Premier is the team competition built into the Valorant client: you put together a roster of five to seven players, play your weekly matches on a single map, collect points and, once you reach 600, qualify for the playoffs that decide promotion to a higher division. This guide covers eligibility, creating a team step by step, divisions, scoring, match format and rewards, based on Riot’s support articles as of 20 October 2026.
What Premier is and how long a Stage lasts
Premier runs in cycles that Riot calls Stages. One Stage roughly matches one act, so the Premier rhythm follows the acts of the season. What the current one brings is covered in our guide to the current act.
You can create a team at any point during a Stage, there is no need to wait for it to start. Plan your time, though: Premier means up to two matches a week for seven weeks in a row, plus one more week if your team makes the playoffs. Each week is played on one map only (the Weekly map), which changes on Tuesday. Both players and teams are capped at two Weekly matches per week, even if you switch to another team in the meantime.
Who can play Premier
Every player on the team has to meet these requirements for the whole Stage:
- an account verified via SMS,
- at least one ranked placement match played over the lifetime of the account,
- no bans or restrictions on the account, including AFK restrictions.
A behaviour penalty locks you out of Premier for a period based on its severity. According to Riot’s team article, you cannot join a team or the queue for 30 days from the start of the penalty. If you get banned during a Stage, that Stage is over for you: you stay on the team but cannot play. How placements and ranks work is explained in our Valorant ranks guide.
How to create a team
Teams are created in the Premier tab of the client:
- Open the Premier tab and start creating a team.
- Enter a team name (5 to 15 characters).
- Enter a tag (1 to 5 characters). Once you close the window, the tag cannot be changed. The only way out is to delete the team and create a new one, ideally before your first match.
- Pick a logo and colours. The Team Owner can change these at any time.
- Choose a zone.
- Invite your teammates. A team needs 5 to 7 players.
Whoever creates the team becomes the Team Owner. The owner invites and removes players, appoints a Team Captain, is the only one who can delete the team and can hand ownership over to someone else. The party leader queues the team and confirms map bans.
Zone
Your zone sets the server, the match times and your opponents. It can only be changed until the first match of the Stage, after that it is fixed. Which zone Czech and Slovak teams usually pick, and which server it uses, is covered in our article on the Czech community.
Divisions and MMR-based placement
Premier has six tiers. From the highest down:
| Division | Levels | Points for win / loss |
|---|---|---|
| Invite | single division | 100 / 0 |
| Contender | single division | 100 / 0 |
| Elite | 1–5 | 100 / 25 |
| Advanced | 1–5 | 100 / 25 |
| Intermediate | 1–5 | 100 / 25 |
| Open | 1–5 | 100 / 25 |
A new team gets a provisional division based on the average Competitive MMR of its five best players. When the skill gap within the roster is large, the best player carries more weight. After the first match of the Stage, the division locks.
The locked division also limits your roster. After the first match you cannot add a player whose MMR would move the team into a different division. That includes a player you removed yourselves, so a comeback is not guaranteed. Settle your roster before you start.
Points and the road to the playoffs
Weekly matches earn your team points (Premier Score). In the Open to Elite divisions:
- a win = 100 points,
- a loss = 25 points,
- playoff matches award no points.
You qualify for the playoffs with at least 600 points, and a higher score means a better seed. Since losses still add points, a team that drops the odd match can still get there as long as it plays enough games.
Contender and Invite are stricter: a win is worth 100, a loss 0, and playoff qualification depends on your position in the standings. If there is no opponent left for you (a Bye), it counts as a win worth 100 points.
Queue and match format
Queue windows depend on your zone. They usually open in the evening local time, typically around 19:00 (between 7 and 9 pm), and last one hour. The exact time for your zone is shown in the Premier Hub in game. An opponent should be found within 8 minutes, so do not leave the queue.
You only face teams from your own division and zone. Weekly matches have rematch protection: you will only be paired again with a team you already played this Stage if you have been in the queue for 5 or more minutes. Practice Matches played on other days do not count towards points or the weekly limit.
Weekly matches are Bo1 and each team gets 2 timeouts. If the match goes to overtime:
- each team gets 1 extra timeout,
- the first team to win 12 rounds picks the side,
- sides swap every round and you need to win by 2,
- after 3 sets of overtime, Sudden Death decides.
Playoffs and map pick & ban
The playoff is a bracket of up to 8 teams (at least 2), single elimination and Bo1: one loss and you are out. In Open to Elite the whole tournament is played on one day, with a break of at least 5 minutes between matches, and you cannot sub players during the tournament. Miss the queue window and you do not play.
Map pick & ban only happens in the tournament. The whole team votes, the party leader confirms, and the team that did not pick the map chooses the side. Callouts for the maps that may come up are in our Valorant maps guide. Riot covers the details in its article on playoff tournaments.
Promotion, Contender and Invite
In Open to Elite the only way up is to win the playoff bracket. You then start the next Stage at least one division higher. Promotion applies only to the very next Stage. There is no relegation for performance, although roster or MMR changes can put a team into a lower provisional division.
Contender is open to players with Contender Eligibility. You earn it by playing Contender or Invite in the current or previous Stage, by reaching a peak rank of Immortal 3 or higher, or by playing the Elite 5 playoffs. Invite is the top division, and its best teams have a path into Challengers League. Contender and Invite playoffs run over several days, the final is Bo3 and substitutes from the roster may play.
Premier rewards
- Team Tag and Plating after 2 Weekly matches or 1 playoff match.
- Premier Crest for at least 2 Weekly matches or playing in the tournament.
- A Stage player card for everyone who played at least 1 match.
- Champion’s Aura for playoff winners, valid until the end of the next Stage.
- Division Title and Gun Buddy for playoff winners.
Rewards arrive the day after the Stage ends. The full list is in Riot’s article on Premier rewards.
Map Rating counts in Premier too
Since patch 13.08 the game tracks Map Rating, a number from 0 to 500 with a grade from C to S that shows how your level on a specific map changes over time. It applies to both Competitive and Premier, so your team matches feed into it. Everything else the patch brought is in our 13.08 patch notes. If the game crashes with an anti-cheat error before a match, go through our VAN error codes guide so your team is not left waiting.
The official rules are in Riot’s Premier guide, and division placement is explained in the article on Premier divisions.
Join our Discord to find teammates for a Premier roster and talk through your line-up: Discord GamersTogether.
FAQ
At least 600. In Open to Elite a win gives 100 points and a loss 25. In Contender and Invite a loss gives 0 and qualification depends on the standings.
Five to seven. The creator becomes Team Owner, invites and removes players and appoints the Team Captain.
The tag cannot be changed once you close the window, only by deleting the team and creating a new one. The zone can be changed only until the first match of the Stage.
In Open to Elite you have to win the playoff bracket. You then start the next Stage at least one division higher. There is no relegation for performance.
Check that your account is SMS verified, that you have played a ranked placement match and that there is no ban or restriction on your account, for example for going AFK.
Information verified on 20 October 2026. More guides are waiting in our Valorant section.