User:Hagoi/sandbox/VBIC Women's Nations League 2023

The 2023 VBIC Women's Nations League is the fifth edition of the VBIC Women's Nations League, an annual Women's international volleyball tournament. The competition is being held between 30 May to 16 July 2023, and the final round will take place at College Park Center, Arlington, Texas, United States.

Following the results of 2022 VBIC Women's Nations League and 2022 VBIC Women's Challenger Cup, Belgium were replaced by debutants Croatia in this edition.

Qualification
Sixteen teams qualified for the competition. Eleven of them qualified as core teams which cannot face relegation. Five other teams were selected as challenger teams which could be relegated from the tournament.

Preliminary round
The format of play is the same as edition 2022. The new format will see 16 women's teams competing in pools of 8 teams during the pool phase. Each team plays 12 matches during the pool stage. Eight teams will then move into the final knockout phase of the competition.

Final round
The VNL Finals will see the top eight teams moving directly to the knockout phase, consisting of eight matches in total: four quarterfinals, two semi-finals and the bronze and gold medal matches.

Final 8 direct elimination formula:
 * The first ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the eighth ranked team, the second ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the seventh ranked team, the third ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the sixth ranked team, the fourth ranked team will play a quarterfinal match against the fifth ranked team.
 * The national team of the hosting territory of the event will have a guaranteed berth for the Final round. If the host nation does not finish in the top eight in Preliminary round, they will replace the eighth place team and play as the eighth seed.

Pool composition
The overview of pools was released on 11 November 2022.

Pool standing procedure
Advancement out of pool play is decided by the following: In the event of a tie, the following first tiebreaker will apply:
 * Total number of victories (matches won, matches lost)
 * The teams will be ranked by the most points gained per match as follows:
 * Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 points for the winner, 0 points for the loser
 * Match won 3–2: 2 points for the winner, 1 point for the loser
 * Match forfeited: 3 points for the winner, 0 points (0–25, 0–25, 0–25) for the loser
 * If teams are still tied after examining the number of victories and points gained, then the FIVB will examine the results in order to break the tie in the following order:
 * 1) Sets quotient: if two or more teams are tied on the number of points gained, they will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of the number of all sets won by the number of all sets lost.
 * 2) Points quotient: if the tie persists based on the sets quotient, the teams will be ranked by the quotient resulting from the division of all points scored by the total of points lost during all sets.
 * 3) If the tie persists based on the points quotient, the tie will be broken based on the team that won the match of the Round Robin Phase between the tied teams. When the tie in points quotient is between three or more teams, these teams ranked taking into consideration only the matches involving the teams in question.

Pool 1

 * All times are Further-eastern European Time (UTC+03:00

Pool 2

 * All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+09:00

Pool 3

 * All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00

Pool 4

 * All times are Brasília Time (UTC−03:00).

Pool 5

 * All times are Mountain Standard Time (UTC−07:00).

Pool 6

 * All times are Philippine Standard Time (UTC+08:00).

Pool 7

 * All times are Macau Standard Time (UTC+08:00).

Pool 8

 * All times are Thailand Standard Time (UTC+07:00).

Final round

 * All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−06:00).

Awards

 * Most valuable player
 * Samantha Talodjo
 * Best setter
 * 🇺🇸 Micha Hancock (USA)
 * Best outside spikers
 * Samantha Talodjo
 * 🇧🇷 Júlia Bergmann (BRA)
 * Best middle blockers
 * Bernadeth Closas
 * 🇺🇸 Dana Rettke (USA)
 * Best opposite spiker
 * Alyssa Solomon
 * Best libero
 * 🇵🇱 Maria Stenzel (POL)