Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League

The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines consisting of 29 teams.

Founded in 2017 by eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao, the MPBL is not intended to be a competitor to the top-flight Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), but rather to provide a gateway for local, homegrown talents to showcase their skills. The league uses a home-and-away format, similar to the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. The MPBL started a semi-professional league before being granted professional status in 2021 by the Games and Amusements Board.

Further developments include the youth-oriented Junior MPBL, which launched in July 2023, and a volleyball counterpart called the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA), which launched in October 2023.

The Pampanga Giant Lanterns are the current defending champions, beating the Bacoor City Strikers in three games during the 2023 MPBL finals.

Founding
Pacquiao formally launched the MPBL on August 29, 2017, with the intent to feature both the commercial and barangay-level side, with teams on the commercial side to have a home locality in addition to a corporate sponsor. The plan was for the league to begin with Luzon-based teams only and then expand to Visayas and Mindanao later on. The expanded league would have two divisions, North and South, where one team from both divisions face in a finals series similar to the format of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in North America. The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams. A preseason tournament was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions. Snow Badua was the league's inaugural commissioner, but he did not take on the role when the first season eventually began as six-time PBA champion Kenneth Duremdes succeeeded Badua as league commissioner on November 22, 2017.

Semi-professional era


The MPBL began its inaugural season on January 25, 2018, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The inaugural season featured ten teams, all based in Luzon, with the requirement of each team having three homegrown players. In the opening game, the Parañaque Patriots scored a 70–60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos. The playoffs only had eight teams due to the small size, concluding with the Batangas City Athletics winning the inaugural title in the 2018 finals against the Muntinlupa Cagers

In the 2018–19 season, the league added sixteen expansion teams, bringing the total to 26 teams. Five of the sixteen expansions are based in Visayas and Mindanao, thus marking the league's national expansion. The North and South Divisions were introduced and the playoff pool doubled to sixteen teams, eight per division. The league also placed roster restrictions on teams, only allowing one Filipino-foreigner and up to five ex-professional players, the former of which caused criticism from players and fans. This season also saw the inaugural edition of the MPBL All-Star Game, which was held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. The San Juan Knights would win the title that season against the Davao Occidental Tigers in the 2019 national finals, which is to date, the only series to go the full length of five games.

The following 2019–20 season featured 31 teams participating in the league, the most the league had in its history, adding six expansion teams but also saw its first departing team, the Mandaluyong El Tigre. Roster restrictions were also relaxed, allowing more Filipino-foreigners and ex-professional players to play in the league. In December 2019, Chooks-to-Go of Bounty Agro Ventures became the title sponsor of the league under what was initially a five-year deal. This season also saw the debut of the International Invasion series, which saw games being played in the United Arab Emirates and in Canada.

COVID-19 disruption
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the league suspended play on March 12, 2020. Nearly a year later, on March 6, 2021, the league announced the resumption of its playoffs. The remainder of the league's 2020 playoffs was held at a bubble at the Subic Bay Gymnasium. In a rematch of the 2019 national finals series, the Davao Occidental Tigers won the 2021 national finals against the San Juan Knights.

Because of the restrictions imposed by the government due to the pandemic, the league's 2020–21 season would be cancelled. The league's fourth season would be postponed multiple times before it eventually began in 2022. In October 2021, Chooks-to-Go took over the league's basketball operations.

Professional era
On November 9, 2021, it was announced that the MPBL would turn into a professional league. A month later, on December 9, 2021, the MPBL was granted professional status by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB). This also allowed the league to feature collegiate players on team rosters, as long as the player itself is a Special Guest Licensee. The league's first professional event was the 2021 Invitational. During which, all roster restrictions were lifted.

The 2022 season would finally begin over a year after last season's conclusion, which featured 22 of the 31 teams from the previous season. The season marked a new sponsorship with sports betting platform OKBet, succeeding Chooks-to-Go as the title sponsor. The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards became the first team to achieve a regular season sweep and subsequently won the 2022 national finals against the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines. The succeeding 2023 season featured 29 teams, including two expansion teams and five returning teams. The season culminated with the homegrown-laden Pampanga Giant Lanterns sweeping the Bacoor City Strikers in the 2023 national finals.

During this time, a trend began of teams participating in other leagues during the MPBL offseason. This first occurred in FilBasket during the Subic 2021 and Summer 2022 championships, which saw multiple teams participate due to the long gap between the 2019–20 and 2022 seasons. In recent years, teams that were eliminated for the season would compete in the Pilipinas Super League (PSL) during the offseason.

The upcoming 2024 season features 29 teams, which includes the arrival of two expansion teams but also the departure of three teams. The ex-professional player limit will also be removed, allowing teams to sign any number of professional players onto their rosters. In April 2024, the league began exploring the possibility of joining the East Asia Super League.

Further developments
Following the success of the MPBL, Pacquiao has made further developments in grassroots-based sports. On June 15, 2023, the Junior MPBL was unveiled in a press conference. The youth-oriented league's inaugural season began on July 9, 2023, with teams competing in 14-under, 16-under, and 18-under divisions. The junior league will soon feature a 21-under division, billed as the "Junior MPBL D-League", which will commence in May 2024. In the same press conference announcing the junior league, Pacquiao also shared intent to create a volleyball counterpart similar to the MPBL that will cater to female players. That league would be known as the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) and began on October 22, 2023, with eight teams.

On November 7, 2023, the league launched its social arm, the MPBL Kalinga, with the goal of providing medical assistance to MPBL players, former and current, as well as league officials and staff.

Professional teams
The MPBL began with ten Luzon-based teams in 2018, which was then increased to 26 teams following the national expansion in 2018–19. As of 2024, the league currently has 29 active member teams, with the Abra Weavers and Pangasinan Heatwaves as the newest expansion teams.

The league divides the teams into two divisions based on geographic location: the North Division and the South Division. Metro Manila has the most teams out of any region with nine followed by Calabarzon with five and Central Luzon with four. In terms of island groups, most of the teams are located in Luzon, which has 22 teams. Meanwhile, Mindanao has four teams while Visayas has three.


 * Notes

Roster regulations
There is no draft held during the off-season, instead, teams acquire their players through the signing of contracts. Teams must have a minimum of 15 players in their roster, with the maximum being 22. In each game, however, teams can only field a 15-man roster into the court. All local players are eligible, although teams can also sign up to two Filipino-foreigners. The league currently doesn't allow imports to join the league.

Being based in the grassroots level, each team is required to have at least three homegrown players who come from the team's home locality. Since 2022, with the transition to professional status, the league has also allowed collegiate players to join as long as the player is granted a Special Guest License from the Games and Amusement Board. (Since June 1, 2024, the NCAA no longer allows SGLs to play professionally.)

Prior to 2024, the league also had an ex-professional player limit, where teams are only allowed to sign a limited number of players with prior professional experience. This was replaced with an ex-PBA player limit in 2022, and in 2024, the limit was scrapped in its entirety.

The league also schedules a window during the middle of the season where teams can partake in free agency and propose trades, all to be approved by the Commissioner's Office.

Preseason
Before the regular season begins, an invitational tournament is usually held as part of the preseason. The tournament is divided into two phases: the group stage and the playoffs. In the group stage, the participating teams are divided into multiple groups, where each team will play against their group opponents once. The top two teams of each group advance to a single-elimination playoffs.

Regular season
The regular season utilizes a single round-robin tournament format, where each team plays against all of the other teams once, regardless of division alignment. The league uses FIBA rules for all of its games. Since 2022, teams are ranked by number of wins instead of winning percentage.

The MPBL plays its games across numerous venues across the country. Two or three games are scheduled each day to be played in a single venue, thus a majority of the league's games are considered neutral-site games. The home team typically plays in the final game, although in some occasions, it may also be a neutral-site game.

Similar to the PBA, league also schedules series of out-of-town games throughout the regular season, known as Invasion series, where consecutive gamedays take place in areas far from the Greater Manila Area, such as Visayas and Mindanao. Invasion series also covers the league's international games.

Near the end of the regular season, the league holds its seasonal All-Star Game. Two teams representing the North and South Divisions are composed of fifteen players from each division, all of whom are declared as the season's all-stars. Alongside the All-Star Game are the various festivities held at the same day, including the Executives' Game, Three-Point Shootout, and Slam Dunk Contest.

Playoffs
Since the 2018–19 season, top eight teams in each division advance to the playoffs. Should there be any ties, the league uses the standard FIBA tiebreaker criteria.

In the First Round or the division quarterfinals, the first seed matches with the eighth seed, the second seed with the seventh seed, the third seed with the sixth seed, and the fourth seed with the fifth seed. The division semifinals will then have the winner of the 1–8 series match with the winner of the 4–5 series, and the winner of the 2–7 series with the winner of the 3–6 series. The winners of both series then meet in the division finals. All three divisional rounds are played in best-of-three series.

The champions of each division will then meet in the final round, dubbed as the MPBL finals or the MPBL national finals, where the two teams play in a best-of-five series to determine the series champion.

Homecourt advantage
During the first two rounds of the playoffs, two games from within the same division are played in the same gameday at the same venue. Because of this, a different system is used to determine homecourt advantage for those two rounds, shown in the table below. The division finals uses a 1–1–1 format, while the national finals uses a 2–2–1 format.


 * Notes
 * If one or two series feature a game 3, the highest-seeded remaining team hosts the games.
 * If more than two series feature a game 3, the two highest-seeded remaining teams host the games.

Awards
The league also gives out its end-of-season awards during the national finals, which includes the MVP award, which is awarded to the best performing player of the regular season.

Right after the national finals, the league also gives out the Finals MVP award to the best performing player of the series as well as the Coach of the Year to the head coach of the winning team.

Championships
As of 2023, five teams have won the championship once, with no team winning it multiple times. Only two teams, the San Juan Knights and Davao Occidental Tigers, reached the national finals multiple times.

Media coverage
The MPBL employs its own broadcast team for all games, with the broadcast feed and commentary shared across all platforms.

Current
Since 2022, Cignal TV holds the television broadcast rights to the MPBL and all of its games. As of 2024, all games are aired live on Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV), the primetime game is also aired on One PH via delayed telecast. The games are also streamed on Cignal's Pilipinas Live streaming service. The league broadcasts all of the games online via its official Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Former
Prior to Cignal's current deal, ABS-CBN held the broadcast rights of the league from 2018 until 2021. Games during that time were broadcast on ABS-CBN, A2Z, S+A, Liga, and its various regional stations in local markets, The Filipino Channel broadcast the games for international markets, and iWantTFC streamed the games worldwide. These broadcast rights came to a halt due to the network's franchise renewal controversy, which forced the league to award the broadcast rights to a new network.

Other networks which broadcast the MPBL before Cignal's tenure include Fox Sports Asia, which held the broadcast rights for Monday games throughout the 2018–19 season. Afterwards, it was the IBC broadcasting all games during the 2021 Invitational, with TAP DMV's TAP Go service streaming the games.