Valorant Premier gets massive overhaul including practice matches, seeding changes & more

Declan Mclaughlin
an image of Phoenix from Valorant with fire in the back

Riot Games is bringing a ton of new changes and quality-of-life adjustments to Valorant Premier in the release of the Episode 7 Act III patch.

Valorant Premier is getting an upgrade in the next patch as Riot Games is adding more features that fans and users have been clamoring for.

Many of the changes are quality-of-life adjustments that will improve player experience. Those changes include the addition of timeouts in matches, a 15-minute playoff queue, and better playoff seeding. In the Riot Games announcement, the developer explained that starting after the launch of Episode 7 Act III, teams with the higher Premier Scores will have more favorable seeding in the playoffs.

The queues for the playoff tournaments will also have a seeding period of 15 minutes for “better matchmaking.” Teams will lock into the queue and must stay in the lobby for the full 15 minutes.

As for timeouts, players have been clamoring for a timeout system since the launch of the path-to-pro mode. Now, teams will have one timeout per side and an additional timeout if the match goes to overtime.

Changes coming to Valorant Premier mode

Other big changes to the mode include the addition of a practice queue. Players will now be able to queue with their team on certain non-match days to practice against other squads. These matches will not impact a player’s Premier score.

The last two changes apply to the enrollment days and crests. The enrollment day for the mode has been extended to one and a half days instead of just 24 hours. This should give players ample time to find a team or set one up with their friends.

Lastly, Premier Crests will now reflect team performance. The crest will change over the entire stage of the competition to showcase to your opponents and friends.

The new changes will hit live servers on October 31 with Valorant Patch 7.09.

About The Author

Based in Indiana, Declan McLaughlin is an esports reporter for Dexerto Esports covering Valorant, LoL and anything else that pops up. Previously an editor and reporter at Upcomer, Declan is often found reading investigative stories or trying to do investigations himself. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Indiana University. You can contact him at declan.mclaughlin@dexerto.com.