Cover-Credits:
Riot Games announced its new competitive mode in Valorant to its player base on 26th October. The new mode called Premier will allow players to go “beyond Radiant” with a new seasonal challenge and provide a well-planned tournament system for dedicated teams who want to take their skills to the next level. Riot Games addressed challenge-hungry players and stated that it wanted to build a connection between the game and its esports setup through a highly competitive mode that will enable players to experience Valorant in a similar way that pros and teams do.
Riot Games added, “Next week, the competitive team is delivering the Alpha version of this feature into the hands of an initial group of players—called Premier. While we want to roll this out to a larger cohort in the future, a smaller group will allow us to test and iterate faster, ensuring that the final product gets into the hands of the rest of you sooner.”
The company reiterated that Premier is in Alpha testing and that it is about 60% of all the planned features and functionality, but there are whole features that are absent in the current Alpha.
What is Valorant’s Premier mode?
Valorant’s new mode is called Premier and it will serve as a path-to-pro mode allowing players to build five-person teams to compete in a more competitive environment. Premier is similar to League of Legends’ tournament system – Clash.
Who can play Premier?
Riot Games made it clear that starting from November, Premier mode, which is in its Alpha state, will be limited to Brazil only. Brazilian players will test the following:
Team creation (with team logos and colors)
Server load
Tournament play (including a map pick-and-ban system)
Premier Score (and qualifying for the end-of-season tournament)
Matchmaking and queue health throughout the Alpha
General bugs
Premier will allow players to build a team and compete across a season of pre-scheduled matches. “They will be able to create or join a team of five friends, acquaintances, and neighbors and battle for glory against teams of a similar skill level,” said Riot. After building a roster, the team will be placed in a division where it will play across a persistent season composed of a mix of weekly matches and tournaments. Each season will last a few weeks, and if the team is successful in its pursuit, it may qualify for the end-of-season tournament to battle for the title of Division Champion.
The actual release date for the rest of the world has not been revealed but players will very likely see Premier in their regions soon.
