The Goyang Sono Skygunners have qualified for the East Asia Super League's 2026-27 season after advancing to the 2025-26 Korean Basketball League (KBL) Final. It's the franchise's first EASL berth, making Goyang the sixth new KBL team to reach the competition.

Sono entered the KBL playoffs as the No. 5 seed on the back of a 28-26 regular season record, then knocked off two reigning EASL 2025-26 participants en route to qualification. In the first round, they eliminated the Seoul SK Knights, who had reached the EASL postseason this year. In the semifinals, they took down the KBL's No. 1 overall seed — last year's EASL Group C representative. Now, they're in the KBL Finals for the first time in franchise history.

The run capped a turbulent campaign. The Skygunners opened 2025-26 with four straight losses and spent the rest of the calendar year as a middling team unable to put together any meaningful win streak. The turnaround came in March, when a seven-game win streak — and just one loss the entire month — sparked their late-season surge. 

By the end of the season, Goyang was well represented at the KBL End of Season Awards. Guard Lee Jung Hyun was named local MVP and Asian import and Philippine international Kevin Quiambao took home Rookie of the Year. Lee finished as the league's top-scoring local at 18.6 points per game, while Quiambao and Lee ranked first and second leaguewide in free throw percentage at 88.7% and 87.4%, respectively.

Goyang now awaits the winner of the other KBL semifinal between the Anyang JKJ Red Boosters (EASL 2023-24) and the Busan KCC Egis (EASL 2024-25). The KBL Finals tip off May 5.

Track records for first-year KBL teams in EASL have been mixed. In 2025-26, the Changwon LG Sakers struggled to a 1-5 finish. In 2024-25, the Busan KCC Egis and Suwon KT Sonicboom combined for a 4-8 group-stage record. But in the league's inaugural season, both the SK Knights and the JKJ Red Boosters reached the Final Four — EASL's former postseason format — finishing second and third, respectively.

With Goyang Sono in the mix, three teams are now locked into EASL 2026-27, joining Mongolia's Xac Broncos and Chinese Taipei P. LEAGUE+'s Taoyuan Pauian Pilots.

Follow along on all EASL social media channels — @eastasiasuperleague on Instagram, Facebook and Threads, and @EASLOfficial on X — for more qualification announcements coming soon.