The 10 AVC member associations qualified for the 2018 Asian Cup. Chinese Taipei qualified as hosts and the 9 remaining teams qualified from the 2017 Asian Championship. But, China later withdrew. The 9 AVC member associations were from five zonal associations, including, Central Asia (2 teams), East Asia (3 teams), Oceania (1 team), Southeast Asia (2 teams) and West Asia (1 team).
This was the first Asian Cup which used the new competition format. Following the 2017 AVC Board of Administration’s unanimous decision, the new format saw teams were drawn into three pools up to the total amount of the participating teams. Each team as well as the hosts was assigned into a pool according to their final standing of the 2017 Asian Championship. As the three best ranked teams were drawn in the same pool A, the next best three contested pool B, the next best three contested pool C.[3] Final standing of the 2017 Asian Championship are shown in brackets.
If the tie continues as per the point ratio between two teams, the priority will be given to the team which won the last match between them. When the tie in points ratio is between three or more teams, a new classification of these teams in the terms of points 1, 2 and 3 will be made taking into consideration only the matches in which they were opposed to each other.
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser
Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser
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