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Coming Soon

21 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 88 days away

TwitchCon North America 2026

Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

Your favorite streamer - the one you have watched for 3,000 hours - is probably in the building, and you can actually walk up and talk to them. That is the whole reason to go. There is a strange intimacy to a parasocial relationship built over thousands of hours of someone's voice in your headphones, and this is the one place it collapses into a real handshake. The expo hall plays like a live streaming studio crossed with a gaming lounge: streamers broadcasting right off the floor, sub-notification sounds coming from everywhere, meet-and-greets with people who have lived in your second monitor for years. Variety Arcades, developer showcases, and cosplay competitions for game characters fill out the floor, and the whole convention is built entirely around live streaming culture - the people who make it and the people who never miss a stream, in the same room for once. TwitchCon North America 2026 returns to San Diego, September 25-27. Tickets at twitchcon.com.

Coming Soon

88 days away

MTG Star Trek Prerelease — TCS Rockets

Nov 13, 2026 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

You will read a card twice at once — the mechanical text on one layer, and Picard, the Borg, a familiar ship on the other — and both hit at the same time. That double-take is what happens when Star Trek: The Next Generation arrives in Magic: The Gathering's card frame in November 2026, and TCS Rockets in Miramar is running the Prerelease weekend. Prerelease is played in the sealed format that puts every player on equal footing: six packs, no pre-built deck advantage, every game a puzzle assembled from what you opened. It is the format where experience matters less than instinct — you are building with cards you have never played, against opponents doing the same. Picard on a creature card hits different. The Borg as a mechanic lands exactly how you would expect it to. All experience levels welcome; show up knowing your Star Trek, and learn the Magic rules between packs. TCS Rockets is at 7626 Miramar Rd, Suite 3900, San Diego. See tcsrockets.com for registration and event details. The sealed kit includes six packs and a Prerelease promo with entry.

MTG Star Trek Prerelease — GameStar Hobbies

Coming Soon

14 Gathering

88 days away

MTG Star Trek Prerelease — GameStar Hobbies

Nov 13, 2026 27380 Jefferson Ave Ste 101, Temec…

The overlap between these two fandoms has always run deeper than either side admits, and prerelease day is when it stops being an announcement and becomes a game you are actually playing. The format is the great equalizer: six packs, forty-five minutes to build, then you sit across from people who opened exactly the same uncertainty you did. Nobody has a netdeck. Nobody has a read on the meta, because there is no meta yet. Knowing your Star Trek helps more than it usually would — the card design leans on the reference points — but the play decisions still decide the game, and holding both at once is the whole pleasure of the day. GameStar Hobbies runs prereleases with real infrastructure, and Temecula pulls players in from the Inland Empire, San Diego, and Riverside alike. Send it to the friend who owns both a commander deck and a strongly held opinion about Deep Space Nine. They will clear their calendar.

Coming Soon

🌎 Nation's Best 88 days away

MagicCon: Atlanta 2026 — Atlanta, GA

Nov 13 – Nov 15, 2026 Georgia World Congress Center, Bui…

Wizards of the Coast brings the official Magic: The Gathering convention to Atlanta — three days of competitive play, exclusive reveals, and side events that don't exist at a local game store. Step into MagicCon and the scale of the Magic ecosystem becomes visceral. The main hall hosts commander pods running nonstop, side event drafts firing every 90 minutes, and a merchandise floor stocked with exclusive foil treatments and collector editions that do not exist outside the convention walls. The World Championship stage draws a live audience who understands the stakes — watching a pro player navigate a complex board state in a top-8 match is legitimately thrilling even to non-competitive attendees. Panel stages feature lead designers previewing the upcoming set, Reality Fracture, with reveals that ripple across the entire community within minutes of announcement. Meet-and-greets with pro players and content creators run throughout the weekend, though they fill fast. The atmosphere skews intensely knowledgeable — this crowd knows what a Rhystic Study is, why it is obnoxious, and will argue about it with warmth. MagicCon Atlanta is for anyone who plays Magic with genuine investment — not necessarily competitive, but committed. If your Friday nights involve a Commander pod and you have at least one deck you have been tuning for six months, you will feel completely at home here. This is not a casual spectator event. It is for the player who loves the game enough to fly across the country for three days of it. First-timers to MagicCon frequently say the same thing: they had no idea how large and how skilled the community actually is until they walked in. Register for ticketed play events before the convention — sealed and draft pods sell out weeks in advance. Bring your trade binder if you have one: the secondary market area moves fast and has genuine deals. Badge merchandise must be picked up onsite; if you miss the pickup window before close on Sunday, you forfeit it. The Worlds stage is open to badge holders but seating near the feature match area is first-come, standing room fills by round 4 of the top 8. Bring cash for artist alley — many illustrators are cash-only and the original card alters available from top artists are some of the most collectible items in the room. For the Magic community, this is not just an event. It is the proof that the game is still alive, still evolving, and still worth every dollar you have spent on it. MagicCon: Atlanta 2026 runs November 13-15 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta. Tickets at mtgfestivals.com.

DragonForce: Inhuman Rampage 20th Anniversary

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89 days away

DragonForce: Inhuman Rampage 20th Anniversary

Nov 13, 2026 $45+ The Observatory North Park, 2891 U…

It should be embarrassing and it is somehow the opposite: guitars played so absurdly fast they sound like a video game glitching, songs about dragons and glory delivered with the straightest face in metal, and a crowd losing its collective mind with total sincerity. DragonForce built a temple to maximalism, and twenty years after Inhuman Rampage put Through the Fire and Flames into a million living rooms via Guitar Hero, they are playing the whole thing loud enough to melt the paint off the Observatory. Ensiferum and Rhapsody of Fire open, because if you are going to do power metal you do not do it halfway. This is joy without irony, a room full of people who decided that the most ridiculous thing is also the most fun. Friday, November 13, 2026, doors 6:30pm, show 7:30pm, North Park. Throw the horns without a shred of shame — everyone here already agreed this rules. Bring the friend you used to fail Through the Fire and Flames with on expert, and finally hear it played by people who somehow can.

Anime Weekend Atlanta 2026 — Atlanta, GA

Coming Soon

🌎 Nation's Best 94 days away

Anime Weekend Atlanta 2026 — Atlanta, GA

Nov 19 – Nov 22, 2026 Georgia World Congress Center, Bui…

The American South's longest-running anime convention has been meeting in Atlanta every September since 1997. Anime Weekend Atlanta is where the Southeast's anime fandom comes to recognize itself. Walk the AWA floor on a Thursday night and the energy hits immediately: cosplayers in elaborate handmade builds line the escalators, artist alley tables overflow with original prints and fan art, and the programming halls pulse with AMVs, panel debates, and late-night gaming tournaments that run until 3 AM. The dealers room is legitimately staggering — vintage merchandise, imports, rare figures, and indie creators all packed into a space where you could spend a full day and still miss things. The masquerade on Saturday night is one of the most theatrical cosplay competitions in the country, drawing contestants who have spent months on a single build. AWA moves differently than the mega-cons: it feels less like a trade show and more like a reunion — because for thousands of attendees, it genuinely is. If you grew up watching anime in the South and never found your people, AWA is the answer. This is not for casual fans who think anime is just Naruto and Dragon Ball. It is for people who obsess over seasonal charts, debate subculture lore, and have a hard drive full of unfinished cosplay plans. First-timers frequently describe AWA as the con that finally felt like home. If you are that person — the one who learned Japanese from subtitles and named a pet after a character — this is worth every flight mile. Book your hotel at the World Congress Center Marriott before August or it will sell out — AWA attendees treat the hotel block as sacred and it fills months in advance. Badge pickup lines on Thursday afternoon are brutal; opt for pre-registration and arrive before noon. The dealers room has no ATMs inside — bring cash, bring more than you think you need, and budget for at least one impulse figure you did not plan for. The programming schedule releases about six weeks before the event and fills fast; panel rooms cap out, so plan your must-see events 30 minutes early. The loading dock area outside Building C is where the best spontaneous cosplay photo shoots happen after dark. It is the convention that proved the South has always had its own thriving fan culture — it just needed a room big enough to hold it. AWA 2026 runs November 19-22 at the Georgia World Congress Center, Building C, Atlanta. Tickets available at eventeny.com.

GTA 6 Midnight Launch — GameStop San Diego

Coming Soon

18 Gathering

95 days away

GTA 6 Midnight Launch — GameStop San Diego

Nov 20, 2026 GameStop, 7007 Friars Rd, San Dieg…

You could stand in a parking lot at midnight with a speaker going and everyone you know awake for the same reason - or you could refresh a digital storefront alone. One of those is a story you tell later. GTA VI arrives in San Diego at the same instant it lands everywhere, but the people in this GameStop lot when the clock flips 12:01 chose to be there. Midnight launches at a real store have their own physics: the line forms early, someone brings a speaker, and the whole lot takes on that specific group-chat energy. The Friars Road location has the room for it - get there before 10 if you want to be anywhere near the front. GTA VI is projected to be the largest entertainment launch in recorded history, but that's not why people line up. They line up for the countdown, the doors opening, the first screenshot dropping in the group chat at 12:02 AM. The digital download will always exist. The parking lot on launch night only exists once. GameStop, 7007 Friars Rd, San Diego. November 19th into the 20th - doors at 11 PM, copies out at 12:01 AM. Confirm your pre-order at this location at gamestop.com.

GTA 6 Midnight Launch — GameStop Temecula

Coming Soon

131 Gathering

95 days away

131

GTA 6 Midnight Launch — GameStop Temecula

Nov 20, 2026 GameStop, 40474 Winchester Rd, Tem…

Nobody needs to be standing outside a strip mall in the dark on a weeknight. That is precisely why everyone is. Somebody drove from farther than makes sense. Somebody is wearing a hoodie from the last one, bought in college, fitting badly ever since. The group chat that has been dormant for months is suddenly awake, because everyone is awake, at the same hour, for the same reason — and none of it requires you to buy anything. Half this line preordered weeks ago. They came for the line. By morning the internet will be a different place than it was the day before. Every stream, every argument about the map, every clip that gets sent to you unprompted — all of it starts here, and the people in this parking lot get to say they were in it. Copies go out at 12:01 AM on Winchester Road. Get there before eleven if you want a place in line rather than a place at the back of the lot. You can read about the night it happened. Or you can have been there.

Coming Soon

16 Gathering

🌎 Nation's Best 109 days away

PAX Unplugged 2026 — Philadelphia, PA

Dec 4 – Dec 7, 2026 Pennsylvania Convention Center, 11…

Three days in Philadelphia in December where 40,000 people bring board games, card games, miniatures, and roleplaying campaigns. PAX Unplugged is the largest dedicated tabletop gaming floor in America. The experience at PAX Unplugged is unlike any other convention on the American calendar. The main show floor stretches across the convention center's enormous exhibit hall — rows of publishers demonstrating unreleased games, free-play libraries with thousands of titles available to check out and bring to any open table, and tournament halls running competitive and casual formats simultaneously. The tabletop RPG hall operates all four days — Dungeon Masters running games, new systems getting their first public playtests. You can sit down at a table with strangers and be deep inside an adventure within ten minutes. The community here is self-selected for exactly this openness: people who came to Philadelphia in December to play games with other people who came to Philadelphia in December to play games. Worth it? If you play tabletop games in any format — board games with family, Dungeons & Dragons with friends, Magic: The Gathering competitively — PAX Unplugged is the one event that puts everything you care about in one room simultaneously. Publishers premiere new games here first. Designers are on the floor demoing their own creations. Competitive players converge on the same tournament halls. The identity gate is simple: if games played around a table are how you experience community, this is where your community gathers every December. The Pennsylvania Convention Center connects via enclosed walkway to multiple hotels — booking hotel before registration opens is essential, as nearby properties sell out within hours of badge sales going live. Philadelphia's transit system (SEPTA) provides subway access to the convention center from major neighborhoods and the airport (Airport Line → Center City). Badges sell in tiers; 4-day badges sell fastest. The Library of Games (free-play checkout) has no extra charge — one of the best systems at any convention for trying new titles without commitment. Pack layers; Philadelphia in December is cold, and the convention center's cavernous exhibit hall runs warmer than the streets outside. In an entertainment landscape built around passive consumption, tens of thousands of people travel to Philadelphia each December to play games with each other. The ticket is participation, not observation. December in Philadelphia.

Makers Arcade Holiday Fair 2026 — Broadway Pier, San Diego

Daily

117 days away

Makers Arcade Holiday Fair 2026 — Broadway Pier, San Diego

Every day · Next Dec 12 1000 N Harbor Dr, San Diego, CA 92…

You know the gift problem. Somebody matters, and everything you scroll past looks like it was designed by an algorithm for a person who does not exist. This solves it the old way. A hundred and twenty local makers set up on the pier and sell things they made with their hands: ceramics, jewelry, candles that smell like an actual memory instead of a marketing brief, prints by artists whose studios are ten miles from your house. There is a free make-and-take wreath station where a kid builds something and then refuses to ever put it down. And all of it happens with the bay right behind you, because December here is sun and shirtsleeves while the rest of the country is indoors. A weekend on the Broadway Pier, small admission at the door, kids free. Bring the person you have no idea what to get. Let them pick it out in front of you.

Coming Soon

119 days away

San Diego Bay Parade of Lights 2026

Dec 13 – Dec 20, 2026 San Diego Bay, Shelter Island Shor…

For two evenings in December the water itself becomes the light show. Boats of every size — kayaks up to yachts — move in slow procession out from Shelter Island, through the harbor, toward the Embarcadero, while more than a hundred thousand people find a patch of shoreline to watch them pass. It has been happening since 1971, and the crews take it seriously: weeks of rigging, inflatable displays, themed structures built to win a judged category against neighbors they will see all year. Because the route runs the length of the bay, half the waterfront is a good seat. Free viewing along Shelter Island Shoreline Park, Harbor Island and the Embarcadero fills early, so come well before the start with blankets and something hot. Two Sunday evenings, both of them worth it. Take the kid who still believes, and the adult who forgot they used to.

Coming Soon

32 Gathering

186 days away

LFG CON San Diego 2027

Feb 19 – Feb 21, 2027 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

The hardest part of this hobby was never the rules. It is finding four other people who are free the same night and will actually see the game through to the end. That is what the Find a Game board solves, and it is the best thing in the building: you write down what you want to play, somebody writes their name under it, and an hour later you are three turns deep with strangers. The open library holds thousands of titles you can check out and carry to a table — first-come, a couple of hours at a time, so the popular boxes circulate all day. Around it run organized play, publisher demos of things not out yet, miniature wargames, and RPG slots going from morning until the hall closes. It takes a full weekend of the San Diego Convention Center, trolley-accessible, with the Gaslamp right there for when the hall shuts and nobody is ready to stop. Send it to the friend with the shelf of boxes still in shrink wrap.

Pokémon Regional Championships — San Diego 2027

Coming Soon

284 days away

Pokémon Regional Championships — San Diego 2027

May 28, 2027 Downtown San Diego, CA 92101

A few weeks after a set drops the format cracks open, everybody has a theory, and the problem is that there are nowhere near enough people around you who care as much as you do. A Regional is where that finally has somewhere to go. For one weekend everyone who has been grinding the ladder and testing lines at one in the morning is in the same room. The top tables play at a level worth watching even if you never register — decks built around a single counter nobody saw coming, rounds decided in the last ninety seconds with travel points and a Worlds invite sitting on the board. Judges in official regalia work the aisles with practiced calm. Side events run all day for whoever dropped from the main or just wants reps against strangers better than their locals. San Diego takes the only Southern California Regional of the season, downtown, with registration opening on RK9 months out. If you play, watch for check-in. If you do not, come Sunday and watch the top cut decide who flies to Worlds.

Anime Riverside 2027 — Inland Empire Convention

Coming Soon

75 Gathering

285 days away

Anime Riverside 2027 — Inland Empire Convention

May 29 – May 31, 2027 Riverside Convention Center, 3637 …

An hour to Los Angeles for the big convention, an hour back at one in the morning — that is what being an anime fan out here has always meant. This is the year that stopped. There is a real pride in a room full of people from Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula and Redlands who finally did not have to leave home to find each other. It is the whole format at a scale you can actually walk: panels, an exhibit hall, artist alley, gaming rooms, and a cosplay contest judged by a crowd that recognizes the characters without being told. No airport-terminal sprawl. That trade was made on purpose — less distance between you and the thing you came for. The convention takes over the Riverside Convention Center downtown, with dates confirming at animeriverside.com. Bring the friends who made that drive with you one too many times.

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