The Volleyball 2020–21 V.League Division 1 Women's is the 27th volleyball tournament year and the 3rd top level women's volleyball tournament of the newly branded and reorganized V.League (Japan). It is held from October 17, 2020 – February 21, 2021.[1][2][3][4]
On August 4, 2020 the V.League Organization announced measures it has implemented to safeguard athletes, visitors, and related parties against the new coronavirus.[5][6] Venues will be limited to 50% capacity and divided into three zones:
Zone 1: Competition-related area (athletes, referees, etc.)
Zone 2: Tournament management staff & press-related area
Zone 3: Customer area
Visitors will have their body temperature taken before entering and are prohibited from certain forms of support such as loud cheering, using thundersticks, and high-fiving.
The V. League Division 1 Women's V Cup will be held from February 27, 2021 to March 28, 2021. All twelve teams will participate but players who have been invited to the Japan women's national volleyball team will begin early training for the 2021 Olympics and will not participate in the V Cup.
Regular round begins October 17, 2020 (Saturday) and ends February 21, 2021 (Sunday). Matches are played every Saturday and Sunday.
Each team will play twenty-two matches
Regular Season is a twelve team double round robin:
Round 1: October 17 to November 28, 2020
Round 2: December 4 to February 14, 2021
At the end of the regular round, teams are ranked and divided into three groups of four teams each and will compete in the final stage. Teams are ranked in the regular round by: wins -> points -> set percentage -> scoring rate.
(Group 1) 1st–4th place
(Group 2) 5th–8th place
(Group 3) 9th–12th place
Final stage will be held the weekend of February 20–21, 2021 (semi-finals and finals for each group)
Saturday, the 1st and 4th ranked team in each group, and the 2nd and 3rd ranked team in each group, will compete
Sunday, the winners, and the losers, of Saturday's matches will compete for final league ranking
Group 1 is the semi-finals and final of the League
Group 2 is jockeying for position (5th–8th) in the final league ranking
Group 3 is essentially the Challenge 4. Two losing teams will play the V.Challenge match
V Cup
Qualifying round begins February 27, 2021 (Saturday) and ends March 21, 2021 (Sunday)
Final round will be held the weekend of March 27–28, 2021
Top two teams from each group play a semi-final
Winners will play a final match
V.Challenge match (V1-V2 promotion–relegation matches): TBD
Season standing procedure
Many matches were canceled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and the number of completed matches varied from team to team so the season standing procedure was changed from "number of matches won" to win rate percentage.[14]
Tie breakers are as follows:
If two or more teams have the same winning percentage, the team with the highest set rate will be ranked higher.
If the set rate is also the same, the team with the highest scoring rate will be ranked higher.
If the score rate is also the same, the teams are calculated and the top ranks are decided in the order of win rate, set rate, and score rate.
Regular round
Final standing
Final ranking: 1st–4th place participation
Final ranking: 5th–8th place participation
Final ranking: 9th–12th place participation
2020–21 V.League Division 1 Women's Regular round Final Standing
The top two teams of each group (four teams in total) will perform the semifinal. The winners of the semifinals advance to the final, and the losers of the semifinal advance to the bronze-medal match.
The ranking of the teams that do not advance to the final round will be determined by the results of the preliminary round: 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th. There will be no ranking match between group A and group B.
The ranking of the qualifying round will be the team with the most wins.
If there is a variation in the number of games played within the group, the team with the highest winning percentage will be ranked higher.
Tiebreakers are Set Rate, then Points Rate.
In the event of a coronavirus positive person (including) of the participating team, or a refusal to participate due to any circumstances, the result is [0-25, 0-25, 0-25].
If a team abstains for any reason, they will lose [0-25, 0-25, 0-25].
