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Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

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65 days away

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

Sep 5, 2026 $5 entry 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

The monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge at TCS Rockets is the competitive rung between casual play and Regional Championships — structured enough to matter, local enough to reach. Every player earns Championship Points toward the World Championship invite pool, which means the results here compound into the season's most important moments. A strong League Challenge finish counts in ways that friendly play never does. Three divisions compete: Masters, Seniors, and Juniors. The format is 60-card Standard, Swiss rounds plus top cut, prize support for finishers. The TCS Rockets player base is one of San Diego's most consistent competitive communities — the faces at the League Challenge are the same faces you'll see at Regionals, which means the preparation you do here is preparation against the opponents who will matter most when it counts. TCS Rockets is at 7626 Miramar Rd, Suite 3900, San Diego. tcsrockets.com for registration and entry fee. Registration opens at 10 AM, rounds begin at 11 AM. Bring your best current 60. The League Challenge field does not have bad players.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD

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13 Gathering

65 days away

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD

Sep 5, 2026 $5 entry 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 921…

The monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge at Game Empire San Diego is where the Miramar competitive scene earns Championship Points toward the World Championship invite. League Challenges are the grassroots infrastructure of competitive Pokemon — local enough to reach every week, structured enough to matter to the season, and meaningful enough that what happens here shows up in the standings that determine who goes to Worlds. Three divisions run simultaneously: Masters, Seniors, and Juniors. 60-card Standard format, Swiss rounds into a top cut, prize support for top finishers. Game Empire runs a well-organized event in a store that takes tabletop gaming seriously — the environment is competitive without being hostile, and the player base is consistent enough that you'll see the same opponents improving month over month alongside you. Game Empire San Diego is at 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego. gameempire.com for registration details. Registration at 10 AM, rounds at 11 AM. Know your list, know your matchups. The Game Empire League Challenge field comes prepared.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Artificer San Diego

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65 days away

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Artificer San Diego

Sep 5, 2026 $5 entry 5005 Shawline St Suite B, San Dieg…

The monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge at Artificer San Diego runs in Linda Vista — one of San Diego's dedicated hobby gaming spaces, purpose-built for exactly this kind of organized play. League Challenges are the consistent competitive foundation that builds the players who perform at Regionals: local, structured, and meaningful to season standings in ways that casual play never is. Three divisions: Masters, Seniors, Juniors. 60-card Standard, Swiss rounds, top cut, prizes. Artificer draws a competitive-minded crowd — the players who come monthly are building toward something, and the rounds reflect it. The Championship Points earned here accumulate toward the World Championship invite pool, which means a good day at Artificer is a good day on the season, full stop. Artificer San Diego is at 5005 Shawline St, Suite B, San Diego. artificersd.com for registration and entry details. Registration at 10 AM, rounds at 11 AM. Come with your best 60. Come knowing the meta. The Artificer field has been doing the same preparation you have.

Itasha and Livery Expo 2026 — Orange County

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13 Gathering

65 days away

Itasha and Livery Expo 2026 — Orange County

Sep 5, 2026 OC Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair …

The Itasha and Livery Expo is one of Southern California's most distinctive automotive events, bringing together the worlds of anime fandom and car culture in a single showcase at the OC Fair and Event Center in Costa Mesa. Itasha — a Japanese term for cars decorated with anime and manga artwork — have developed a passionate following across California, and this expo is the largest dedicated gathering of these custom vehicles in the region. The show floor features dozens of itasha from across SoCal, spanning everything from vinyl-wrapped street cars adorned with characters from popular anime series to full custom builds with airbrushed artwork and matching interiors. Livery designs from gaming, motorsport, and pop culture are also showcased alongside the anime-themed builds. For anime fans who have never encountered the itasha scene, this event is an introduction to a community where automotive craftsmanship and fandom intersect in unexpected ways. For car enthusiasts who love anime, it is a pilgrimage. Family-friendly, with food vendors and merchandise on-site. September 5, 10am to 8pm at the OC Fair and Event Center.

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65 days away

Front Row Card Show Pasadena 2026

Sep 5 – Sep 6, 2026 10.0 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

Front Row Card Show Pasadena 2026 brings 770 tables of Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, sports cards, comics, and collectibles to the Pasadena Convention Center for two full days in September. The organizer started Front Row Card Shows because SoCal collectors deserved a show run by people who understand the difference between a vendor event and a community event. Professional grading services set up on the floor. Serious trades happen at the tables. The Saturday Trade Night (5-9 PM, free to enter) is built for the people who come back after dinner to finish negotiations they started in the afternoon. 770 tables is not a number you hear at most card shows. It means the show is large enough that you will find the Pokemon Scarlet/Violet sealed product you have been hunting AND the vintage sports card graded PSA 8 from 1985 — in the same room, on the same afternoon. The scale creates the serendipity. What to know before you go: GA tickets are 0 in advance, 5 at the door. Kids 10 and under are free. VIP Early Entry gets you in before the public and first access to vendor tables — worth it for anyone chasing specific inventory. Saturday Trade Night (5-9 PM) is free with GA admission. The Pasadena Convention Center has paid parking in the attached garage. Front Row Card Shows have been running since 2022. They are not the flashiest brand in the card show circuit — no celebrity appearances, no hype influencer booths. They are the show that serious collectors tell each other about, which is why it draws serious inventory.

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🌎 Nation's Best 71 days away

Rose City Comic Con 2026 — Portland, OR

Sep 11 – Sep 13, 2026 Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE M…

The Pacific Northwest version: September, Portland, three days at the Oregon Convention Center, comics and pop culture organized by people who genuinely love it. Three days of convention floor, panels, and programming across the Oregon Convention Center. The comics presence is genuine — this is a convention where you can spend hours in artist alley talking with independent creators, not just waiting in line for celebrity autographs. Celebrity guests span comics, film, and television, with signing and photo opportunities throughout the weekend. The cosplay scene is one of the strongest on the West Coast: the hall is dense with elaborate builds and the crowd treats it as a showcase. Gaming rooms, tabletop areas, and panel programming round out a schedule that can run ten hours a day for serious attendees. Rose City is built for people who care about comics as an art form — not just the IP franchises, but the creators and the medium itself. It is also genuinely family-friendly: the scale is accessible, the crowd is welcoming, and tickets are priced at $17–$105 depending on day and package. For cosplayers, the Portland fanbase means extraordinary hall costumes without the New York or San Diego Comic-Con crowds. If you have been priced or exhausted out of the bigger conventions, Rose City delivers the best of what those events promise at a fraction of the friction. Friday hours are 1 to 8 PM; Saturday 10 AM to 7 PM; Sunday 10 AM to 5 PM. The Saturday crowds are significantly denser — Sunday is the calmer entry point for first-timers. Artist Alley is the heart of the show; budget time and money for it. The Oregon Convention Center is served by Portland MAX light rail — the Convention Center stop drops you at the door, making a car unnecessary if you are staying downtown. Rose City Comic Con has become the essential West Coast convention for independent comics, occupying the space between the industry-scale San Diego Comic-Con and the grassroots spirit of smaller regional events. Portland's identity as a creative, DIY city gives the convention an energy distinct from LA or Bay Area equivalents. This is where you find what is coming in comics before it reaches mass market shelves.

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🌎 Nation's Best 71 days away

FAN EXPO Dallas 2026 — Dallas, TX

Sep 11 – Sep 13, 2026 Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Ce…

The largest pop culture convention in Texas fills the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for three days — every genre, 65,000 attendees, the full convention experience. Enter the convention floor on Saturday morning and the scope of FAN EXPO Dallas becomes clear immediately: this is a convention designed to hold the full range of fan culture under one roof without fragmenting it. The anime wing hosts voice actor signings and screening rooms; the gaming section has playable demos and tournament brackets; the horror area draws cult actors and practical effects artists; the comics floor features creators behind titles both mainstream and independent. Celebrity photo ops and autograph lines run throughout the weekend — FAN EXPO's booking operation is one of the most reliable in the industry, meaning the guests announced are the guests who show. The Cosplay Red Carpet on Saturday is a highlight: contestants from across Texas and the surrounding region bring builds that rival anything at the coastal mega-cons. The crowd energy at FAN EXPO Dallas skews genuinely enthusiastic rather than industry-transactional. FAN EXPO Dallas is for anyone who has ever wanted to see their favorite franchise represented at scale — not just as merchandise, but as community. If you are in Texas and you have been waiting for a convention that takes pop culture seriously, this is it. It is family-accessible without being dumbed down, competitive without being exclusionary, and large enough to spend a full day discovering things you did not plan for. First-timers frequently note how manageable the floor layout is compared to larger conventions despite the scale. The Friday preview session runs 4-9 PM and is notably less crowded than the weekend days — if you have a three-day pass, Friday evening is the best time to cover artist alley without competing for space. Celebrity photo ops sell out weeks before the event; book through the FAN EXPO app as soon as your guests are announced. The convention center is accessible from the Dallas Convention Center DART station, which is the practical choice on Saturday when surrounding parking fills. Bring a battery pack — you will be on your phone for the app schedule, maps, and photo documentation all day. Saturday afternoon sessions are the peak crowd window; Sunday morning is the quietest time slot. FAN EXPO Dallas earns its place on Falkor Nation's Best list because Texas has earned a proper flagship pop culture convention and this is it. The Dallas edition has grown into the defining fan event for the entire South-Central region — the convention that people in Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, and beyond mark on their calendars. For anyone who loves genre entertainment and has not yet made the trip, FAN EXPO Dallas 2026 is the year. September 11-13 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, Dallas. Tickets at fanexpohq.com/fanexpodallas.

Spikes Lounge Pokemon Night Out -- Commerce September 2026

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71 days away

Spikes Lounge Pokemon Night Out -- Commerce September 2026

Sep 11, 2026 Spikes Lounge, 5211 E Washington B…

No big stage. No stream setup. Just the Pokemon community at tables in Commerce, the way it actually lives between the major tournaments. Spikes Lounge hosts monthly Pokemon Night Out events that have become a fixture in the LA trading card game community. The format combines open play, trades, and friendly competition in an environment that feels closer to a game night among friends than a formal event. Competitive players, casual collectors, and longtime fans of the franchise converge in an intimate, community-run setting far from the major tournament circuit. Spikes has built a reputation in the greater LA area as a welcoming, knowledgeable, community-first card game hub where experienced players take time to show newer members the ropes. Whether testing a new deck, hunting for holographics in the trade binders, or just catching up with regulars -- this is where the LA Pokemon scene actually lives. Check @spikesloungecards on Instagram for confirmed dates and entry requirements each month.

Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture 2026

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14 Gathering

72 days away

Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture 2026

Sep 12 – Sep 13, 2026 LA State Historic Park, 1245 N Spr…

The Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) returns to Los Angeles on September 12–13, 2026, one of the largest celebrations of Filipino and Filipino American art, culture, and community in the United States. Now in its fourth decade, FPAC is a free, outdoor festival that draws tens of thousands of visitors from across Southern California and beyond. The festival features a main stage with continuous live performances — traditional Philippine folk dances by Bayanihan-style dance companies, contemporary Filipino American artists, Kulintang music, original theater, and film screenings. The lineup spans traditional and contemporary expression, deliberately bridging the experience of Filipino immigrants with the creative voice of Filipino Americans born here. The marketplace brings together Filipino American-owned businesses, artisan vendors, and community organizations. Food is a central element — look for pancit, lumpia, lechon, sinigang, halo-halo, and the regional dishes that vary by island province. The food section alone draws visitors who have heard about FPAC purely by word of mouth. FPAC is typically held in the LA State Historic Park near downtown Los Angeles, accessible by Metro. Specific venue confirmation available at the FPAC website closer to the event. Free admission for all events. This is a community event with community ownership — organized by and for the Filipino American community of Los Angeles, not by an outside producer.

Coming Soon

72 days away

Board Game Night — Meeples Games SD

Sep 12, 2026 Meeples Games, 3821 Ray St, San Di…

Meeples Games in North Park holds open board game night on a regular schedule, and the library is the reason people keep coming back. Thousands of titles on the shelves -- heavier strategy games, light party fillers, cooperative games, dexterity games, deck builders, tile layers, hidden role games -- with staff who have played most of them and will hand you something appropriate based on how many people you have and how much time you want to commit. You can bring your own game, or you can walk in with nothing and walk out having played something you had never heard of before tonight. Both outcomes happen regularly and both are the point. The tables are large and well-lit. The coffee runs all night. The crowd is a mix of regular groups and solo players who got folded into someone else's table by the time the evening was done. Meeples Games is at 3821 Ray St, San Diego. meeplesgamessd.com for hours and event schedule. No entry fee to play from the library. This is what a neighborhood game store does when it takes its community seriously: keeps the lights on, keeps the shelves stocked, and trusts that the right people will find it.

Pokemon TCG City Championship — San Diego Fall

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60 Gathering

73 days away

Pokemon TCG City Championship — San Diego Fall

Sep 13, 2026 $20 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Road, San Diego. September 13th. $20 to enter. The Fall City Championship arrives at the point in the season when the metagame has had time to settle — the new sets have been analyzed, the Regional results have shaped what people are running, and the room on September 13th will be full of players who have been preparing for this exact format since August. Fall Cities have a different weight than spring tournaments. The game has had time to breathe since the last major. The tier one decks are known; the question is execution and adaptation. Playing into a field that has prepared properly means every round is a read — not just of the deck across from you but of the pilot. The TCS Rockets venue runs competitive events with the infrastructure to make the day feel like the event it is: organized rounds, experienced judges, a side event area that keeps the day going after you've dropped or finished your bracket. Register at play.pokemon.com or at the venue. $20 entry. If you've been building around the fall format, this is the room to test it in. If you've been watching competitive Pokemon and want to experience the atmosphere from inside it, a City Championship at this scale is the right entry point — large enough to be real, local enough to be yours.

Coming Soon

16 Gathering

75 days away

Marvel's Wolverine

Sep 15 – Sep 18, 2026 From $70 PS5

Insomniac Games confirmed September 15, 2026 for Marvel's Wolverine — a PS5 exclusive set within the same universe as Marvel's Spider-Man. James Howlett fights through brutal Madripoor-set action with visceral claw mechanics. Announced at PlayStation State of Play. Why play: If Spider-Man 2 set the standard for superhero games, Wolverine is the darker, more violent counterpart — built by the team that knows how to make Marvel games feel real. Updated: April 7, 2026.

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19 Gathering

76 days away

Tokyo Game Show 2026

Sep 17 – Sep 21, 2026 Makuhari Messe, 2-1 Nakase, Mihama…

Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan. September 17-20, 2026. Tokyo Game Show is the annual announcement moment for the global games industry — the one event where Japanese publishers reveal what the next twelve months of gaming looks like, before Western press conferences catch up, before trailers hit YouTube, before the internet has had time to tell you what to feel about it. TGS operates at a scale that requires the convention center that hosts it — Makuhari Messe fills across four days with playable demos of unreleased titles, publisher stage shows, and the specific atmosphere of seeing a game played in front of you by someone who made it and is watching your reaction. The announcements that land at TGS tend to land before the rest of the world is paying attention. The full broadcast and stream schedule is at tgs.cesa.or.jp — the public days run September 19-20 and stream internationally. If you're following development from any major Japanese studio, this is the event where you find out what the next year holds. Watch parties and viewing events run at gaming venues across San Diego and Los Angeles during the major stage shows. Check Eventbrite and gamesync.us for local viewing events as the show dates approach. The announcements hit fastest in the room. The stream hits fastest with the right crowd around you.

Coming Soon

77 days away

D&D Adventurers League — Game Empire SD

Sep 17, 2026 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 921…

The belief behind D&D Adventurers League is that you should not need a standing group, a three-month campaign commitment, or six people with matching schedules to play Dungeons and Dragons. Organized play fixes that: you show up, you play, you leave with a complete story. Same time next week if you want it. Or not. The table runs either way. Game Empire SD hosts a weekly Adventurers League session every Thursday in Miramar. Drop-in format -- bring a character or use a provided sheet. The module is self-contained within the session, which means new players can join without missing anything from previous weeks. DMs are part of the AL infrastructure, not your friends doing you a favor. The crowd at a weekly AL session is not the home-campaign crowd. It is people who want the game without the overhead. Experienced players who moved to a new city. New players who do not know where to start. People who loved D and D once and fell out of a campaign years ago. The open table is where all of them end up. Rules questions welcome. Dice provided. All official AL character classes and races allowed. Walk in, walk out with a story. Address: 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 92121. Every Thursday evening. Check Game Empire SD on social or at gameempire.com for the current module and exact start time.

Coming Soon

78 days away

Pacific Pinball Expo 2026 — Alameda

Sep 18 – Sep 20, 2026 Alameda, CA 94501

The Pacific Pinball Expo in Alameda, California is one of the largest pinball collector and player events in the Western United States, drawing machines and enthusiasts from throughout California and beyond for a full weekend of free-play arcade and pinball games, collector seminars, restoration workshops, and the competitive play that has made Alameda's annual expo a pilgrimage event for the serious pinball community. The Pacific Pinball Museum operates year-round in Alameda as the primary public pinball collection on the West Coast, and the annual Expo amplifies that resource with additional machines brought by collectors specifically for the event. The Expo's weekend format puts hundreds of machines on free play — a format where you pay once for admission and play unlimited games on every machine in the hall. The machine selection at Pacific Pinball Expo emphasizes historical breadth: electromechanical machines from the 1950s and 60s sit alongside solid-state classics from the late 1970s through the 1990s Williams and Bally golden era, through modern machines from Stern and Spooky. Restoration seminars by experienced collectors cover electrical troubleshooting, playfield restoration, and parts sourcing — practical knowledge that the machine-owning pinball community finds difficult to find in any other format. The Expo is held at a venue in or near Alameda, approximately 45 minutes north of San Jose and 20 minutes from Oakland. Shuttle service from BART is typically organized during the event. Full weekend passes and single-day admission available.

Nerd Night at Twisted Horn — September 2026

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79 days away

Nerd Night at Twisted Horn — September 2026

Sep 19, 2026 Twisted Horn Mead & Cider, 1042 La…

September brings Nerd Night back to Twisted Horn Mead & Cider in Murrieta for the monthly gathering of board game players, tabletop role-playing enthusiasts, miniature painters, and anyone who self-identifies as a nerd in the affectionate Southern California sense of that word. September's Nerd Night carries the energy of the fall gaming season opening — new releases from Gen Con are making their way into circulation, the convention summer is over, and everyone is ready to settle into long-form gaming again. Twisted Horn's taproom provides communal tables sized for game components, a rotating mead and cider selection that moves into fall flavors in September, and the kind of kitchen that produces actual food rather than bar snacks. The staff runs the evening with the understanding that three-hour gaming sessions are not only expected but welcomed. The September Nerd Night format is drop-in — no reservation, no organized schedule, no entry requirement. Bring your games. Come ready to learn games others bring. The regulars form the core of each month's gathering and are consistently welcoming to newcomers who show up unsure what to expect. Twisted Horn Mead & Cider is at 40530 California Oaks Rd #A in Murrieta, CA. 21+ venue. Parking in the surrounding commercial complex. Confirm the specific September date on Twisted Horn's events calendar or social media.

Coming Soon

79 days away

Board Game Night — Meeples Games SD

Sep 19, 2026 Meeples Games, 3821 Ray St, San Di…

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15 Gathering

80 days away

So-Cal Cosplay Shoot — Waterfront

Sep 20, 2026 Free Embarcadero, San Diego, CA 92101

Embarcadero, San Diego. September 20th. Free. The So-Cal Cosplay Shoot at the Waterfront is the open-air version of the community photoshoot — San Diego Bay in the background, the Embarcadero giving every costume an urban backdrop with water and skyline in the same frame. The Embarcadero setting works because the visual vocabulary is different from Balboa Park. The industrial waterfront, the ferry docks, the harbor patrol boats, the downtown skyline at sunset — characters who photograph against Spanish Colonial Revival architecture at Balboa Park read completely differently at the waterfront. It's not better or worse; it's a different image. Free to come. September 20th. Follow @socosplayscene on Instagram for the exact gather point and start time. The waterfront light is best in the late afternoon — arrive early enough to get the golden hour before the event fills in. Any fandom, any build. Photographers with gear are welcome and encouraged. The shoot is organized but relaxed. Come in costume and find the right backdrop.

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