[1][2] The top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship as the AVC representatives.

On 14 December 2020, the AVC announced that the 2020 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship which was originally the AVC qualifier for the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic and the top two teams of the tournament qualified for the 2021 U21 World Championship as the AVC representatives.

[3] The 24 AVC member associations submitted their U20 men's national team to the 2018 Asian U20 Championship.

Following the 2017 AVC Board of Administration's unanimous decision, the new format saw teams were drawn into eight 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 2016 edition.