The 2022 MPBL Finals was the championship series 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 ...

's (MPBL) 2022 season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. In the

best-of-five playoff 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 k ...

, the North Division champion

Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards are a professional basketball team based in Nueva Ecija, Philippines. It competes in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), and formerly in the Filbasket under the name of Nueva Ecija Capitals, as well a ...

defeated the South Division champion

Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines The Zamboanga Family's Atami Brand Sardines, formerly the Zamboanga-Family's Brand Sardines Valientes, are a professional basketball team in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. Its name is due to sponsorship with Universal Canning Inc. ...

, as they won the league's fourth championship. Byron Villarias named as the season's Finals MVP. First-seeded Nueva Ecija (21–0) held

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 ...

for the series, having a better record than Zamboanga (18–3). This marks the first Finals appearance for both teams. This was the first Finals series in which neither team is based in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Background

Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards

The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards finished the

2021 MPBL Invitational The 2021 MPBL Invitational, officially known as the Chooks-to-Go MPBL Invitational powered by TM for sponsorship reasons, was an invitational tournament that serves as the prelude to the 2022–23 MPBL season. It commenced on December 11, 2021 an ...

as runner-up after being defeated by the

Basilan Peace Riders Basilan-BRT Peace Riders are a professional basketball team in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. History The Basilan Steel was the fifth expansion team of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League from Visayas and Mindanao. Then know ...

on a championship-winning basket in overtime. They finished the regular season with a 21–0 win-loss record, making them the first team to go undefeated in the regular season. Because of this, the Rice Vanguards were able to clinch the first seed overall and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, The Rice Vanguards easily won against the

Marikina Shoemasters Marikina Shoemasters are a Filipino professional basketball team in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) based in Marikina. It is one of 11 active teams based in Metro Manila, as well as one of four based in the Eastern Manila Distric ...

and the

Pampanga Giant Lanterns The Pampanga Giant Lanterns, also known as the Pampanga G Lanterns, are a professional basketball team in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) and the Pilipinas Super League (PSL). The team is owned by ADG Group of Companies. with t ...

both in two games each. In the Northern Division Finals, they met the 2021 season runner-up

San Juan Knights The San Juan Kings, previously known as the San Juan Knights, are a professional basketball team representing San Juan, Metro Manila. They played in the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) from 1999 to 2001, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketba ...

, battling for the Northern Division title. In Game 1, the Rice Vanguards was defeated by the Knights for the first time this season, but they managed to win the next two games, bringing the Rice Vanguards to their first North Division title and first Finals appearance.

Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines

The Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines ended their regular season with 18–3 win-loss record to become the top seed in the South Division and clinch homecourt advantage for the division playoffs. They easily defeated the

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 first round and then forced a Game 3 against the Bacolod Bingo Plus in the Division Semifinals. In the Division Finals, they faced the 2018 MPBL champion Batangas City Embassy Chill, where they lost the first game, but forced Game 3 and won, to claim the South Division title and bring Zamboanga to their first Finals appearance.

Road to the Finals

Head-to-head matchup

Series summary

Game summaries

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Broadcast notes

This marked the first year of

Cignal TV Cignal TV, Inc. (formerly known as GV Broadcasting System), also known by its legal trading name Mediascape Inc., is a Filipino media and telecommunications firm in the Philippines. A wholly owned subsidiary of the media conglomerate MediaQue ...

's rights to the MPBL Finals. The series was broadcast on

One PH One PH is a 24/7 Tagalog-language teleradio news channel owned by MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. through Cignal TV. It was soft launched on February 18, 2019 and was officially launched on July 31, 2019, on satellite provider Cignal. It can also be ...

and

One Sports+ One Sports (formerly ABC Sports from 2004 to 2008, Sports5 from 2011 to 2017 and ESPN5 from 2017 to 2020) is the sports division of TV5 Network, Inc. and jointly-operated with sister company Cignal TV. One Sports supplies and airs major spor ...

on television, and was also streamed via

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YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, and Kumu.

Prizes

This season featured a new design for the championship trophy, steering away from a design modelled after the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

's (NBA)

Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy The Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy is the championship trophy awarded annually by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to the winner of the NBA Finals. The trophy originally kept the Walter A. Brown Trophy name of its predecessor un ...

. Alongside the trophy, rings were given to the players of the championship-winning team. The MPBL Finals Most Valuable Player Award and Coach of the Year awards are also given out during the trophy ceremony.

References

{{Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards 2022 MPBL Mumbaki Cup Champions

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Finals 2022 in Philippine sport