2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League
The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men's 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, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Lille metropolitan area, France. Russia 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, 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. Maxim Mikhaylov from Russia, who was the World League MVP in 2011, was elected the Most valuable player. 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. 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. Venues. The list of host cities and venues was  announced on 16 February 2018. 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.