Through the agreement between EAFF and ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), the winner of the tournament will qualified for the AFF–EAFF Champions Trophy.

[2] The winner of the 2017 EAFF E-1 Football Championship, South Korea, qualified for the 2019 AFF–EAFF Champions Trophy to meet the winner of 2018 AFF Championship of Vietnam.

[3][4] Based on their previous edition's results in 2015, the ten teams were allocated to their particular stage.

Each winner of the preliminary round progressed to the next stage.

Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-out are counted as draws.