What it was like
Your list has been sitting in a binder all month getting theoretical. Everyone in the group chat agrees it is good. None of that counts and you know it, which is exactly why you keep checking the shop calendar.
A League Challenge is the smallest honest test there is: a structured bracket, real pairings, and a room of players who spent the same weeks refining the same problems, all arriving to find out whose refinement was right. Cheaper than a Regional and far more informative than a night of casuals, it is where theory takes its first bruises. The San Diego scene uses these the way they were designed to be used — repeatable practice that quietly produces the people who go deep when it counts.
The shop sits on Miramar Road, entry runs a few dollars, and format details go up on their site.
Bring the deck you actually believe in, not the safe one.