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
The 2022–23 MPBL season, known as the MPBL Mumbaki Season, is the fourth season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.
The MPBL secured the sponsorship of betting firm, OKBet for this season.
Format
The format for this season is:
* Ju ...
. It commenced on December 11, 2021 and ended on December 23, 2021. The tournament was also the first for the MPBL since it was granted professional status by the
Games and Amusements Board. The Invitational was also the first professional sports event in the Philippines to allow live audiences since the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
in the country, with the
Mall of Asia Arena
The SM Mall of Asia Arena, also known as the Mall of Asia Arena or the MoA Arena, is an indoor arena within the SM Mall of Asia complex, in Bay City, Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It has a seating capacity of 15,000 for sporting events, a ...
in
Pasay
Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 440,656 people.
Due to its location j ...
, the venue for the tournament, only allowed to be at 50 percent capacity.
Format
The format for this tournament is as follows:
* All teams will be divided into four groups playing in a single round-robin.
* The top two teams in each group will advance to the
single elimination
A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...
-style playoffs.
Prize money
The champion of this tournament will receive
PHP
PHP is a General-purpose programming language, general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementati ...
2 million. The runner-up will also receive PHP500,000, and the third placer will receive PHP250,000.
Arena
All games were played in the
Mall of Asia Arena
The SM Mall of Asia Arena, also known as the Mall of Asia Arena or the MoA Arena, is an indoor arena within the SM Mall of Asia complex, in Bay City, Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It has a seating capacity of 15,000 for sporting events, a ...
in
Pasay
Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 440,656 people.
Due to its location j ...
. The league welcomed spectators for the first time since the pandemic.
Entertainment
For the first time since the level of restriction for live musical events are relaxed, Filipino
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' (G ...
and
R&B band
South Border performed their reunion concert at the pre-show of the championship game. While the rock band
Mojofly are also performed during the halftime.
Draw
The draw for the group stage took place on November 26, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza in
Pasig
Pasig, officially the City of Pasig ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasig), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, i ...
, at 3:00 p.m.
PST (UTC+8), hosted by Mark Zambrano and
Christian Luanzon. The 22 teams were drawn into four groups, two groups of six teams (Groups A and D) and two groups of five teams (Groups B and C). Basilan was the champion of the
Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup and was automatically assigned to Group B as team B1.
2019–20 Lakan season runner-up San Juan was designated in Group C as team C1. The remaining 20 teams were determined by drawing of lots.
Group stage
Group A
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Group B
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Group C
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Group D
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.
Playoffs
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third place game
Finals
Statistics
Individual statistical leaders
Team statistical leaders
Awards
The individual league awards was given during the Semifinals of the 2021 MPBL Invitational at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
Broadcast
The
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) is a Philippine state broadcaster owned by the Government Communications Group under the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS).
The IBC, along with sister media companies People's Television ...
(IBC) is the broadcast partner for the 2021 MPBL Invitational every night. Games will also be streamed on the MPBL and Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas Facebook pages.
TAP Sports will broadcast the games and also available on TAP Go.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021 MPBL Invitationals
2021 in Philippine basketball