2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League
The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League, a new annual international women's volleyball tournament contested by 16 national teams that replaced the former World Grand Prix in the international calendar. The competition was held between May and July 2018 and the final round took place in the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre, Nanjing, China. Six-time World Grand Prix winners, United States won the inaugural edition, defeating Turkey in five sets on the final. This was Turkey's first ever  final on a senior world-level premier competition (World Championship, World Cup, Summer Olympic Games and the aforementioned Grand Prix). Reigning Olympic champions and host nation, China defeated 12-time Grand Prix champions Brazil in straight sets for the bronze medal. Michelle Bartsch-Hackley from USA was elected the MVP. Argentina was the last placed challenger team after the preliminary round and will be replaced by Challenger Cup winners Bulgaria 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, with a total of 120 matches. The top five teams after the league round join the hosts of the final round to compete in the final round. The relegation takes in consideration only the 4 challenger teams and the last ranked challenger team will be excluded from the 2019 Nations League. The  winners of the 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 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 February 16, 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.