The 2021 KBO League season, also known by naming rights sponsorship as 2021

Shinhan Bank Shinhan Bank Co., Ltd. () is a bank headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Historically it was the first bank in Korea, established under the name Hanseong Bank in 1897. The bank was reestablished in 1982. It is part of the Shinhan Financial Gro ...

SOL KBO League (), was the 40th season in the history of the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

. At the conclusion of the regular season, all five playoff positions were undecided going into the final day of the schedule. The

Samsung Lions The Samsung Lions () are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982. They are based in the southeastern city of Daegu and are members of the KBO League. Their home stadium is Daegu Samsung Lions Park. They have won the Korean Champ ...

and KT Wiz met in a tiebreaker game to decide the regular season champion, the first such game since 1985. The NC Dinos became the first defending champion to miss the playoffs since the Kia Tigers in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, while the Doosan Bears qualified for the seventh consecutive year. In the postseason, the

Korean Series The Korean Series is the final championship series of the KBO League. It has been held since the KBO League's first season in and is the final series of the post-season play-offs. From to 2013, the winner of the Korean Series went on to play in ...

was won by KT Wiz, who defeated the Doosan Bears who had advanced the championship series as a wild card. 2021 also marked the first KBO season for the SSG Landers, formerly known as the SK Wyverns.

Season format

The KBO is a 10-team league. Each team plays 144 games, facing the other nine teams 16 times apiece. Games are declared ties after 12 innings (15 in the postseason), and those contests have no bearing on a team’s

winning percentage In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

. Five teams make the playoffs, where the league uses a step-ladder format; the fifth- and fourth-placed teams battle in a Wild Card round, the winner faces the three seed, and so on. Teams are limited to three foreign players each. Only two such players are allowed in the lineup at any one time, so teams generally roster two pitchers and one position player.

Standings

''*Samsung Lions hosted tiebreaker game by virtue of head-to-head record with KT Wiz (9-6-1)'' ''**KT Wiz won against Samsung Lions 1-0 in the tiebreaker game''

Postseason

Wild Card

The series started with a 1–0 advantage for the fourth-placed team.

Semi-playoff

Playoff

Korean Series

References

{{KBO League KBO League seasons KBO League season KBO League season Korea Baseball Organization League, 2020