Relive Gaming & Esports Events

156 gaming & esports events the community showed up for — relive the night, then catch the next one.

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Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire

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Magic: The Gathering — Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire

Jun 6 – Jun 13, 2026 Game Empire, 5037 Shawline St, San…

Game Empire San Diego, 5037 Shawline St. June 6th. The Magic: The Gathering Final Fantasy Prerelease at Game Empire — the set that the overlap between Magic players and JRPG fans has been waiting for, on the day it's first legal, with the sealed format that makes every player's experience equally unpredictable. The Final Fantasy set is the kind of Magic release where the IP does extra work. The card names, the mechanics built around specific game moments, the art that references thirty years of the franchise — these land differently for players who grew up with the games. The Prerelease sealed format means you're building your deck from what you open, which means the sorceries and creatures and enchantments you pull aren't guaranteed. You build with what you get and play what you built. magic.wizards.com for the full Final Fantasy set spoiler and mechanic previews. June 6th at Game Empire San Diego. The prerelease pod runs through the day — show up early for your allocation. The Final Fantasy set is one of those release events where the whole store is excited before the first pack opens. Be in the room when the packs do.

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D&D Adventurers League — Game Empire SD

Jun 11, 2026 Free / $5 suggested 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 921…

Dungeons and Dragons Adventurers League at Game Empire San Diego is organized play for the person who wants to run a character through a real campaign without needing to already know a Dungeon Master or a regular group. You walk in, pick up a pre-generated character sheet or bring your own AL-legal character, and join a table already in progress or at the start of a new adventure. DMs are provided. Dice are available. The only prerequisite is showing up. Adventurers League removes every barrier to tabletop RPG play that isn't already at the table. No group required. No campaign setup required. No years of lore to catch up on. The adventures are designed to run in a single session with a beginning and an end, which means you're never showing up to episode forty of something you missed the start of. You play a complete story. You come back next week if you want to keep going. Game Empire San Diego is at 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego. gameempire.com for the weekly schedule and table availability. Character creation guidelines at dnd.wizards.com/adventurers-league. New players are not just tolerated here — this format was designed for them.

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Crystal Tower — Bards & Cards

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MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Crystal Tower — Bards & Cards

Jun 10, 2026 $30 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

If weekends do not work, Bards and Cards runs a weeknight Final Fantasy prerelease for everyone who could not make the Saturday events. The Crystal Tower is an intimate bracket — just eight players — which means the ratio of conversation to match-play is genuinely high. Sealed format: six packs, build your deck, play three rounds. Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy crossover is the headline release of 2026, featuring cards built around VII through XVI with full art treatments and flavor text pulled directly from the source games. For the TCG and Final Fantasy overlap community in San Diego, this set represents a years-long wait finally arriving. The weeknight format tends to draw working adults who take the game seriously but do not want Saturday tournament energy. Small room, people who know the source material, cards you cannot get at retail for a few more weeks. Downtown San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter. Check-in at 5:30 PM, sealed begins at 6.

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Summer Game Fest 2026

Jun 5 – Jun 8, 2026 Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd…

Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, CA. June 5th, 2026. Summer Game Fest takes the building where the Oscars happen and fills it with the games industry's mid-year announcement moment. Every major publisher and many independent studios use this event to release trailers, gameplay reveals, and release date announcements to a room that is simultaneously the most attentive gaming audience in the world. SGF is where the E3-shaped hole in the gaming calendar now lives. The show streams globally, but the audience in the Dolby Theatre experiences the announcements before the internet processes them — the reactions happen in real time, with the people around you, before the takes arrive. A trailer reveal in that room is the announcement, not the broadcast of it. If you're in the industry, this is the room where the year's games landscape becomes visible. If you follow gaming closely, attending in person is the experience that the stream approximates but doesn't replicate. summergamefest.com for registration options and the associated public events that run throughout the June 5th-6th window in Hollywood. The conversation that happens in the hours after the show is part of it.

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SoCal Gaming Expo 2026

Jun 6 – Jun 7, 2026 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

The cartridge is in a bin. The person selling it doesn't know what you paid for it, and doesn't care — they're looking for something too. That moment of physical contact with hardware from your childhood, at a table run by someone who shares the same obsession, is what the SoCal Gaming Expo is built on. Pasadena Convention Center, June 6-7, 2026: free-play arcade, 200-plus vendor tables, competitive gaming, and the specific joy of a room where everything is for sale and everyone is looking. Retro gaming at its core, which undersells it — this is the show for people who never stopped. The free-play arcade runs throughout both days: you don't have to buy anything to justify the ticket. But the vendor floor is the reason most people come back. NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Game Boy, arcade cabinets — the full range. Free-play stations running throughout. Competitive tournaments on both days. General admission.

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SoCal Retro Gaming Expo 2026

Jun 6 – Jun 7, 2026 Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E …

The console that defined your childhood is in a bin here. The person selling it has been looking for yours. SoCal Retro Gaming Expo brings two days of competitive play, free-play stations, and a vendor floor to the Pasadena Convention Center — the annual show for people who still think the best game of their life was on hardware that no longer ships. NES, Sega Genesis, SNES, N64, Dreamcast — the full range, from the people who kept theirs. The free-play arcade runs throughout both days. The vendor floor is where the serious trading happens — bring a want list and bring cash. Competitive tournaments run across multiple platforms. Speedrunning exhibitions and high-score challenges for the community that measures progress in frames. The retro gaming show that doesn't apologize for the nostalgia. Pasadena Convention Center. The show is family-friendly on both days. The free-play arcade is the best reason to bring someone who doesn't collect yet.

MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Moogle Madness — Bards & Cards

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MTG Final Fantasy Prerelease: Moogle Madness — Bards & Cards

Jun 6, 2026 $30 936 5th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101

The evening edition of Bards and Cards Final Fantasy Prerelease runs a different temperature. When the afternoon crowd clears out, Moogle Madness opens — same six-booster sealed format, same pack-per-win prizing, but with Gaslamp Quarter Saturday night energy behind it. Limited to 16 players. Magic: The Gathering's Final Fantasy crossover is the most ambitious IP collaboration the game has ever produced, pulling characters and summons from VII through XVI into a fully playable set. The design team spent years making card mechanics match the source material — this reads as authentic rather than cosmetic. If you missed the afternoon session or prefer playing at night, this is your shot before the set hits stores anywhere else. Cards in hand on Saturday evening before they are available in retail. Gaslamp Quarter, Downtown San Diego. Doors open at 5:30 PM, packs crack at 6. Register ahead — 16 spots total. Sealed format means no existing collection required — all six booster packs are opened at the table on the night.

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AniFest 2026

Jun 6, 2026 Torrance Cultural Arts Center, 333…

AniFest is the convention that remembers what conventions were supposed to feel like. One day at the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, and the whole floor hums with the particular energy of people who found each other through the same shows, the same characters, the same late-night rabbit holes. Over a hundred vendors line the hall — artist prints, plushies, handmade cosplay accessories, imports you cannot find anywhere near here. Twenty-plus celebrity guests rotate through the signing area, close enough to actually talk to. The V-Stage runs an idol performance set. Cosplay showcases. LAN Hero gaming tournaments if you want to compete. A maid cafe if you want to sit down and feel like you are in an episode. Small enough that you do not lose your friends in a crowd of sixty thousand. Large enough to fill the day twice over if you are the kind of person who stops at every table. Twenty dollars at the door. Children under 12 free with a paid adult. This is the convention where people make their first cosplay because the room is safe enough to try. Where the vendor who sells hand-painted Jujutsu Kaisen prints remembers you from last year. Where the community is not performing fandom — it just is fandom, in the same room, for one afternoon in Torrance.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

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Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

Jun 6, 2026 $5 entry 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Rd, San Diego. June 6th. $5. The Pokemon TCG League Challenge at TCS Rockets in June — the early-summer competitive check-in for the San Diego scene, where the spring season's lessons get tested in a structured bracket against the players who have been working on the same problems. June is the first honest test after the spring Regional cycle. The lists have been refined since last month. The matchup theory has been updated. The players showing up for the June League Challenge know what they're running and why — which makes the bracket more informative than a casual session and more accessible than a Regional. The results reveal what the practice produced. $5 entry. June 6th at TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Rd. tcsrockets.com for registration and format details. The San Diego competitive Pokemon community uses League Challenges the way they're designed: as the consistent, measurable practice that builds the players who perform at Regionals. Come with your current list. See where June puts you.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD

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Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Game Empire SD

Jun 6, 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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Pokemon TCG League Challenge — Artificer San Diego

Jun 6, 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.

Pokemon TCG Friday Night Draft — TCS Rockets

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Pokemon TCG Friday Night Draft — TCS Rockets

Jun 4, 2026 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

Pokemon TCG draft night at TCS Rockets is the Friday format that resets the playing field. You don't bring your tournament deck. You don't need one. The draft format builds your pool from packs opened at the table — everyone gets the same number of packs, you draft the cards in real time, you build a 40-card deck from what you picked, and you play. Your constructed collection doesn't matter. Your ability to read signals and build under pressure does. TCS Rockets runs these every Friday, which means the table is a mix: the longtime competitive players who use draft to stay sharp, the newer players who find the format more accessible than Standard, and the people who just like cracking packs with other people who know what they're looking at. The energy is competitive but not grim. The Friday crowd is the friendliest version of this game. TCS Rockets is at 7626 Miramar Rd, Suite 3900, San Diego. tcsrockets.com for entry fee and current set details. Prizes for top finishers. Show up ready to draft.

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D&D Adventurers League — Game Empire SD

Jun 4, 2026 Free / $5 suggested 7052 Miramar Rd, San Diego, CA 921…

D&D Adventurers League — Weekly Sessions at Temecula

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D&D Adventurers League — Weekly Sessions at Temecula

Jun 3, 2026 GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson …

GameStar Hobbies, 27380 Jefferson Ave, Temecula. June 4th and every week. The D&D Adventurers League at GameStar — the ongoing organized play program that opens a seat at the table to anyone who walks through the door, whether you've been playing for twenty years or have never rolled a d20 in your life. Adventurers League is the format that removes the biggest barrier to tabletop RPG: finding a group. You don't need to know anyone. You don't need to have a campaign. You bring a character — or build one at the table — and join the session already in progress. The stories accumulate across weeks, the characters grow, and the table at GameStar in Temecula becomes the place you spend Wednesday evenings when you'd rather be in a dungeon. dnd.wizards.com/adventurers-league for character creation and campaign details. June 4th at GameStar Hobbies, and every week after. The Temecula tabletop community is real and welcoming — the kind of table where a first-time player and a veteran share the same session and both find something worth coming back for. Show up. The dungeon is already in there waiting.

Magic: The Gathering Weekly at Spikes Lounge — Commerce

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Magic: The Gathering Weekly at Spikes Lounge — Commerce

Jun 1, 2026 Spikes Lounge, 5211 East Washingto…

Spikes Lounge in Commerce hosts weekly Magic: The Gathering gatherings every Monday, running from 6pm to 11pm. The format rotates based on the group: Draft, Sealed, or Commander — decided each week by the players who show up, which keeps the experience fresh and community-driven. Current sets in rotation include Final Fantasy, Lorwyn, and TMNT. This is a beginner-friendly environment. If you have never played Draft or Sealed before, experienced players at Spikes are known for walking newcomers through the format. Commander pods are open to players of all experience levels. Entry fees run from $10 to $21 depending on the format selected that night. Free parking in the lot. Spikes Lounge has become a reliable anchor for SoCal's tabletop community, offering consistent weekly events in a dedicated gaming space. For Magic players in the Commerce, Montebello, and East LA area, this is the closest serious weekly event. Recurring every Monday — the Eventbrite listing updates with the weekly format as it is announced.

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Anime Riverside 2026

May 30 – May 31, 2026 Riverside Convention Center, 3637 …

The Riverside Convention Center hands itself over to anime for the weekend of May 30-31, 2026. Two days, 250-plus vendors and artists, and dozens of guest voice actors including Sean Schemmel, Johnny Yong Bosch, Brianna Knickerbocker, and Kaiji Tang among the confirmed lineup. Professional Anime Wrestling -- which is exactly what it sounds like -- runs alongside a cosplay contest, karaoke lounge, and a free arcade room open all weekend. Now in its fifth year, Anime Riverside has grown from a local idea into one of the most accessible anime conventions in the Inland Empire -- close enough for a day trip from San Diego, Orange County, or Los Angeles without the scale and cost of Anime Expo. The Riverside Convention Center is at 3637 5th Street, Riverside, CA 92501, near downtown Riverside and accessible via the Metrolink 91/Perris Valley Line (Riverside Downtown Station is a short walk away). Parking is available on-site and in surrounding garages. Single-day and weekend badges are available at animeriverside.com. Cosplay is welcome and celebrated throughout both days.

West Coast Card Show — TCG Edition Ontario 2026

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West Coast Card Show — TCG Edition Ontario 2026

May 28 – May 31, 2026 Ontario Convention Center, 2000 E …

Pokémon, One Piece TCG, Magic: The Gathering, and sports cards all in the same building for four days. The West Coast Card Show TCG Edition at the Ontario Convention Center brings live grading services, influencer appearances, competitive tournaments, and a vendor hall drawing sellers from across the West Coast. The Ontario edition is distinct from the larger Anaheim show — it has a sharper TCG identity and a more competition-focused energy. If you are hunting specific singles, looking to grade a collection, or want to compete in open-bracket formats across multiple card games in a single weekend, this is the show that makes the trip worthwhile. The Ontario Convention Center is easy to reach from across the 909, LA, and the South Bay. Free-to-attend areas are available throughout the show floor. Competitive registration varies by game and bracket. Vendor table applications and spectator information available at westcoastcardshow.com.

Pokemon TCG Regional Championship — San Diego

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Pokemon TCG Regional Championship — San Diego

May 30 – May 31, 2026 San Diego Convention Center, 111 W…

San Diego Convention Center, May 30th. The Pokémon TCG Regional Championship — Masters division at the top of the bracket, open age divisions running throughout, and a room that understands what competitive Pokémon actually looks like up close. Regionals draws players from across the Southwest who have been testing this format since the last set dropped. The level of play at the top tables is worth watching even if you're not registered — decks built around specific counters, plays made in the final minutes of a round that determine travel points and World Championship invites. The side event area runs all day for players who dropped from the main or just want reps in the room. Judges in official regalia move through the aisles with practiced calm. There's a specific atmosphere to a TCG Regional: binders and sleeves and the particular tension of a timed round winding down at a critical board state. If you play, register at rk9.gg. If you don't play and want to understand why this game still fills convention halls, come watch the top tables during Day 2. The Pokémon Regional is the proof.

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