# 2018 MPBL season

The 2018 MPBL season, also known as the MPBL Rajah Cup or the MPBL Anta–Rajah Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the inaugural season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. The regular season began on January 25, 2018 with the opening ceremonies at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, and ended on March 17. The playoffs began on March 20 and ended on April 19 when the Batangas City Athletics defeated the Muntinlupa Cagers in four games in the 2018 MPBL finals.
The inaugural season featured ten teams, all based in Luzon, making it the only season to not have divisions nor feature teams from Visayas or Mindanao. It is also, to date, the smallest season in terms of size.

## Teams

The inaugural season featured ten teams, all based in Luzon, with no division alignment.

### Arenas

| Team | Arena | Capacity |
| Bataan Defenders | Bataan People's Center | 4,000 |
| Batangas City Athletics | Batangas City Sports Coliseum | 4,000 |
| Bulacan Kuyas | Bulacan Capitol Gymnasium | 5,000 |
| Caloocan Supremos | Caloocan Sports Complex | 3,000 |
| Imus Bandera | Imus City Sports Complex | 1,000 |
| Muntinlupa Cagers | Muntinlupa Sports Center | 3,000 |
| Navotas Clutch | Navotas Sports Complex | 1,000 |
| Parañaque Patriots | Olivarez College Gymnasium | 3,500 |
| Quezon City Capitals | JCSGO Seed Dome | 1,000 |
| Valenzuela Classic | Valenzuela Astrodome | 3,000 |
| Opening ceremonies | Smart Araneta Coliseum | 25,000 |

### Roster regulations

Since the MPBL was a semi-professional league at the time, its initial set of roster regulations are made to help promote local talents:
* Teams are required to sign three homegrown players into the roster. These players must be native to the locality in which the team is based in.
* A limit of five ex-professional (or ex-pro) players is placed on each team. Any player who has had experience in professional basketball is considered an ex-professional player.

## Regular season
### Opening ceremony

The regular season began on January 25, 2018 with the opening ceremony at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. It featured the inaugural game which saw the Parañaque Patriots beating the Caloocan Supremos with a score of 70–60. Daniel San Juan de Guzman of the Parañaque Patriots made the league's first basket in that game.

### Format

The ten teams played in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league. In each gameday, a series of games is played in a designated home arena, with the home team usually playing in the final game.
The top eight teams overall advanced to a three-round, single-elimination playoffs, playing in best-of-three series in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and a best-of-five series in the finals, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher seeds of each series (excluding the finals).

### Standings

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | L | PCT | GB | Qualification |
| 1 | Batangas City Athletics | 9 | 8 | 1 | .889 | — | Playoffs |
| 2 | Bulacan Kuyas | 9 | 6 | 3 | .667 | 2 | Playoffs |
| 3 | Muntinlupa Cagers | 9 | 6 | 3 | .667 | 2 | Playoffs |
| 4 | Valenzuela Classic | 9 | 6 | 3 | .667 | 2 | Playoffs |
| 5 | Quezon City Capitals | 9 | 5 | 4 | .556 | 3 | Playoffs |
| 6 | Navotas Clutch | 9 | 5 | 4 | .556 | 3 | Playoffs |
| 7 | Parañaque Patriots | 9 | 4 | 5 | .444 | 4 | Playoffs |
| 8 | Bataan Defenders | 9 | 2 | 7 | .222 | 6 | Playoffs |
| 9 | Imus Bandera | 9 | 2 | 7 | .222 | 6 | |
| 10 | Caloocan Supremos | 9 | 1 | 8 | .111 | 7 | |
* 1 2 3 Bulacan (1.032), Muntinlupa (1.006), Valenzuela (0.965) are ranked by head-to-head point quotient.
* 1 2 Quezon City wins tiebreaker over Navotas by head-to-head victory.
* 1 2 Bataan wins tiebreaker over Imus by head-to-head victory.

### Schedule

    Bold indicates home game; Italics indicate away game
| Team ╲ Game | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| Bataan | QC | BTG | VAL | CAL | IMS | NAV | PAR | MUN | BUL |
| Batangas | VAL | BAN | IMS | NAV | PAR | MUN | BUL | QC | CAL |
| Bulacan | IMS | NAV | PAR | MUN | CAL | QC | BTG | VAL | BAN |
| Caloocan | PAR | VAL | MUN | BAN | BUL | IMS | QC | NAV | BTG |
| Imus | BUL | QC | BTG | VAL | BAN | CAL | NAV | PAR | MUN |
| Muntinlupa | NAV | PAR | CAL | BUL | QC | BTG | VAL | BAN | IMS |
| Navotas | MUN | BUL | QC | BTG | VAL | BAN | IMS | CAL | PAR |
| Parañaque | CAL | MUN | BUL | QC | BTG | VAL | BAN | IMS | NAV |
| Quezon City | BAN | IMS | NAV | PAR | MUN | BUL | CAL | BTG | VAL |
| Valenzuela | BTG | CAL | BAN | IMS | NAV | PAR | MUN | BUL | QC |

### Results

| Team | BTG | BUL | CAL | IMS | MUN | NAV | PAR | QC | VAL |
| Bataan | 73–88 | 74–81 | 69–76 | 91–87 | 78–87 | 96–88 | 71–74 | 69–87 | 80–97 |
| Batangas | | 72–80 | 86–75 | 74–56 | 82–77 | 80–71 | 87–79* | 77–68 | 73–65 |
| Bulacan | | | 92–74 | 93–79 | 71–75 | 76–77* | 72–74 | 95–81 | 92–83 |
| Caloocan | | | | 61–70 | 76–89 | 56–66 | 60–70 | 89–90 | 78–79 |
| Imus | | | | | 69–81 | 70–67 | 77–78 | 75–84 | 77–81 |
| Muntinlupa | | | | | | 76–82 | 67–60 | 103–87 | 80–83 |
| Navotas | | | | | | | 78–74 | 78–87 | 82–77 |
| Parañaque | | | | | | | | 54–64 | 75–80 |
| Quezon City | | | | | | | | | 79–84 |
| Valenzuela | | | | | | | | | |
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

Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its division, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. Teams with home court advantage, the higher seeded team, are shown in italics.
| Quarterfinals (best-of-3) | Quarterfinals (best-of-3) | Quarterfinals (best-of-3) | Semifinals (best-of-3) | Semifinals (best-of-3) | Semifinals (best-of-3) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) | Finals (best-of-5) |
| 1 | Batangas City | 2 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Bataan | 0 | | | | | | |
| 8 | Bataan | 0 | 1 | Batangas City | 2 | | | |
| | | | 4 | Valenzuela | 0 | | | |
| 4 | Valenzuela | 2 | 4 | Valenzuela | 0 | | | |
| 5 | Quezon City | 1 | | | | | | |
| 5 | Quezon City | 1 | | | | 1 | Batangas City | 3 |
| | | | | | | 3 | Muntinlupa | 1 |
| 2 | Bulacan | 1 | | | | | | | 3 | Muntinlupa | 1 |
| 7 | Parañaque | 2 | | | | | | |
| 7 | Parañaque | 2 | 7 | Parañaque | 1 | | | |
| | | | 3 | Muntinlupa | 2 | | | |
| 3 | Muntinlupa | 2 | 3 | Muntinlupa | 2 | | | |
| 6 | Navotas | 0 | | | | | | |
* view
* talk

### Quarterfinals

In the quarterfinals, the first- and second-seeded teams host games 1 and 3, while the third- and fourth-seeded teams host game 2.
| Team 1 | Series | Team 2 | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
| (1) Batangas City Athletics | 2–0 | (8) Bataan Defenders | 88–75 | 95–82 | — |
| (2) Bulacan Kuyas | 1–2 | (7) Parañaque Patriots | 83–73 | 54–81 | 70–77 |
| (3) Muntinlupa Cagers | 2–0 | (6) Navotas Clutch | 83–77 | 72–69 | — |
| (4) Valenzuela Classic | 2–1 | (5) Quezon City Capitals | 96–89 | 68–76 | 74–72 |

### Semifinals

In the semifinals, the highest seeded team hosts games 1 and 3, while the second-highest seeded team hosts game 2.
Due to Batangas City advancing after game 2, Muntinlupa instead hosted game 3.
| Team 1 | Series | Team 2 | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 |
| (1) Batangas City Athletics | 2–0 | (4) Valenzuela Classic | 80–75 | 89–64 | — |
| (2) Muntinlupa Cagers | 2–1 | (7) Parañaque Patriots | 59–84 | 66–56 | 81–70 |

### Finals

In the MPBL finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1, 2, and 5, while the lower-seeded team hosts games 3 and 4.
| Team 1 | Series | Team 2 | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 |
| (1) Batangas City Athletics | 3–1 | (2) Muntinlupa Cagers | 70–64 | 78–74 | 77–82 | 68–66 | — |

## Records

* On February 20, 2018, The Muntinlupa Cagers became the first team in league history to score at least 100 points in a single game, doing so against the Quezon City Capitals. It was also the only such occurrence throughout the entire season.

## Statistics
### Individual statistic leaders

| Category | Player | Team | Statistic |
| Points per game | Gary David | Bataan Defenders | 34.4 |
| Rebounds per game | Felix Apreku | Muntinlupa Cagers | 11.1 |
| Assists per game | Allan Mangahas | Muntinlupa Cagers | 5.3 |
| Steals per game | Allan Mangahas | Muntinlupa Cagers | 1.78 |
| Blocks per game | Jay Collado | Quezon City Capitals | 1.92 |
| Turnovers per game | Chestern Ian Melencio | Imus Bandera | 3.44 |
| Fouls per game | Daniel De Guzman | Parañaque Patriots | 3.64 |
| Minutes per game | Harold Miguel Arboleda | Parañaque Patriots | 33.2 |
| FG% | Mark San Jose | Parañaque Patriots | 100.0% |
| FT% | ten players | ten players | 100.0% |
| 3FG% | two players | two players | 100.0% |
| Double-doubles | Felix Apreku | Muntinlupa Cagers | 6 |
| Double-doubles | Harold Miguel Arboleda | Parañaque Patriots | 6 |
| Triple-doubles | Andrew Estrella | Quezon City Capitals | 1 |

### Individual game highs

| Category | Player | Team | Statistic |
| Points | Gary David | Bataan Defenders | 29 |
| Rebounds | Gian Abrigo | Quezon City Capitals | 20 |
| Assists | Paolo Hubalde | Valenzuela Classic | 14 |
| Steals | six players | six players | 4 |
| Blocks | Jayson Grimaldo | Batangas City Athletics | 5 |
| Blocks | Jeff Morillo | Quezon City Capitals | 5 |
| Three-pointers | Val Acuña | Batangas City Athletics | 7 |

### Team statistic leaders (regular season)

| Category | Team | Statistic |
| Points per game | Bulacan Kuyas | 83.6 |
| Rebounds per game | Quezon City Capitals | 49.0 |
| Assists per game | Bulacan Kuyas | 22.2 |
| Steals per game | Muntinlupa Cagers | 9.0 |
| Blocks per game | Bulacan Kuyas | 6.6 |
| Turnovers per game | Bataan Defenders | 18.4 |
| Fouls per game | Imus Bandera | 20.8 |
| FG% | Bulacan Kuyas | 45.39% |
| FT% | Batangas City Athletics | 70.63% |
| 3FG% | Valenzuela Classic | 35.07% |
| +/− | Batangas City Athletics | +8.3 |

## Media

This season marked the first of three years of ABS-CBN's broadcast rights with the league. Games were aired on the S+A channel in both SD and HD quality.