The 2022 Premier Volleyball League Open Conference was the eleventh conference of the Premier Volleyball League, its second conference as a professional league, and the first conference of the 2022 season.
The conference was held from March 16 to April 8, 2022, pending restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. A pool play format was adapted for the first time, wherein teams were divided into two pools, as opposed to a round-robin format where all teams play against each other at least once. The preliminary round was held at the Paco Arena in Manila. The quarterfinal round and semifinals games 1 & 3 were held at the San Juan Arena in San Juan. The semifinals game 2 and finals game 1 were held at SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, while the finals game 2 was held at Ynares Center in Antipolo, Rizal.
For the first time in league history, the Open Conference catered multiple pools in the preliminary round with the nine participating teams grouped into two pools. The groupings were unveiled on February 18, 2022 with teams grouped through serpentine system using 2021 Open Conference final standings. F2 Logistics Cargo Movers were drawn to Pool A during their meeting as they did not compete in the last conference.
The conference started on a "semi-bubble" setup with a strict home-venue-home format for teams at the Paco Arena with no spectators allowed in the venue due to COVID-19 restrictions. After the preliminary round, the league officially started accepting live audiences to watch the games in the playoffs.
The nine teams were split into two pools, one pool of five and one pool of four, and competed in a single round-robin tournament, with each team playing one match against all other teams within their group. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinals, with the top two earning a twice-to-beat advantage. The fifth place team from the group of five was eliminated from title contention and advanced to the 7th–9th classification round.
Quarterfinals
The top four teams from each preliminary round pool competed in the crossover quarterfinals. The top two teams from each pool had a twice-to-beat advantage, meaning those teams only needed to win one of their next two matches, while their opponents needed to win two matches in a row. The winners advanced to the semifinals while the losers competed in the classification rounds. The match-ups for the quarterfinals were as follows:
QF1: Pool A #1 vs. Pool B #4
QF2: Pool B #1 vs. Pool A #4
QF3: Pool A #2 vs. Pool B #3
QF4: Pool B #2 vs. Pool A #3
Classification rounds
The losing teams from the quarterfinals competed in one of two classification rounds. The losers from QF1 and QF2 joined the fifth place team from the pool of five in the 7th–9th classification round. Teams competed in a single round-robin tournament, with each team playing a total of two matches. Teams were ranked 7th through 9th in the final standings, based on results from this round. The losers from QF3 and QF4 competed in a single match to determine which team would finish fifth in this conference.
Semifinals
The winning teams from the quarterfinals competed in the semifinals. Teams competed in best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the finals, while the losers competed in the third place series. The match-ups for the semifinals were as follows:
SF1: QF1 winner vs. QF4 winner
SF2: QF2 winner vs. QF3 winner
Third place series
The losing teams from the semifinals competed in a best-of-three series to determine which team would finish third in this conference. If the series is tied at 1–1 when the championship is decided, the pool standing procedure is used (starting from set ratio).
Finals
The winning teams from the semifinals competed in a best-of-three series to determine the conference champions. The losing team in this round was declared conference runners-up.
Pool standing procedure
Teams are initially ranked by wins followed by match points. A win awards three points if the match lasted for three or four sets (3–0 or 3–1), or two points if the match lasted for five sets (3–2). A loss only awards one point if the match lasted for five sets (2–3).
If multiple teams tie for wins and match points, the next criteria are set ratio (the number of sets won divided by number of sets lost across all matches) and point ratio (the number of points won divided by number of points lost across all matches). If any teams are still tied, the procedure will be applied again, but only considering matches between the remaining tied teams.
Since the finals series concluded after two matches, the third match of the third place series was cancelled and the pool standing procedure was used to determine the winner. Cignal had a higher point ratio than Choco Mucho (1.022–0.978), and thus were ranked third in the final standings.
