will feature Premier.
• Homepage nav should have Premier as an entry, second in the list under Play.
• An explanation modal will pop up when you visit the Premier Hub for the first time.

What is the Test Tournament?

• On May 3, we’ll be holding a test tournament in all Zones (you can find it in your schedule)
• This is a technical test! We want to make sure our services are ready to go for the Playoff Tournament at the end of Open Beta.
• The structure is the same as the Playoff Tournament—best of 1, with Consolation bracket—but this time all Premier Teams are eligible to participate.
• This tournament does not impact your standings, Premier Score, W/L record, or eligibility for the Playoff Tournament.
• Winning the test tournament won’t unlock any rewards.
• Tournament matches don’t count toward your weekly match limits.

When will I get my rewards?

• You’ll unlock your Premier Beta participation banner and title after completing your first Premier match by logging in on the next day.
• You’ll unlock your Premier Beta Champions banner and title after winning the Playoff tournament by logging in on the next day.
• Visit your collection to equip!

ENROLLMENT & ZONES

How do I become eligible for Premier Beta?

• You need to verify two conditions in order to be eligible to create or join a Premier team:
  • Identity - Through account verification via SMS verification
  • MMR - By finishing your placements at any point in your account lifetime
• If you’ve already completed placements, you will automatically skip to the next step and just see the option to “CREATE A TEAM”.

How do I verify my phone number?

1. From the Premier hub, click Verify
2. Enter your country code into the first box
3. Enter your phone number (area code first) into the second box
4. You’ll receive a text message with a confirmation code - enter that into the next screen
5. You’re verified!

What if I have issues verifying my phone number?

• First, double check your country code and how your number is being formatted - you must enter the country code (not area code!) into the appropriate box.
  • Not sure what your country code is? Use this site!
• If you get a “something went wrong error”, Wait at least 10 minutes before trying again. This most frequently occurs after attempting verification 3+ times.
• We’ve seen some cases where the resolution of the client can cause compression with the text box pop up and lead to errors. Try changing to 1920x1080 and verify again.
• For any other issues, reach out to Player Support!

Can anyone play in Premier Beta?

• Aside from the eligibility requirements outlined above, anyone with a VALORANT account in good standing is able to play during the Premier Beta period.
  • An account in good standing is one that is not currently banned. This also applies to accounts facing a Ranked queue restriction if the restriction period coincides with the enrollment or play period.

What happens if I un-verify my account?

• If you un-verify your account, the client will warn you that you will not be able to play in Premier until you go through the verification process again.
• Only one number is allowed per account, with a 6-month cooldown on used phone numbers. If you unlink a phone number from your account, you're unable to use a different number on the account for 6 months. You can relink the original number at any time with no lock out.
• In case you are unverified and are on a team already, you will NOT be kicked from your team, but you will also be ineligible to queue.

Can I join more than one team?

• No, only one team per account.

Can I cancel team invites/remove teammates?

• Team Owners may cancel team invite requests and remove players from their team.

Are there restrictions on who I can be on a team with?

• Nope! Feel free to join a team with your Bronze friend and your Diamond friend—we’ll find the best Division for your team based on the MMR of the top 5 players on your team.
• There are restrictions once you enroll your team: You’ll be limited to only inviting other players that would not cause your team to change Divisions.
  • If inviting a player would cause your team to change Divisions, the Team Owner will see an error message when attempting to invite: "This player is outside your team's skill range and cannot be invited."
• If Enrollment hasn’t ended, you can unenroll your team and are again open to invite anyone you’d like. Just make sure to re-enroll before the cutoff time!

Once the weekly matches begin, what can’t I change on my team?

• Once the weekly matches begins, you will not be able to change Rosters, within reason:
  • Only changes to roster that will not affect the division will be permissible.

Can I unenroll my entire team?

• If the team is enrolled the Enroll button converts to Unenroll button and your team will be able to opt out.

How do I know which Zone to choose?

• During the enrollment process, the Team Owner will select a zone.
• You’ll see recommendations based on the top 2 pods with the lowest average latency (example, Central vs. Texas)
• Latency is based on what the Team Owner (the only team member who can enroll the team) pings.
• Players that choose zones with multiple pods should be matchmade as per our usual matchmaking heuristics (ping-based)

Can I change Zones?

• You cannot edit your zone once your team is enrolled, but you can un-enroll and re-enroll and select a new zone. If the team wants to unenroll in order to change Zones you’ll have to first unenroll your team and redo the team enrollment process.

My team missed enrollment. Can we still play?

• No, you will not be able to play if you miss the enrollment process.

Can I add a new player to my team after the weekly matches have started?

Yes! So long as the player being invited would not cause the team to change divisions. If a player would cause your team to change divisions, the Team Owner will see an error message when attempting to invite: "This player is outside your team's skill range and cannot be invited."

Can I cancel team invites/remove teammates?

• Team Owner may cancel team invite requests and remove players from their team

TEAM HUB

Where can I see my team status?

The Premier Hub and Team Tab both show your team's enrollment status.

Where can I view team standings?

• On the Standings tab, segregated by division, structured similarly to player Leaderboards but with TEAMS instead
• Sectioned by if teams made the qualification cut-off.
• Standings are updated when Premier matches are completed.

Where can I view the match history?

• The match history tab shows team-level match history where individual game participation still appears in player-level match history.
• Team Match History contains a way to view past tournament match brackets and final team standings.

What is the difference between a party leader and Team Owner?

• The Team Owner is able to invite players, customize the team logo, promote another player to owner, and/or delete the team entirely. (They can also leave the team - if they do, Team Owner will be passed to the player that's been on the team the longest.)
• The party leader gets the team into queue when ready to play a Premier match, and is responsible for locking in choices during map pnb in tournaments.
  • The Team Owner doesn't have to be present in order for a team to play a Premier match.

MATCHES & QUEUEING

Where can I queue for my weekly matches?

• On the Premier Hub, there's a button that will take you directly to the Premier lobby. When the queue window is open, you'll be able to enter the queue when you have your party together.
• You can also go directly to the lobby using the Play button in the top nav, then clicking over to the Premier tab.
• We highly encourage you to queue as early in the weekly window as possible, as doing so at the last minute may result in not being able to find a match.

When can I queue for my weekly matches?

• The schedule on the Premier hub shows the queue window for your Zone. When the queue window is open, you'll be able to enter the queue when you have your party together.
• You can queue up anytime within that one hour window and we’ll try to find you a match. We highly encourage you to queue as early in the window as possible, as doing so at the last minute may result in not being able to find a match.

When are the queue windows?

• Queue windows are unique to each Zone, and are on match days or tournament days in the evening for your local time zone. Most matches are held around 8pm local time, but can vary per Zone anywhere between 6-10 pm local time. Check your Team Hub for exact queue windows.

When can I play my matches?

• Premier teams can play two matches per week.
• The complete schedule will appear in your Team Hub when Premier launches in client, but expect to typically see two evenings per week in your local time zones where matches are played.

Can I play both of my weekly matches in one day?

• Yes! If you queue up early in the window, finish your match, and the queue window for your Zone hasn’t closed yet, you can queue up again. (Note: Queuing up near the end of a window may result in not being able to find a match.)
• If you play two matches during the first weekly match window of the week, you won’t be able to play in the second match window. (Ex. If you play two matches on Saturday, you won’t be able to play on Monday. The weekly match window resets on Tuesday.)

How do I know what map I am playing each match?

• The featured map for each match will be listed on the schedule in the Premier Hub to give you enough time to prepare.
• The Tournament will use a map pick-and-ban system (see Tournament and Matches section below).

How fair is matchmaking in Premier?

• You will only play against teams within your division which means they are within a consistent range of team MMR thresholds.
• We will do our best to find you a match against teams within your division that are close in performance at that point in time.

What if a player in my party is displayed as ineligible to queue?

• Confirm the player is verified via SMS.
• Confirm all players are on the same Premier team.
• Confirm player accounts are not restricted for disruptive behavior.

What if my party is unable to queue?

• For any match:
  • Confirm the queue windows are open
  • Confirm the party has 5 eligible players
  • Confirm the roster is currently enrolled
• For weekly matches:
  • Confirm your weekly match limit has not been reached
• For the Tournament:
  • Confirm your roster has enough points to qualify for the tournament
  • Confirm the tournament limit has not been reached

How long can you expect for queues?

• We expect most weekly matches to be made within 8 minutes at maximum across the beta. If you end up waiting longer, please stay in queue as leaving and re-queuing will only increase the total time your team will wait in queue.
• We expect tournament brackets to be made within 20 minutes at maximum. If you end up waiting longer, please stay in queue as leaving and re-queuing will only increase the total time your team will wait in queue.

I’ve been waiting in queue a long time. Will my match still be fair?

• You may end up playing against teams with a better performance in your respective Division when waiting in queues longer. But you will always be playing teams in your Division, so you should always have a fair chance at winning.

My team was queued and a match was never found. What gives?

• While it is highly unlikely that your team never finds a match, there may be rare instances where your team is literally the only team in the queue. However, even if you exceed the max expected wait time (8 minutes), please stay in the queue as you should get matched against the next team that joins.
• Also, as we said above, we highly encourage you to queue as early in the weekly window as possible, as doing so at the last minute may result in not being able to find a match.

LIVE MATCHES

Are the rules different from standard Competitive?

• Overtime rules are different and are as follows:
  • The first team to win 12 rounds gains Overtime Priority
  • Team with Overtime Priority chooses Starting Side for Overtime by voting, using a simple majority of the 5 players
  • Teams must win by 2. Every round, teams swap sides.
  • If 2 sets of Overtime have been played, play one final round of Sudden Death
  • Sudden Death side choice is whatever the team with Overtime Priority chose during Overtime Starting Side Choice Phase

What is the Premier Score?

Each match you play, you earn points towards your Premier Score. Reach a high enough Premier Score to qualify for the Playoff Tournament at the end of Open Beta!

How do I accumulate points?

• Teams earn 100 points for a weekly match win, and 25 points for a loss.
• Tournament matches do not award points.

Are weekly matches Best of 1?

• Yes.

TOURNAMENT AND MATCHES

What Premier Score qualifies for the tournament?

• 375 points - this may be adjusted after the Beta.

Is there more than one winning team per division?

• Yes! All teams within a Division that qualify for the Tournament are matched into a bracket of up to 8 teams. Each bracket results in one winning team.

What if my team misses the tournament queue window?

• You will not be able to participate in the tournament.

What if a player in my party is displayed as ineligible to queue?

• Ensure the player meets eligibility requirements and is on the same roster as the team.

What is the map pick-and-ban system?

• During map pick and bans, teams take turns banning maps. All members on the team can vote on which map to ban, and the party leader locks in the team's choice.
• The process alternates between teams until a map is chosen. The team that did not choose the map then gets to choose if they'd like to attack or defend.
• Map pick and ban is only available in Tournament matches.

Can you pause a match (timeout) and strategize?

• We do not currently support pauses during Premier matches.

How many teams are in the main bracket?

• A Tournament bracket can have up to 8 teams in it, and may start with as few as 5.

What happens if I lose in the main bracket?

• If your team loses in the main bracket, you'll be moved to the Consolation bracket where you can compete for 3rd place.

How are ties at the 8th position for qualification resolved?

• Qualification for Playoffs is based on your team’s Premier Score, not position on the Standings. As long as you’ve hit at least 375 points and queue up at the right time, you’ll be eligible to be placed into a bracket.