2019–20 MPBL season

The 2019–20 MPBL season, also known as the MPBL Lakan Season or the Chooks-to-Go MPBL Lakan Season for sponsorship reasons, was the third season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. It was also the last season of the league's semi-professional era, as they would turn professional in December 2021. The regular season began June 12, 2019 and ended on February 12, 2020. The playoffs then began on February 15, 2020, and ended on March 21, 2021 when the Davao Occidental Tigers defeated the defending champion San Juan Knights in four games in the 2021 MPBL finals.

This season was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines as the season had to be suspended on March 11, 2020, midway through the division finals. Nearly one year later, the playoffs resumed on March 10, 2021 with a bubble in the Subic Bay Gymnasium in Olongapo, Zambales.

This season featured 31 teams, which is currently the biggest the league has gotten, with six expansion teams joining and one team departing from the league.

The opening ceremonies took place at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. The 2020 MPBL All-Star Game was also held at the same venue on February 13, 2020, as the South Division once again defeated the North Division in overtime with a score of 126–122.

Expansion
This season saw six expansion teams make their debut in the league. The Nueva Ecija MiGuard join from Central Luzon, while the Mindoro Tamaraws and Bicol Volcanoes became the first teams based in Mimaropa and the Bicol Region, respectively. Western Visayas is the only region with two expansion teams in the Bacolod Master Sardines and Iloilo United Royals. The last expansion team was the Soccsksargen Marlins representing the Soccsksargen region.

Despite the departure of the Mandaluyong El Tigre, which marked the first time a team didn't return to compete, the number of participating teams increased from 26 to 31, currently the most for a single season in league history.

Nueva Ecija was allocated to the North Division, with the other five expansion teams being placed in the South Division. To balance the divisions, the Marikina Shoemasters, Parañaque Patriots, and Rizal Golden Coolers moved to the North Division.

Arenas

 * Notes
 * 1)  During the latter part of the 2020–21 MPBL playoffs, all playoff games at the Subic Bay Gymnasium were held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.

Name changes

 * The Cebu City Sharks changed their team name to Cebu Sharks before the start of the season, then later as Cebu Casino Ethyl Alcohol in October 2019
 * The Imus Bandera changed their team name to Imus Khaleb Shawarma before the start of the season, then later as Imus Bandera-Luxxe Slim in December 2019
 * The Laguna Heroes changed their team name to Biñan City Krah Heroes before the start of the season, then later as Biñan City Luxxe White in November 2019
 * The Navotas Clutch changed their team name to Navotas Uni-Pak Sardines in June 2019
 * The Valenzuela Classic changed their team name to Valenzuela SPVTOP Marketplace in June 2019, then later as Val City-Carga Backload Solution in November 2019
 * The Nueva Ecija MiGuard changed their team name to Nueva Ecija ForestLake in August 2019, then later as Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards in October 2019
 * The Soccsksargen Marlins-Armor On changed their team name to Sarangani Marlins in November 2019

Roster regulation changes
After receiving criticism for its previous set of changes, the player limits were increased to allow more players to join the league.
 * The Filipino-foreigner player limit was increased from one to two, with the height limit of 6'4" remaining intact. However, only one of them can play at a time.
 * The ex-professional player limit was increased from five to seven. However, only five of them can play at a time.

Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony took place on June 12, 2019 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. Some teams had a muse to represent the team, who are as follows:

Format
The 31 teams played in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league for a total of 30 games. 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 in each division advanced to a four-round, single-elimination playoffs, playing in best-of-three series in the first three rounds, and a best-of-five series in the national finals, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher seeds of each series in the first two rounds.

International games
For the first time in MPBL history, the league held regular season games in international venues under its existing Invasion series.

Results
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.

First Round
In the First Round, the first- and second-seeded teams host games 1 and 3 of its respective division, while the third- and fourth-seeded teams host game 2.

North Division First Round

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South Division first round

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Division semifinals
In the Division Semifinals, the highest seeded team hosts games 1 and 3, while the second-highest seeded team hosts game 2.

North Division semifinals
Due to San Juan advancing after game 2, Manila instead hosted game 3.


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South Division semifinals

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Division finals
Under standard rules, in the division finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1 and 3 in its respective division, while the lower-seeded team hosts game 2.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the playoffs had to be suspended after both game 2s were played. The suspension lasted for a year, until the league were cleared by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) to host a bubble at the Subic Bay Gymnasium in Olongapo, Zambales, where all remaining games were played.

North Division finals
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, San Juan ended up hosting games 1 and 2, the latter being held behind closed doors. Game 3 was held at a neutral site in the Subic Bay Gymnasium.


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South Division finals
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, game 3 would've been held at a neutral site in the Subic Bay Gymnasium.

However, game 3 was defaulted because multiple Basilan Steel members were tested positive for COVID-19 inside the bubble. Thus the game and the series was won by Davao Occidental as the Tigers advanced to the MPBL finals.


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MPBL finals
Neither team had homecourt advantage due to all games being held at the Subic Bay Gymnasium.


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All-Star Game
The 2020 MPBL All-Star Game took place at SM Mall of Asia Arena on February 13, 2020, where the South All-Stars prevailed over the North All-Stars for the second time with a score of 126–122. Jeff Viernes of the Batangas City Athletics was named the back-to-back All-Star Game MVP.

Pre-game events
Before the game itself, a series of pre-game events were held. Returning events include the executives' Game, Three-Point Shootout and the Slam Dunk Contest.
 * Three-Point Shootout Champion: Lester Alvarez (Bulacan Kuyas)
 * Slam Dunk Contest Champion: David Carlos (Makati Super Crunch)

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
On March 12, 2020, the league announced the suspension of the 2019–20 season due to the impending COVID-19 pandemic. The league had just concluded with the second games of both division finals series, with both series being forced into a do-or-die third game. Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes stated in June that the suspended playoffs would continue once restrictions on contact sports have been lifted by the government. The suspension lasted nearly one year, as the league announced on March 6, 2021 that it would finally resume its 2020 playoffs in a bio-secure bubble at the Subic Bay Gymnasium on March 10. The 2020–21 season was also cancelled, with the league instead intending to start its fourth season in June 2021 before ultimately settling for 2022.

Awards
Most of the league's individual awards were given out before game 4 of the national finals at the Subic Bay Gymnasium. The Finals Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year were awarded at the conclusion of the series.

Notable events

 * On November 4, 2019, the league suspended the Soccsksargen Marlins team due to allegations of game-fixing, as part of the league's greater crackdown on the issue. The team was later turned over to new management and was renamed to the Sarangani Marlins. Two years later, criminal charges were filed against the members involved.

Milestones

 * January 11, 2020 – John Wilson becomes the 1st ever player to reach 1,000 MPBL career points.
 * February 12, 2020 – Yves Sazon becomes the 2nd player to reach 1,000 MPBL career points.
 * March 9, 2020 – Mark Yee becomes the 3rd player to reach 1,000 MPBL career points.
 * March 11, 2020 – Juneric Baloria becomes the 4th player to reach 1,000 MPBL career points.

Media
This season marked the third and final year of both ABS-CBN's and Fox Sports Asia's broadcast rights with the league.

For ABS-CBN, games were broadcast on S+A, Liga, and The Filipino Channel, while iWantTFC served as the network's international streaming platform. A2Z also broadcast the bubble games of the 2020–21 playoffs. The network's broadcast rights came to an end after the network's franchise was expired. On the other hand, Fox Sports Asia continued to broadcast Monday games as the league's cable partner. The network itself shut down on October 1, 2021.

IBC and TAP DMV would take over the television rights in the 2021 Invitational, while Cignal TV acquired the rights beginning with the succeeding 2022 season.

The league continued to broadcast all of the games on its official Facebook page.