Top VALORANT coach believes ‘next superstars’ will rise from new Premier mode

Before their epic VALORANT Champions lower bracket finals match between LOUD and Evil Geniuses, Riot released news about the title’s new Premier mode coming early next week, and one of the best coaches out there believes it’s where VALORANT’s next crop of superstars will emerge from.

LOUD head coach and FPS esports veteran Daniel “fRoD” Montaner discussed his thoughts on the new mode during a post-game press conference recorded by EsportsGG on Aug. 25 following his team’s loss to Evil Geniuses and their subsequent elimination from the Los Angeles tournament.

FRoD praised Premier’s more structured format which he believes will better prepare players for pro play than standard ranked would. While aim and skill are important to have in a game like VALORANT, he noted it was essential to have structure and experience with playing on a team against other coordinated teams. “Sometimes playing too much ranked or too many pubs, you don’t really develop some of the skillsets that you need to compete at a higher level,” fRoD said.

Related: New VALORANT map Sunset has been leaked—and it looks incredible

On top of more experience and practice at a higher level, fRoD also pointed out how Premier will be the perfect place and opportunity for new young talent to be discovered. “That’s definitely where the next superstars are going to come from,” he said, noting in particular that Premier’s format makes him optimistic about the future of the pro scene.

Premier will serve as VALORANT’s new tournament system with divisions and categories within each region, with Contender being the highest possible category to climb to. Teams that reach Contender will be able to compete in open qualifiers for VALORANT Challengers starting in the first quarter of 2024. By the end of the year, all new teams will be required to go through Premier before moving on to Challengers.

Before then, we must find our new VCT Champions winners after LOUD fell in a bumper five-map series to Evil Geniuses on Friday night. Going down in narrow losses on Ascent and Lotus, the South American lineup threatened a reverse sweep with two solid maps to force Bind, arguably their best map on the tour.

But EG prevailed in a rounded performance led by Max “Demon1” Mazanov, with the squad meeting Paper Rex in tomorrow’s grand final kicking off at 2pm CT.