The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League was the inaugural edition of the

FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League The FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League is an annual international volleyball competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The first tournament took place between Ma ...

, a new annual international men's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

tournament contested by 16 national teams that replaced the former World League in the international calendar. The competition was held between May and July 2018, and the final round took place in the

Stade Pierre-Mauroy The Stade Pierre-Mauroy, also known as the Decathlon Arena – Stade Pierre-Mauroy for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-use retractable roof stadium in Villeneuve-d'Ascq (Métropole Européenne de Lille), France, that opened in August 2012. It has ...

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area ( ...

, Lille metropolitan area, France.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

were the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and were replaced by 2018 Challenger Cup winners

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

in the 2019 edition.

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

won the inaugural edition, defeating the home team in straight sets in the final. Both teams contesting the final had previously won the World League – Russia on three opportunities and France on two.

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, which also had won the World League twice, defeated the reigning Olympic champions and 9-time World League winners

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in straight sets for the bronze medal.

Maxim Mikhaylov Maxim Mikhaylovich Mikhaylov ( rus, Максим Михайлович Михайлов, , mɐˈksʲim mʲɪˈxaɪ̯ɫəf; born 19 March 1988) is a Russian volleyball player, a member of the Russia men's national volleyball team and Russian club ...

from Russia, who was the World League MVP in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, was elected the

Most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

Qualification

Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Twelve of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Other four teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament.

Format

Preliminary round

The 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once. The teams are divided into 4 pools of 4 teams at each week and compete five weeks long, for 120 matches. The top five teams after the preliminary round join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round. The relegation takes into consideration only the 4 challenger teams. The last ranked challenger team will be excluded from the 2019 Nations League. The winners of the 2018 Challenger Cup will qualify for the next edition as a challenger team.

Final round

The six qualified teams play in 2 pools of 3 teams in round-robin. The top 2 teams of each pool qualify for the semifinals. The pool winners play against the runners-up in this round. The semifinals winners advance to compete for the Nations League title. The losers face each other in the third place match.

Pools composition

The overview of pools was released on February 16, 2018.

Preliminary round

Final round

Venues

The list of host cities and venues was announced on 16 February 2018.

Preliminary round

Final round

Competition schedule

Pool standing procedure

# Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost) # In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply: The teams will be ranked by the most points gained per match as follows: #*Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser #*Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser #*Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser # If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order: #*Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost. #*Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets. #*If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

Squads

The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 21 players, which every week's 14-player roster must be selected from. Each country must declare its 14-player roster two days before the start of each week's round-robin competition.

Preliminary round

Ranking

''Source
VNL 2018 standings
'

Week 1

Pool 1

*All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST), sometimes referred to as Central European Daylight Time (CEDT), is the standard clock time observed during the period of summer daylight-saving in those European countries which observe Central European Time ...

( UTC+02:00).

Pool 2

*All times are

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing Tim ...

( UTC+08:00).

Pool 3

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Pool 4

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Week 2

Pool 5

*All times are

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

( UTC+03:00).

Pool 6

*All times are

Brasília Time Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard time zones: UTC−02:00, UTC−03:00, UTC−04:00 and UTC−05:00. Time zones Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−0 ...

( UTC−03:00).

Pool 7

*All times are

Argentina Time Argentina is located at a longitude that would naturally put it in the UTC−04:00 or UTC−05:00 time zone; however, it actually uses the UTC−03:00 time zone. Argentina determines whether to observe daylight saving time on a year-by-year basi ...

( UTC−03:00).

Pool 8

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Week 3

Pool 9

*All times are

Eastern Daylight Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

( UTC−04:00).

Pool 10

*All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

( UTC+09:00).

Pool 11

*All times are

Yekaterinburg Time Yekaterinburg Time (YEKT) is the time zone five hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+05:00) and 2 hours ahead of Moscow Time (MSK+2). In 2011, Russia moved to year-round daylight saving time. Instead of switching between UTC+05:00 in winter and UTC+06:0 ...

( UTC+05:00).

Pool 12

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Week 4

Pool 13

*All times are

Korea Standard Time South Korea has one time zone, Korea Standard Time ( UTC+09:00), which is abbreviated KST. South Korea currently does not observe daylight saving time, but experimented with it during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. History In 1434, inventor ...

( UTC+09:00).

Pool 14

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Pool 15

*All times are

Central Daylight Time The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...

( UTC−05:00).

Pool 16

*All times are

( UTC+03:00).

Week 5

Pool 17

*All times are

Australian Eastern Standard Time Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state ...

( UTC+10:00).

Pool 18

*All times are

( UTC+08:00).

Pool 19

*All times are

Iran Daylight Time Iran Standard Time (IRST) or Iran Time (IT) is the time zone used in Iran. Iran uses a UTC offset UTC+03:30. IRST is defined by the 52.5 degrees east meridian, the same meridian which defines the Iranian calendar and is the official meridian of I ...

( UTC+04:30).

Pool 20

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Final round

*All times are

( UTC+02:00).

Pool play

Pool A

Pool B

Final four

Semifinals

3rd place match

Final

Final standing

''Source
VNL 2018 final standings
'

Awards

*Most Valuable Player : *Best Setter : *Best Outside Spikers : : *Best Middle Blockers : : *Best Opposite Spiker : *Best Libero :

Statistics leaders

Preliminary round

Final round

References

External links

Fédération Internationale de Volleyball
– official website
FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2018
– official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Volleyball, Nations League, Men, 2018

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Qualification

Format

Preliminary round

Final round

Pools composition

Preliminary round

Final round

Venues

Preliminary round

Final round

Competition schedule

Pool standing procedure

Squads

Preliminary round

Ranking

Week 1

Pool 1

Pool 2

Pool 3

Pool 4

Week 2

Pool 5

Pool 6

Pool 7

Pool 8

Week 3

Pool 9

Pool 10

Pool 11

Pool 12

Week 4

Pool 13

Pool 14

Pool 15

Pool 16

Week 5

Pool 17

Pool 18

Pool 19

Pool 20

Final round

Pool play

Pool A

Pool B

Final four

Semifinals

3rd place match

Final

Final standing

Awards

Statistics leaders

Preliminary round

Final round

See also

References

External links