The 2018 MPBL season is the inaugural season of the

Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines. History Manny Pacquiao launched the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League on August 29, 2017, starting off as a semi-professional lea ...

. For the tournament for this season was named the Rajah Cup, also known as the Anta–Rajah Cup after sponsor

Anta Sports Anta Sports Products Limited is a Chinese sports equipment multinational corporation headquartered in Jinjiang. It is the world's largest purely sports equipment company by revenue and third-largest manufacturer of sporting goods overall, behind ...

. The tournament opened on January 25, 2018 at the

Smart Araneta Coliseum The Araneta Coliseum, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Smart Araneta Coliseum, is an indoor multi-purpose sports arena that is part of the Araneta City in the Cubao area of Quezon City, Philippines. Nicknamed as "the Big Do ...

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was fou ...

. After the opening ceremonies, the game between

Parañaque Patriots The Parañaque Patriots are a Filipino professional basketball team based in Parañaque. The team currently competes in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) as one of 11 active teams based in Metro Manila. Parañaque is also one o ...

and Caloocan Supremos immediately followed. All games were aired on

ABS-CBN Sports ABS-CBN Sports was a sports division of the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN, which aired some of the notable sporting events in the Philippines. ABS-CBN Sports began in 1998 as the main broadcaster for the network-backed basketball leagu ...

(

ABS-CBN Sports and Action ABS-CBN Sports and Action (stylized as ABS-CBN Sports+Action or simply S+A or S and A), was a free-to-air television network based in Quezon City. It was owned by ABS-CBN Corporation with some of its programs produced and licensed by ABS-CBN S ...

Channel 23 & HD Channel 166). The tournament ended on April 19 with the

Batangas City Athletics The Batangas City Embassy Chill is a professional basketball team currently competing in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) and the Filbasket. The team traces its roots to the original Tanduay Rhum Masters that played in the Philip ...

defeating

Muntinlupa Cagers The 1Munti Emeralds are a professional basketball team based in Muntinlupa, Philippines. Team competes in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), the Pilipinas Super League, and formerly competed in the Filbasket. The team plays its ho ...

in the

2018 MPBL Rajah Cup Finals The 2018 MPBL season, 2018 Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) 2018 MPBL Anta Rajah Cup, Rajah Cup Finals is the Playoff format#Best-of, best-of-5 championship series of the 2018 MPBL Anta Rajah Cup ...

Format

The format for the cup was: * Ten teams will play in a single-round robin group stage. Each team will have 9 games for this round. Teams will be seeded based on win–loss records. * If ties between teams are present, then

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

rules shall be applied. * The first two rounds of the play-offs will be in a

best-of-three series There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

, where the MPBL Finals will be a best-of-five championship series. * After the group stage, the scenarios for the play-offs will be the following: ** The top eight teams will be playing in the best-of-three quarter-finals, while the two teams with the worst records will be eliminated. ** The top four teams will get the right to earn

homecourt advantage In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team is said to gai ...

in all rounds of the play-offs, where these teams will host Games 1 and 3 (quarter-finals and semis). For the finals, the team with the higher seed will earn the homecourt advantage for the series, where they will host Games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary) ** The next four best teams will also advance to the best-of-three quarter-finals with the homecourt disadvantage. ** In all rounds of the play-offs, including the finals, the higher-seeded team will earn homecourt advantage.

Notable events

* January 25 – Daniel San Juan de Guzman of

became the first player to make a basket in the opening game.

Eliminations

Team Standings

Schedule

Results

Playoffs

Bracket

Quarter-finals

QF1: (No. 1) Batangas City Athletics vs. (No. 8) Bataan Defenders

QF2: (No. 2) Bulacan Kuyas vs. (No. 7) Parañaque Patriots

QF3: (No. 3) Muntinlupa Cagers vs. (No. 6) Navotas Clutch

QF4: (No. 4) Valenzuela Classic vs. (No. 5) Quezon City Capitals

Semi-finals

SF1: Batangas City Athletics vs. Valenzuela Classic

SF2: Parañaque Patriots vs. Muntinlupa Cagers

MPBL Finals

Statistics

Individual statistic leaders

Individual game highs

Team statistic leaders (group stage)

References

External links

MPBL Official Website
2018 MPBL season 2017–18 in Philippine basketball leagues {{DEFAULTSORT:2018 MPBL Season