K League 2 promotion race 2026: Suwon Samsung clinch the top five, the line drops to 57 and the title needs 11 more

Suwon Samsung Bluewings are the first club certain of a top five finish in K League 2. They needed two more points before the weekend and beat Hwaseong FC 3-2 at home on October 18, which settled it whatever else happened. The same result moved the line for everyone else. Hwaseong, sixth on 44 with four matches left, can now reach 56 at most, so 57 is a total no club outside the top five can reach, one point lower than the 58 in the October 13 update.

Every figure here is as of the October 18 update, 232 of the season's 272 matches. The round ran over two days. On October 17 Suwon FC won 2-1 at Seongnam FC, Daegu FC beat Chungbuk Cheongju 3-1, Gyeongnam FC and Chungnam Asan drew 0-0, Gimpo FC beat Paju Citizen 4-1 and Ansan Greeners won 4-0 at Yongin FC. On October 18 Suwon beat Hwaseong, Busan IPark beat Jeonnam Dragons 2-1 and Seoul E-Land beat Gimhae FC 6-2. Cheonan City had the week off. Clinch numbers assume the worst case, that every rival takes maximum points from every match it has left, and a rival who can finish exactly level is counted as a threat.

The table reads Suwon 59, Suwon FC 54, Seoul E-Land 54, Daegu 49, Busan 45, Hwaseong 44, Gimpo 38, Chungnam Asan 36, Gyeongnam 35, Chungbuk Cheongju 32, Seongnam 31, Paju 30, Yongin 27, Cheonan 26, Ansan 25, Jeonnam 24 and Gimhae 14. Suwon FC are second rather than Seoul E-Land because the K League separates clubs level on points by goals scored first, 53 to 52. Suwon FC have five matches left and Seoul E-Land four.

Against the new line, Suwon FC and Seoul E-Land each need 3 more points, Daegu 8 and Busan 12, and every figure takes that club to exactly 57. Busan have four matches left, so 12 means winning all four. Hwaseong have no clinch number. Below them the elimination numbers are Hwaseong 4, Gimpo and Chungnam Asan 3, Gyeongnam 2, and Seongnam and Paju 1. Chungbuk Cheongju lost at Daegu and Yongin lost at home to Ansan, and both are now out, joining Cheonan, Ansan, Jeonnam and Gimhae. Chungbuk Cheongju can reach 44 and Yongin 42, and five clubs are already above both.

The title is the race that matters most in K League 2, because the champions go up to K League 1 automatically and the clubs below them go through the promotion playoffs. Suwon's title number fell from 14 to 11. Suwon FC can reach 69, so 70 is out of everyone's reach, and Suwon on 59 need 11 of the 15 points left, three wins and two draws or better. Four clubs can still finish first: Suwon, Suwon FC (title elimination number 4), Seoul E-Land (3) and Daegu (2). Busan and Hwaseong dropped out this round. Suwon's lowest reachable place is fourth.

We ran all 6,561 win, draw and loss combinations of the next round through the engine behind the site's tables. Suwon FC clinch the top five by beating Chungnam Asan at home on October 25. A draw is enough too, unless Hwaseong win at Paju and Busan avoid defeat against Gyeongnam the same day. Even a defeat is enough if Paju beat Hwaseong. Seoul E-Land have the round off and clinch without playing if Paju beat Hwaseong. Nobody else can clinch the top five that weekend, and the title cannot be settled. If Suwon win at Seongnam, their title number drops to 8, 6 or 5 depending on the other results. Daegu drop out of the title race if they lose at Jeonnam on October 24 and Suwon win at Seongnam the next day.

At the other end, three clubs can be eliminated. Seongnam host Suwon and are out with a draw or a defeat. Even a win keeps them alive only if Busan fail to beat Gyeongnam and Hwaseong fail to win at Paju. Paju host Hwaseong and are out with a draw or a defeat, and a win keeps them alive only if Gyeongnam win at Busan. Gyeongnam are out if they lose at Busan. The places of Hwaseong, Gimpo and Chungnam Asan cannot be settled either way that weekend.

The full round. On Saturday, October 24, Daegu are at Jeonnam and Gimhae at Gimpo. On Sunday, October 25, Gyeongnam are at Busan, Suwon at Seongnam, Chungnam Asan at Suwon FC, Yongin at Chungbuk Cheongju, Ansan at Cheonan and Hwaseong at Paju.

How to read these numbers. A clinch number is the smallest further return, counted in league points, that guarantees an outcome even if every rival takes maximum points from everything it has left. A tragic number is the count of further defeats after which the outcome becomes impossible even if the club wins everything else, assuming rivals stay where they are. Zero means already settled, and a blank means arithmetic alone cannot settle it yet. These numbers treat each rival on its own, so the combinations above, which use the real fixtures, can settle things sooner. A rival who can finish exactly level counts against a club when we decide a clinch, so our clinch can trail an official announcement by a day. Goals scored, goal difference and the official tiebreakers are not part of this arithmetic. The live table is at, the fixtures at, the promotion and tiebreak rules at, every club's figures at and the method at. Club pages: Suwon, Suwon FC, Seoul E-Land, Paju and Seongnam. To set the October 24 and 25 results yourself, use.