If you want to enjoy the ultimate competitive experience in the game, the first thing you must do is learn how to unlock Premier in CS2. For those who don’t want to go the extra mile and play on third-party matchmaking platforms, Premier offers a pick/ban map system similar to professional CS2 where you can grind the ladder. The ladder is reset periodically to even out the field. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to unlock Premier.
Buy Prime for $14.99 to become eligible for Premier in CS2.
Hit Level 10 in Rank to unlock Premier matchmaking.
Premier uses a dynamic ranking system between 1,000 and 30,000+.
You will be assigned a Rank once you achieve 10 Premier wins.
See the Buy Prime button up top? You must click it and follow the instructions. Credit: Leonardo Biazzi | © Valve
The first step of learning how to unlock Premier in CS2 is to buy Prime status, which costs $14.99. CS2 is a free-to-play game, but to minimise the number of cheaters and smurfs in Premier, Valve restricts the mode to Prime-only accounts. Here’s how you buy Prime:
There’s no way to get access to CS2 Premier before hitting level 10. Credit: Leonardo Biazzi | © Valve
To be allowed to play Premier CS2, you must level up your account to level 10 by playing Deathmatch, Arms Race, Casual, or Competitive.
Once again, Valve took this step to prevent too many cheaters and smurfs on CS2 Premier. Besides, it’s best for new players if they understand the basic mechanics of Counter-Strike before they dip their toes in the game’s most competitive setting.
So, how many casual games before competitive CS2 or level 10? Unfortunately, there’s no set of pre-determined matches to get level 10. You’ll just need to grind and play to the best of your abilities. Your overall match performance directly affects how much XP you get after every match.
We strongly recommend you to play Deathmatch, Arms Race, or Casual until you unlock Competitive.
From there on, play Competitive matches until you reach level 10 and unlock Premier CS2.
This way, you’ll familiarize yourself with the competitive maps, the environment of a 5v5 match, and hone your fundamentals.
Valve created Premier for CS2 to offer a more serious environment for competitive players. Credit: © Valve
Although Premier and Competitive share similarities, there are some significant differences between them.
Most importantly, Premier has a Dynamic ranking system that places players between 1,000 to 30,000+, whereas Competitive features the traditional ranks from CS:GO (Silver to Global Elite).
Premier’s map pool is limited to the seven maps currently in the active rotation, while Competitive features some bomb defusal maps that are not in the rotation, and even a few hostage maps.
In Premier, players go through a pick/ban phase before the match starts. In Competitive, you just select the maps you want to queue for, and the game will find a match for you.
Additionally, Competitive games have no overtime, so the match ends if the teams draw at 12-12. In Premier, teams play up to six extra rounds, and the match ends if a team wins four rounds or if they draw at 15-15.
Credit: Leonardo Biazzi | © Valve
All players earn their Premier ranking once they’ve won 10 Premier matches. The game will take into account your individual performance in these 10 matches and look at what kind of opponents you faced to calculate your Premier CS2 ranking.
If you’re new to CS2, you’ll most likely be assigned between 1,000 and 5,000. I, for instance, landed on 17,000 after the last rank reset, but I spent nearly 2,000 hours in CS:GO and CS2.
Learning a couple of smoke lineups in some maps will make your team win rounds. Credit: Leonardo Biazzi | © Valve
To climb the ranking fast, you’ll essentially need to win more than you lose, as you’ll invariably lose rank after defeats.
So, try your best and stay positive, even if the match isn’t going your way. To be a good player, you don’t even need to have crisp shooting and movement mechanics, as you can contribute in other ways, such as:
If you do this and hone your mechanics over time, you’ll be winning more games than the average CS2 player.
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