The competitive ecosystem of VALORANT is set to evolve yet again with the imminent launch of Premier later this year, beginning with a global open beta phase that starts on April 25. But a key component of proper competitive play is still missing.
Riot officially announced on April 17 that Premier will fully launch following the conclusion of VALORANT‘s world championship tournament, VCT Champions 2023, in August. While the full launch is months away, the first global open beta phase for Premier starts in just a week. But it’s still missing a major feature: the tactical timeout.
The ability to call for a pause or a tactical timeout is something that competitive players, and even unrated players, have been asking for excessively. Currently, tactical timeouts can only be called in custom games on tournament mode. In the Frequently Asked Questions post for Premier, the VALORANT developers confirmed that they “do not currently support pauses during Premier matches” and gave no indication the feature is coming.
Given that Premier serves as the next evolutionary stage of the VALORANT competitive system, and that the end-game goal is for Premier to both serve as the path-to-pro starting point and eventually replace open qualifiers for VCT events, it seems almost shocking that a basic and frequently requested feature has not been included.
Related: Head of VALORANT esports confirms in-game Premier system will eventually replace VCT open qualifiers
In pro play, a limited number of tactical timeouts are afforded to teams to go over strategies, reset mentalities, or just give players a quick break if they’re getting frustrated or overheating. If Premier play in future seasons involves upper division matches that have VCT event qualification on the line, then tactical timeouts have to be included at some point soon.
The global open beta that starts on April 25 is still a test version of Premier, and more changes will be announced before the full launch in August. Thus, it’s possible the inclusion of tactical timeouts could be one of those changes.
