2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League explained

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.^[1] The competition was held between May and July 2018, and the final round took place in the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Lille metropolitan area, France.^{[2] [3]}

South Korea were the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and were replaced by 2018 Challenger Cup winners Portugal in the 2019 edition.^[4]

Russia won the inaugural edition, defeating the home team in straight sets in the final.^[5] Both teams contesting the final had previously won the World League – Russia on three opportunities and France on two. United States, which also had won the World League twice, defeated the reigning Olympic champions and 9-time World League winners Brazil in straight sets for the bronze medal.^[6] Maxim Mikhaylov from Russia, who was the World League MVP in 2011, was elected the Most valuable player.^[7]

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.^[1]

Country	Confederation	Designation	Previous appearances			Previous best performance
			Total	First	Last
	CSV	Core team	0	None	None
	AVC	Challenger team	0	None	None
	CSV	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Challenger team	0	None	None
	NORCECA	Challenger team	0	None	None
	AVC	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	AVC	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	AVC	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	CEV	Core team	0	None	None
	AVC	Challenger team	0	None	None
	NORCECA	Core team	0	None	None

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.^[1] 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.^[8]

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.^[2]

Preliminary round

Week 1
width=25%	Pool 1 France	width=25%	Pool 2 China	width=25%	Pool 3 Poland	width=25%	Pool 4 Serbia
Week 2
width=25%	Pool 5 Bulgaria	width=25%	Pool 6 Brazil	width=25%	Pool 7 Argentina	width=25%	Pool 8 Poland
Week 3
width=25%	Pool 9 Canada	width=25%	Pool 10 Japan	width=25%	Pool 11 Russia	width=25%	Pool 12 France
Week 4
width=25%	Pool 13 South Korea	width=25%	Pool 14 Germany	width=25%	Pool 15 United States	width=25%	Pool 16 Bulgaria
Week 5
width=25%	Pool 17 Australia	width=25%	Pool 18 China	width=25%	Pool 19 Iran	width=25%	Pool 20 Italy

Final round

width=50%	Pool A	width=50%	Pool B
(Hosts) (Preliminary Round 3rd) (Preliminary Round 4th)	(Preliminary Round 1st) (Preliminary Round 2nd) (Preliminary Round 5th)

Venues

The list of host cities and venues was announced on 16 February 2018.^[2]

Preliminary round

width=100% colspan=4	Week 1
width=25%	Pool 1	width=25%	Pool 2	width=25%	Pool 3	width=25%	Pool 4
Rouen, France	Ningbo, China	Katowice (25 May) / Kraków (26–27 May), Poland	Kraljevo, Serbia
Kindarena	Beilun Gymnasium	Spodek / Tauron Arena Kraków	Kraljevo Sports Hall
Capacity: 5,700	Capacity: 8,000	Capacity: 11,500 / 15,000	Capacity: 3,331
width=100% colspan=4	Week 2
Pool 5	Pool 6	Pool 7	Pool 8
Sofia, Bulgaria	Goiânia, Brazil	San Juan, Argentina	Łódź, Poland
Armeets Arena	Goiânia Arena	Estadio Aldo Cantoni	Atlas Arena
Capacity: 12,373	Capacity: 11,333	Capacity: 8,000	Capacity: 13,805
width=100% colspan=4	Week 3
Pool 9	Pool 10	Pool 11	Pool 12
Ottawa, Canada	Osaka, Japan	Ufa, Russia	Aix-en-Provence, France
TD Place Arena	Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium	Ufa Arena	Aréna du Pays d'Aix
Capacity: 9,500	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 8,250	Capacity: 6,004
width=100% colspan=4	Week 4
Pool 13	Pool 14	Pool 15	Pool 16
Seoul, South Korea	Ludwigsburg, Germany	Hoffman Estates, United States	Varna, Bulgaria
Jangchung Arena	Arena Ludwigsburg	Sears Centre Arena	Palace of Culture and Sports
Capacity: 4,507	Capacity: 5,325	Capacity: 10,000	Capacity: 6,000
width=100% colspan=4	Week 5
Pool 17	Pool 18	Pool 19	Pool 20
Melbourne, Australia	Jiangmen, China	Tehran, Iran	Modena, Italy
Hisense Arena	Jiangmen Sports Center Gymnasium	Azadi Indoor Stadium	PalaPanini
Capacity: 10,500	Capacity: 8,500	Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 4,968

Final round

All matches
Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France
Stade Pierre-Mauroy
Capacity: 28,010

Competition schedule

●

Preliminary round

●

Final round

Pool standing procedure

1. Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
2. 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
3. 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

See main article: 2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League 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 .

Pool 2

• All times are China Standard Time .

Pool 3

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool 4

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 2

Pool 5

• All times are Eastern European Summer Time .

Pool 6

• All times are Brasília Time .

Pool 7

• All times are Argentina Time .

Pool 8

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 3

Pool 9

• All times are Eastern Daylight Time .

Pool 10

• All times are Japan Standard Time .

Pool 11

• All times are Yekaterinburg Time .

Pool 12

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Week 4

Pool 13

• All times are Korea Standard Time .

Pool 14

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool 15

• All times are Central Daylight Time .

Pool 16

• All times are Eastern European Summer Time .

Week 5

Pool 17

• All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time .

Pool 18

• All times are China Standard Time .

Pool 19

• All times are Iran Daylight Time .

Pool 20

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Final round

• All times are Central European Summer Time .

Pool play

Pool B

Final four

Final

Final standing

width=40	Rank	Team
4
5
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Source: VNL 2018 final standings

14-man rosterIlya Vlasov, Dmitry Kovalyov, Artem Volvich, Anton Karpukhov, Dmitry Volkov (c), Aleksandr Sokolov, Igor Filippov, Dmitry Muserskiy, Viktor Poletaev, Maxim Mikhaylov, Egor Kliuka, Romanas Shkulyavichus, Igor Kobzar, Aleksey Kabeshov
Head coach
Sergey Shlyapnikov

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.^[9]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Jiang Chuan	242	19	13	274
2	Wallace de Souza	181	19	16	216
3	Milad Ebadipour	166	13	14	193
4	Yūji Nishida	167	6	14	187
5	Dmitry Muserskiy	146	25	14	185

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Dmitry Muserskiy	146	15	62	223	65.47
2	Jiang Chuan	242	91	107	440	55.00
3	Matt Anderson	136	44	72	252	53.97
4	Dražen Luburić	136	37	86	259	52.51
5	Christian Fromm	133	42	83	259	52.51

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
1	Svetoslav Gotsev	34	69	80	183	0.57
2	Agustín Loser	32	80	92	204	0.56
3	Ilya Vlasov	27	79	60	166	0.54
4	Rao Shuhan	29	54	33	116	0.54
5	Jakub Kochanowski	26	45	50	121	0.51

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Earvin N'Gapeth	17	34	74	125	0.31
2	Jan Zimmermann	18	25	130	173	0.31
3	Matt Anderson	17	44	98	159	0.30
4	Wallace de Souza	16	18	139	173	0.29
5	Graham Vigrass	15	17	158	190	0.28

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Maximiliano Cavanna	995	5	285	1285	17.46
2	Saeid Marouf	830	11	323	1164	14.07
3	Igor Kobzar	669	9	148	826	13.38
4	TJ Sanders	679	7	300	986	12.81
5	Micah Christenson	694	4	44	742	12.39

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20	Receptions	width=20		width=20
1	Luke Perry	73	0	136	209	1.30
2	Maximiliano Cavanna	68	0	104	172	1.19
3	Micah Christenson	65	0	35	100	1.16
4	Jenia Grebennikov	60	0	89	149	1.11
5	Paweł Zatorski	54	12	71	137	1.06

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Paweł Zatorski	59	9	137	205	24.39
2	Filippo Lanza	61	12	144	217	22.58
3	Tatsuya Fukuzawa	82	15	215	312	21.47
4	Tomás López	63	9	190	262	20.61
5	Santiago Danani	91	16	260	367	20.44

Final round

Statistics leaders correct at the end of final round.^[10]

Best Scorers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Blocks	width=20	Serves	width=20	Total
1	Stéphen Boyer	64	8	3	75
2	Earvin N'Gapeth	58	4	5	67
3	Maxim Mikhaylov	53	5	5	63
4	Wallace de Souza	59	2	0	61
5	Matt Anderson	46	1	4	51

Best Attackers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Spikes	width=20	Faults	width=20	Shots	width=20		width=20
1	Bartosz Kurek	21	5	7	33	63.64
2	Stéphen Boyer	64	17	26	107	59.81
3	Maxim Mikhaylov	53	10	26	89	59.55
4	Wallace de Souza	59	20	22	101	58.42
5	Marko Ivović	15	6	6	27	55.56

Best Blockers
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20	Rebounds	width=20		width=20
1	Lucas Saatkamp	11	16	27	54	0.79
2	Egor Kliuka	9	7	3	19	0.69
3	Maurício Souza	9	18	12	39	0.64
4	Kévin Le Roux	9	22	12	43	0.56
5	Dmitry Volkov	7	10	10	27	0.54

Best Servers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Aces	width=20	Faults	width=20	Hits	width=20		width=20
1	Egor Kliuka	6	6	38	50	0.46
2	Thibault Rossard	7	10	30	47	0.44
3	Dmitry Volkov	5	13	35	53	0.38
4	Maxim Mikhaylov	5	10	40	55	0.38
5	Srećko Lisinac	2	4	10	16	0.33

Best Setters
	width=158	Player	width=20		width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Bruno Rezende	252	3	4	259	18.00
2	Dmitry Kovalyov	226	5	2	233	17.38
3	Benjamin Toniutti	276	1	0	277	17.25
4	Micah Christenson	238	1	2	241	17.00
5	Nikola Jovović	95	0	1	96	15.83

Best Diggers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Digs	width=20	Faults	width=20	Receptions	width=20		width=20
1	Paweł Zatorski	14	0	16	30	2.00
2	Thales Hoss	26	0	29	55	1.86
3	Dmitry Volkov	18	0	12	30	1.38
4	Earvin N'Gapeth	20	0	11	31	1.25
5	Aleksey Kabeshov	16	0	16	32	1.23

Best Receivers
	width=158	Player	width=20	Excellents	width=20	Faults	width=20		width=20		width=20
1	Thales Hoss	24	4	47	75	26.67
2	Lucas Lóh	20	5	45	70	21.43
3	Taylor Sander	19	4	49	72	20.83
4	Jenia Grebennikov	13	2	61	76	14.47
5	Earvin N'Gapeth	18	4	77	99	14.14

See also

• 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League
• 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Challenger Cup
• 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup

Notes and References

1. Web site: FIVB announces the Volleyball Nations League . 12 October 2017 . . 8 February 2018 . 14 June 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180614125728/http://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/fivb-announces-the-volleyball-nations-league?id=73085 . live .
2. Web site: Pools Overview Release for Thrilling Inaugural Season VNL. 16 February 2018. FIVB. 16 February 2018. 12 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180612211245/https://www.fivb.org/viewPressRelease.asp?No=73521&Language=en. live.
3. Web site: Lille, France selected to host FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League Finals. 7 February 2018. FIVB. 26 March 2018. 1 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190701154503/http://www.fivb.com/en/about/news/lille-france-selected-to-host-fivb-mens?id=73505. live.
4. Web site: Portugal join world's elite for 2019 Men's VNL. FIVB. 24 June 2018. 24 June 2018. 23 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190523211103/http://challengercup.volleyball.world/en/news/portugal-join-worlds-elite-for-2019-mens?id=76305. dead.
5. Web site: Russia claim first world gold in five years at historical 2018 VNL. 8 July 2018. FIVB. 8 July 2018. 25 January 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190125075428/http://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/news/russia-claim-first-world-gold-in-five?id=76436. live.
6. Web site: Russell roars as the US snatch bronze in Lille. 8 July 2018. FIVB. 8 July 2018. 11 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180711165635/http://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/news/russell-roars-as-the-us-snatch-bronze?id=76431. live.
7. Web site: Mikhaylov leads star-studded VNL Dream Team. 8 July 2018. FIVB. 8 July 2018. 9 July 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180709010420/http://www.volleyball.world/en/mensfinals/news/mikhaylov-leads-star-studded-vnl-dream-team?id=76438. live.
8. Web site: Six teams line up for Volleyball Challenger Cup and one open berth in 2019 Men's VNL. FIVB.org. 19 June 2018. 19 June 2018. 19 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180619163518/http://www.fivb.org/en/Volleyball/viewPressRelease.asp?No=76157&Language=en. live.
9. Web site: Men's Statistics - FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2018. FIVB.org. 25 June 2018. 7 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190407204403/https://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/2018/men/statistics. live.
10. Web site: Men's Statistics - FIVB Volleyball Nations League 2018. FIVB.org. 8 July 2018. 13 June 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190613221846/http://www.volleyball.world/en/vnl/2018/mensfinals/competition/statistics. live.

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