Valorant Premier is the official team competition mode in the client: the 2026 schedule with every Stage, EU queue times, all 22 divisions, requirements, rewards and a points calculator for the playoff cutoff.
Last updated: October 10, 2026
The Valorant Premier schedule runs in Stages that roughly match the game’s Acts: each Stage has up to seven weeks of Weekly matches (up to two per week on one Map of the Week), followed by a Playoff tournament. The last Stage, V26A5, ran from August 19 to September 20, 2026; Riot has not yet published the schedule for V26A6, which is expected to start with Act 6. Queue windows open in the evening in your zone’s local time, usually from around 7 pm – the exact days and times are shown only in the Premier hub in the client.
Want more than five-stack ranked with your friends? Then Valorant Premier is your mode. It brings organised team competition straight into the client: you create a team, pick a zone, play scheduled matches every week against teams at your level and fight for promotion in a Playoff tournament at the end of every Stage. At the very top, the path even leads into the Challengers leagues. This guide covers everything in one place: the full Valorant Premier schedule for 2026 with every Stage, EU times, all divisions (often called “Premier ranks”), the requirements, the rewards and a points calculator that tells you how many wins you still need for the playoffs. Everything is based on Riot’s official Premier pages and Riot Support (as of October 10, 2026).
Valorant Premier is the built-in tournament mode for fixed teams. After an open beta, Riot launched it globally on August 29, 2023. Unlike Competitive, where you climb a personal ladder solo or in a group, Premier is all about the team: you earn points together (the Premier Score), get placed into a division together and get promoted together. If you’ve wondered “what is the Premier mode in Valorant?” – that’s it in one sentence.
The year is split into Stages, each roughly matching an Act. A Stage consists of several weeks of Weekly matches and ends with a Playoff tournament. After that the score resets – but your team, match history and zone stay. Premier is PC only; the mode isn’t available on console. You can read what else differs there in our guide to Valorant on console.
5 to 7 players per roster, so up to two subs. Anyone on the roster can play – the owner or captain doesn’t have to be in the lineup. You can only be on one team at a time.
Every week has exactly one map. You play up to two Weekly matches on it, each a best-of-1. Practice matches use the same map but don’t count.
Every Stage ends with a Playoff tournament. Win your bracket and you move up at least one division for the next Stage.
Since patch 13.06, Premier also shows the new Performance Score (0 to 500, replacing ACS) together with Accolades. Note that you can’t queue for Premier from inside the Range.
Riot sets the Valorant Premier schedule per Stage. A Stage roughly matches an Act and normally lasts seven weeks of Weekly matches, but it can be shorter – in 2026, V26A2 had six weeks and V26A5 only five. The weekly reset for Weekly matches happens on Tuesday. The date ranges below are in UTC – which evenings your zone plays is shown in the Premier hub in the client (more on that in the section on times).
Ran from August 19 to September 20, 2026 – only five weeks long, which is why the playoff cutoff was lowered to 450 points. Playoffs took place on September 20 (Contender and Invite on September 19 and 20).
According to the official Valorant wiki, Act 5 ends on October 14, 2026. So far every Stage has run alongside an Act, so V26A6 is expected to begin with Act 6. Riot hasn’t published a schedule with weekly maps, playoff date or cutoff yet – we’ll add it here as soon as it’s official.
Everything else coming with Act 6 is collected on our page about the new Act in Valorant.
| Stage | Dates | Playoffs | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| V26A1 | January 14 – March 1, 2026 | March 1 | – |
| V26A2 | March 18 – April 26, 2026 | April 26 | 6 weeks |
| V26A3 | May 6 – June 21, 2026 | Contender/Invite June 20–21, all others June 21 | – |
| V26A4 | July 1 – August 16, 2026 | Contender/Invite August 15–16, all others August 16 | 7 weekly maps; week 7 (Breeze) not for Contender/Invite |
| V26A5 | August 19 – September 20, 2026 | September 20 (Contender/Invite September 19 + 20) | only 5 weeks, cutoff 450 |
| V26A6 | expected to start with Act 6 (Act change on October 14, 2026) | TBA | Riot hasn’t published the schedule yet – we’ll add it |
There’s usually a short break without Weekly matches between two Stages. Use it to rebuild your roster, invite new players or double-check your zone – once you play the first match of a Stage, your division and zone are locked for that Stage.
Riot sets one map per week. Teams that practise it in advance have a clear edge over teams that only know it from ranked. This was the V26A5 rotation:
HavenWeek 1 · Aug 19–23
SummitWeek 2 · Aug 25–30
AbyssWeek 3 · Sep 2–6
SplitWeek 4 · Sep 9–13
AscentWeek 5 · Sep 16–19
In V26A4 the order was Split, Sunset, Ascent, Summit, Lotus, Haven and Breeze. Riot hasn’t announced the V26A6 maps yet. Leaks about the map pool circulating online are unconfirmed, so we deliberately don’t list them. Every map with callouts is in our map overview.
The big question before every match night: when is Premier today? The answer depends on your zone, not on where you live. Riot sets the queue windows per zone in that zone’s local time – according to Riot Support in the evening, usually from around 7 pm, between 7 and 9 pm depending on zone and Stage. For the DACH zone that means German time (CET/CEST). Riot doesn’t publish the exact days and times on a website; they’re shown only in the Premier hub in the client, together with a countdown to the next window.
When creating a team, the owner picks a zone. It decides which servers you play on, who you face and which Challengers league your zone is linked to. Zones can be changed until the first match of a Stage; Invite teams can’t switch zones.
| Zone | Server | Linked Challengers region (per the Valorant wiki) |
|---|---|---|
| DACH | Frankfurt | DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) |
| France | Paris | France |
| IBIT | Madrid | Spain, Portugal, Italy |
| North Europe | London, Stockholm | Northern Europe |
| East Europe | Warsaw | Eastern Europe |
| Türkiye | Istanbul | Türkiye |
| Middle East | Bahrain | MENA |
Because Premier always puts you on your zone’s servers, it’s worth checking your ping first. Our overview of Valorant servers shows how to test your latency to each data centre.
The bar for Premier is lower than many players think. Riot requires no minimum rank, no account level 20 and no two-factor authentication – no official source mentions a rank or level minimum. According to Riot Support, you need to meet these three conditions:
The two top divisions, Contender and Invite, have stricter rules. What you need for those is covered further down in the section on the path to Challengers.
There’s no separate sign-up on a website: you join Premier right in the client by creating a team or accepting an invite. You can also get in partway through a running Stage.
Invites come from the owner or the captain. You can only be on one roster at a time, but you can join or switch at any point during a Stage. Once a team has played its first match, Open through Elite teams can only add players whose skill (MMR) wouldn’t move the team into a different division. Contender and Invite teams can only invite Contender-eligible players. If you join late in a Stage, you may not have enough matches left to reach the playoff cutoff – check it with the points calculator below.
You can leave a team at any time, except while it’s in queue: in the Premier hub, click the menu (…) next to your name and choose “Leave Team”. If you’ve played at least one match, you keep your participation rewards. According to Riot Support, you lose the Team Tag and Plating, but keep a Champion's Aura you have earned.
Still short of players? Our Valorant duo finder and the Valorant-Spind Discord are good places to find people for a fixed Premier team.
When people search for “Valorant Premier ranks”, they almost always mean the divisions. They have nothing to do with your personal Competitive rank from Iron to Radiant; they place the whole team. There are six divisions, from bottom to top: Open, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite with five tiers each, then Contender and, at the very top, Invite. That adds up to 22 tiers. According to the Valorant wiki, some zones may have fewer tiers.
Premier divisions 2026: 4 × 5 tiers + Contender + Invite = 22 tiers (Invite at the top).
At the start of a Stage, or right after creation, your team gets a Provisional division. It’s based on the Competitive MMR of the five strongest players on the roster; if skill levels differ a lot, Riot weighs the best player more heavily. As soon as you’ve played your first match of the Stage, the division is locked for that Stage. For the next Stage it becomes provisional again.
How personal Competitive ranks from Iron to Radiant work is explained in our guide to Valorant ranks.
You earn the Premier Score in Weekly matches. The values depend on your division:
| Result | Open to Elite | Contender & Invite |
|---|---|---|
| Win | 100 points | 100 points |
| Loss | 25 points | 0 points |
| Bye | counts as a win, 100 points (no round score) | counts as a win, 100 points (no round score) |
| Playoff matches | no points | no points |
| Playoff qualification | 600 points or more (V26A5: 450), regardless of standings | by standing in the division |
In Open through Elite, 600 points is enough, no matter how many other teams also make it. According to the Valorant wiki, the cutoff used to be 675 and was lowered to 600 with patch 8.08 in 2024. For V26A5, Riot set it to 450 because of the shorter Stage. In Contender and Invite, standings decide instead; ties are broken by Premier Score, then number of matches, then round difference.
Tool · Maths based on Riot’s official values
Enter your Weekly results so far and pick your division and playoff cutoff. The calculator shows your Premier Score, how far you are from the cutoff and how many wins you still need.
You still need 3 wins if you win every match from here.
Maths based on the official values (win 100, loss 25 or 0, bye 100; up to 2 Weekly matches per week). A bye takes up one match slot. Playoff matches award no points. The Premier Score in the Premier hub is always what counts.
The following values are pure maths from the official point values (our calculation, not an official Riot figure):
Up to 14 Weekly matches. Six wins are always enough. The absolute minimum is 4 wins and 8 losses (400 + 200 = 600). Three wins won’t do it, because you’d need 12 losses – 15 matches in total.
Up to 10 Weekly matches, as in V26A5. Possible paths include 3 wins and 6 losses (300 + 150 = 450), 4 wins and 2 losses, or 5 wins and no losses.
The Playoff tournament – the “Valorant Premier tournament” many players search for – is played in brackets of up to eight teams. According to Riot, a bracket can start with as few as two teams, depending on who queues. In Open through Elite every Playoff match is a best-of-1. In Contender and Invite, the first two rounds are best-of-1 and the final is a best-of-3 with a pick/ban phase in which maps already played drop out; these playoffs are spread over two days. Every bracket has exactly one winner. In Open through Elite, only that team gets promoted.
The two top divisions are the bridge between hobby play and the pro scene. To play on a Contender team you need Contender eligibility. You get it by meeting at least one of these conditions in the current or previous Stage:
Invite is the highest tier and only open to Contender-eligible players. How many teams move up from Contender to Invite depends on the zone. The top teams of each Invite division earn a spot in their region’s Challengers league. Riot ranks them by Playoff result first, then Premier Score, then number of Weekly matches and finally round difference – and contacts the team owner by email.
How VCT, Challengers and Champions fit together is explained in our overview of Valorant esports.
Premier rewards taking part, not just winning the tournament. Rewards land in your collection the day after a Stage ends.
| Reward | How to earn it | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Participation player card | 1 Weekly or Playoff match | a unique card for each Stage |
| Team tag | 2 Weekly matches or 1 Playoff match | your team tag next to your Riot ID |
| Plating | two levels: Basic and Playoff qualified | a frame around your player card |
| Team Crest | 2 Weekly matches or 1 Playoff match with the team | score, division and playoff qualification; evolves over the Stage |
| Champion’s Aura | win the Playoffs | a glow until the end of the following Stage; stays even if you switch teams |
| Division title + gun buddy | win the Playoffs | title and buddy for that Stage and division |
Riot’s official sources don’t list a trophy as a separate item. All player cards from Premier and many other events are in our gallery of Valorant player cards.
Use Practice matches on the current map. They don’t count towards your score, but they show you which setups work.
Plan executes, retakes and default setups in the map strategy board so everyone knows their job in the match.
Use the team comp builder to put together a lineup that suits the map and covers every role.
Two subs save nights when someone is missing. Teams that never skip Weekly matches reach the cutoff with far less stress.
Be online with a full lineup when the window opens. In the playoffs you only have 15 minutes to start the queue.
Find practice partners at your level, for example through Valorant Gather, and test new strats outside Weekly matches.
Also make sure everyone keeps a clean account: even an unintentional AFK restriction can lock a player out for the rest of the Stage. Before each Stage, agree on who is available on which evenings, and review the stats together after every match – the new Performance Score quickly shows where things go wrong.
Valorant Premier is the easiest way to play organised matches regularly with a fixed team. You don’t need a specific rank – just an SMS-verified phone number, completed placements and a clean account. Create a team of five to seven players, pick your zone (DACH for Germany), practise the Map of the Week and collect 600 points to secure your spot in the Playoff tournament.
The exact times of your match nights are always in the Premier hub in the client. We’ll add the schedule for the next Stage, V26A6, to this page as soon as Riot publishes it.
Valorant Premier is the official team competition mode in the Valorant client, launched globally by Riot on August 29, 2023. Fixed teams of 5 to 7 players play up to two Weekly matches per week on a set map, earn points and fight for promotion in a Playoff tournament at the end of every Stage. Premier is PC only.
Queue windows open in the evening in your zone's local time, usually from around 7 pm and between 7 and 9 pm depending on zone and Stage. For the DACH zone that means German time. Riot shows the exact days and times only in the Premier hub in the client.
The last Stage, V26A5, ran from August 19 to September 20, 2026. According to the official Valorant wiki, Act 5 ends on October 14, 2026, and V26A6 is expected to start with Act 6. Riot hasn't published an official V26A6 schedule yet.
None. Riot requires neither a minimum rank nor account level 20. You only need an SMS-verified account, Competitive placements completed at least once and an account without active bans or restrictions. Only Contender and Invite have stricter rules, such as a peak rank of Immortal 3.
There are six divisions: Open, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite with five tiers each, plus Contender and Invite on top – 22 tiers in total. Placement is based on the Competitive MMR of the five strongest players on the roster. Teams in Open through Elite only move up by winning their Playoff bracket.
A Premier team needs at least 5 players and can have up to 7 on the roster, so up to two subs. Anyone on the roster can play; the owner or captain doesn't have to be in the lineup. You can only be on one team at a time.
In Open through Elite the standard cutoff is 600 points, regardless of standings. A win is worth 100 points and a loss 25. In the short V26A5 Stage the cutoff was 450 points. In Contender and Invite, your standing in the division decides.
You join right in the client: open Premier and create a team or accept an invite from an owner or captain. You need SMS verification, completed placements and an account without bans. You can find teammates through duo finders, Discord servers or scrim platforms.
Taking part earns you a unique player card each Stage, and after two Weekly matches you get a team tag and a Team Crest, plus Plating around your player card. Playoff winners also receive a division title, a gun buddy and the Champion's Aura. Rewards arrive the day after the Stage ends.
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