The 2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League, a new annual international men's volleyball 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) in Northern France, that opened in Augus ...

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métro ...

, Lille metropolitan area, France.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

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

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

in the 2019 edition.

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in straight sets for the bronze medal. Maxim Mikhaylov from Russia, who was the World League MVP in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, was elected the

Most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (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 particular competition, or ...

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

Week 1

Pool 1

*All times are

Central European Summer Time Central European Summer Time (CEST, UTC+02:00), 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 E ...

( UTC+02:00).

Pool 2

*All times are

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard UTC offset, time offset of UTC+08:00, where Beijing is located, even though the country spans five geographical time zones. It is the largest sovereign nation in the world that officially observes only ...

( 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 ...

( 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: Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02:00), Brasília time (UTC−03:00), Amazon time (UTC−04:00), and Acr ...

( 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 change clocks in observation of daylight saving t ...

( 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, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behin ...

( 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 ( 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, UTC+9), which is abbreviated KST. South Korea currently does not observe daylight saving time. From May 8 to October 9 in 1988, daylight saving time was tested to better accommodat ...

( 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, and a few Caribbean islands. In parts of that zone (20 states in the US, three provinces or territories in Canada, and ...

( 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 Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30) and Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00). Time is regulated by the individual states a ...

( 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 ...

( 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

''Statistics leaders correct at the end of

preliminary round A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

.''

Final round

''Statistics leaders correct at the end of

final round A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Volleyball, Nations League, Men, 2018

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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