Qualify for VCT Challengers through Premier: Your Path to Pro

Earlier this year, Riot Games announced a new game mode in VALORANT known as Premier Mode. With the introduction of the Premier, they announced that this would help players become professional players through an in-game qualification system.

What is Premier?

After a long Beta test, Riot officially launched Premier with Episode 7, and players worldwide started to play the new game mode with their teams. Premier is an in-game competitive tournament system that will help players perform at the highest level of competition available in the game. But apart from the launch, there wasn’t any proper explanation of how the system works and which players will become eligible to play in the Challengers League. Finally, Riot Games has officially announced all the details of the Premier Mode.

How will Premier work?

The 2024 VCT Challengers will be used for the first time when Premier will be used to help teams qualify for VCT Challengers in their respective regions. Since this will be the first time that the in-game qualification system will be used to determine the teams for VCT Challengers, a minimum rank is required. Still, the developers have acknowledged that they will be working on a system allowing teams to promote in the Premier Contenders exclusively via Premier without requiring ranked play.

TL;DR

• Starting with Episode 8 in January, Premier will begin to qualify players into the VALORANT Champions Tour
• Episode 8 is a transitional phase: Premier teams will require a ranked requirement of Immortal 3 or higher, alongside qualifying for Contender—the highest tier of Premier
• Specifics on the path to Challengers may vary by region

The Path to Contender

To qualify for Challengers, players must reach the Contenders Division in the Premier, the highest possible tier any team can achieve. But the question arises: how can someone reach the Contenders Division? Here are the requirements each player needs to fulfill in a Premier team to reach the Contenders Division:

1. Immortal 3 Rank: You'll need a current rank of Immortal 3 or higher to qualify for the Contender tier of Premier. This rank should also be relatively recent, so dust off those ranked matches and keep them up to date.
2. Assemble the Best Team: Building a formidable team is key to your success. Seek out players with the highest possible rank and ensure their rankings have been recently earned. A strong team will elevate your chances of qualifying for Contender Premier.

Apart from these two simple requirements, players must go through all the rules and policies before participating in the Premier before trying to make it to the Contenders Division. Here are some of the rules and policies to keep in mind:

• The Challenger League age requirement is 16 years old, make sure that all players on your team are 16 or above to remain eligible for the promotion tournament in May.
• In order to facilitate the best possible experience, current Pros can not compete within Premier. We define Pros as players who are currently on an active Challenger or International League roster. Game Changers competitors are eligible to compete in Premier. Players who are found competing in Premier and in violation of our policies will face penalties.
• Players are allowed to participate in Premier with only one account. We’ll be monitoring for ringers, substitutes, and cross-region play. Teams who violate these and other rules (cheating) rules will face severe repercussions.

The developers are aware of some cases that will arise and will be on the edge of the competitive ruling throughout the tournament. The developers ensured that they would be monitoring players participating in multiple regions, smurfs, ringers, and for situations where roster changes create challenges. They aim to learn from these situations to address them at scale for subsequent seasons.

When will Challengers 2024 Start, and the Competitions

To participate in the upcoming VCT Challengers 2024, players need to keep a close eye on the announcements made by Riot Games for dates in their region, but here are some general dates and checkpoints to be aware of:

• To guarantee your Contender eligibility, you'll want to have a competitive ranking of Immortal 3 or higher by the time Episode 8 Act 1 starts on January 10, 2024.
• Build a team entirely composed of Contender eligible players and register your team in Premier between January 8 - 17, 2024.
• Sign up for your respective Challengers Open Qualifier with your Contender Division Roster. Specific information on Challenger League sign ups will come out in the coming weeks via Regional Channels.
• Compete in Challenger Open Qualifiers throughout January for promotion into Challengers.

The team that didn’t qualify for Challengers during open qualifiers can compete in the Contenders Division, which will be the highest level of in-game competition in VALORANT. The competition will be hosted in two stages between January and April, with the Premier Contender Play-Offs of the second stage qualifying them for the Challengers Promotion and Relegation tournament. Keep an eye on the calendar to plan accordingly.

Premier to Challengers will be a test for all the players who want to become pro-VALORANT players, this path will be full of challenges and opportunities, and Riot Games is there to support them, this is just the beginning, and stay tuned for more updates on Premier, Challengers, and the 2024 VCT Season.