With seasonal tournaments and a path-to-pro system, Premier offers the most competitive VALORANT players an avenue chance to make it in esports, so make sure you’re keeping track of the schedule.
In Premier, participating teams play weekly matches on pre-selected maps. The season concludes with a tournament to crown a winner of each skill division. Teams can also participate in practice queue matches to get warmed up with no points on the line before the official weekly matches.
Of course, when looking for teammates, you’ll need to make sure the players you sign up with are free to compete during the appropriate time. The exact queue windows will be different by zone, but here’s the full schedule of matches for the Episode Nine, Act Three Premier season.
VALORANT Premier match schedule and rules
Queue times depend on your local region, so we’ve refrained from listing that. You can view the regional timings and map schedule under the Hub section in the Premier tab.
Week one: Ascent
- Wednesday, Oct. 30 (Practice)
- Thursday, Oct. 31 (Match)
- Friday, Nov. 1 (Practice)
- Sunday, Nov. 2 (Match)
Week two: Pearl
- Wednesday, Nov. 6 (Practice)
- Thursday, Nov. 7 (Match)
- Friday, Nov. 8 (Practice)
- Saturday, Nov. 9 (Match)
Week three: Sunset
- Wednesday, Nov. 13 (Practice)
- Thursday, Nov. 14 (Match)
- Friday, Nov. 15 (Practice)
- Saturday, Nov. 16 (Match)
Week four: Bind
- Wednesday, Nov. 20 (Practice)
- Thursday, Nov. 21 (Match)
- Friday, Nov. 22 (Practice)
- Saturday, Nov. 23 (Match)
Week five: Abyss
- Wednesday, Nov. 27 (Practice)
- Thursday, Nov. 28 (Match)
- Friday, Nov. 29 (Practice)
- Saturday, Nov. 30 (Match)
Week six: Split
- Wednesday, Dec. 4 (Practice)
- Thursday, Dec. 5 (Match)
- Friday, Dec. 6 (Practice)
- Saturday, Dec. 7 (Match)
Week seven: Haven
- Wednesday, Dec. 11 (Practice)
- Thursday, Dec. 12 (Match)
- Friday, Dec. 13 (Practice)
- Saturday, Dec. 14 (Match)
Playoff Tournament
- Sunday, Dec. 15 (Playoff)
VALORANT Premier basics you need to know
The current season of Premier starts on Oct. 30. Unlike initial seasons, there’s no deadline to register your team to participate in Premier during Episode Nine, Act Three. While you can register and start participating in the middle of the season too, keep in mind the cutoff score to qualify for playoffs. If you miss too many matches in the schedule, your team may face the pressure of winning the remaining ones.
Matches take place on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday of each week for seven weeks, running through the entire competitive map pool and concluding with playoffs towards the end of the act. There’s a one-hour practice window, too, on Wednesdays and Fridays, with best-of-one matches on the active map of the week. Each team can play up to two matches per week.
For every accounted match, teams earn 100 points for a win, 25 for a loss, and no points if they do not play. Teams with at least 600 points and belonging to the Open to Elite divisions qualify for the playoffs at the end of the season. Contender and Invite teams, however, need to be one of the top teams in their divisions to qualify.
The VALORANT Premier Playoff tournament follows the best-of-one format in the Open to Elite divisions. It adopts a pick-and-ban system for the same, with teams taking turns to ban maps until one remains.
Teams belonging to the Invite and Contender divisions (Path-to-pro) follow a different approach. Make sure you check the Hub page for details on how the format works for your division.
How VALORANT’s Premier division promotion work
If your VALORANT Premier team belongs to a division between Open and Elite, you can get promoted to a higher division upon winning the playoff tournament at the end of a Premier season. Contender and Invite teams, on the other hand, can earn a promotion upon finishing as one of the top teams in their division.
Your team won’t face demotion based on performance. That said, if the team didn’t receive a promotion, it might be placed in a lower division based on changes in your roster or the members’ competitive performance at the end of the Act.
