in the europe/africa zone there were three different tiers, called groups, in which teams competed against each other to advance to the upper tier. winners in group i advanced to the world group play-offs, along with losing teams from the world group first round. teams who lost their respective ties competed in the relegation play-offs, with winning teams remaining in group i, whereas teams who lost their play-offs were relegated to the europe/africa zone group ii in 2019.