The journey to the top of the VALORANT pro ecosystem will begin for some right at the start of 2024 with the Episode Eight Premier season taking on the role of an opening act for players with dreams of playing in the VCT.
Teams that compete in the highest division of Premier, known as Contenders, will have the opportunity to be promoted into their respective regional Challengers league in the next Premier season via a promotion/relegation event tentatively set for the end of April, Riot Games announced today. Additionally, all teams that want to qualify for Challengers directly via open qualifiers will have to be in the Contenders division.
To qualify for Contenders, all players on a team will need to have at the very least a rank of Immortal Three or higher. The rank also has to be “relatively recent” and needs to be locked in before the start of Episode Eight, Act One on Jan. 10, 2024. The “strongest” teams in combined rank will have higher chances of qualifying for Contenders.
Teams that qualify for Contenders will have two opportunities to reach Challengers:
- The first comes at the beginning of the year via open qualifiers for each region’s respective Challengers ecosystem. Teams must be qualified for the Contenders division of Premier to sign up and compete in the Challengers open qualifier. Details regarding Challengers qualifiers will be revealed via their respective channels.
- Teams that don’t reach Challengers via the open qualifier will be able to compete in the Premier season, with the stage two playoffs determining who goes to the promotion/relegation tournament.
With Premier serving as path-to-pro for the foreseeable future, that means players playing on an active Challengers or VCT international roster will not be able to play in Premier. But players on Game Changers rosters will be eligible to play.
