PVL play-in tournament spices up All-Filipino Conference

FILE–A shot of the crowd during the PVL All-Filipino Conference Finals between Creamline Cool Smashers and Choco Mucho Flying Titans. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — The Premier Volleyball League (PVL) will have a brand new format for its 2024-25 All-Filipino Conference, which fires off on November 9 at Philsports Arena.

In the biggest and longest PVL tournament yet, 12 teams will no longer just play a single-round robin as the league will introduce a play-in tournament before the best-of-three quarterfinals.

After the preliminary round from November 9 to February 22, the teams will be paired in the qualifying round according to their final first-round rankings.

READ: PVL: Petron-Choco Mucho clash headlines All-Filipino opening day

The matchups follow: Rank 1 takes on Rank 12; Rank 2 battles Rank 11; Rank 3 squares off with Rank 10; Rank 4 faces Rank 9; Rank collides with Rank 8; and Rank 6 competes against Rank 7.

The winning teams advance to the PVL playoffs, while the losing squads won’t be eliminated yet as they will be relegated to the play-in tournament for another chance to advance to the next round.

The six play-in teams will be ranked according to their preliminary standings and will be split into two pools and play another round-robin: Group 1 will include Rank 7, Rank 10, and Rank 11, while Group 2 will consist of Rank 8, Rank 9, and Rank 12.

The top play-in team from each group will enter the playoffs after the round-robin with the Group 1 winner becoming the seventh seed and Group 2’s top squad being the eighth seed in the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinals will be a best-of-three series with the winners, while the semifinals will have a round-robin format. 

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In case of a tie for the No. 2 team in the Final Four, a play-off match will take place for the last Finals ticket.

The championship remains a best-of-three series.

The six-month All-Filipino will have a long break after the December 14 game before resuming on January 18. The league will also visit Cebu, Antipolo, Candon, Ilocos Sur, and Passi, Iloilo.

Choco Mucho and Petro Gazz headline the opening day after the match between Akari and Galeries Tower.