The 2018–19 Men's Hockey Series was the inaugural season of the

Hockey Series The FIH Hockey Series, also known as the FIH Series, was an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The competition, was also a qualifier for the Olympic Games. The first edition was in 2018 ...

, a

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

championship for men's national teams. The tournament started in June 2018 and finished in June 2019.

Format

The Hockey Series was open to all national teams that were not playing in the Pro League. The Hockey Series took place in two rounds, the Open and the Finals. The nine highest-ranked teams in the FIH World Rankings (as of 9 June 2017) skipped the Open and advance directly to the Finals. All other national teams played in the Hockey Series Open, which featured eight regional events with up to six teams each. Fifteen teams qualified from the Hockey Series Open to the FIH Series Finals, for a total of 24 teams in the Finals. Those teams played in three events, with eight teams per event (three automatic qualifiers and five that advanced from the Open). The top two placed teams in each of the Finals events qualified for the 2019 FIH Olympic Qualifiers.Olympic qualification system
/ref> In this qualification event, they were joined by the top four placed teams from the Pro League, and the four highest ranked teams not already qualified. The teams will be drawn and play a

two-legged tie In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum o ...

to determine seven qualified nations for the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Schedule

Hockey Series Open

FIH Series Finals

The pools and venues were announced on 23 October 2018 with three teams still to qualify. The final pools were confirmed on 21 January 2019.

Notes

References