Relive Gaming & Esports Events

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

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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.

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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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GameSync Monthly Open Tournament — May 2026

Every last Saturday · Next Oct 31 $10 entry GameSync San Diego, 2860 Main St, …

The best part of a game store tournament night is the wandering. You came for your own bracket, and then somebody two setups over starts a run in a game you have never touched, and forty minutes later you are standing behind them with everyone else. The Monthly Open at GameSync is built for exactly that: not one title, but whatever the community is actually playing that month. Fighting game players, the card game crowd, the platform fighter bracket — all of it in one building on one evening, which is why the room sounds the way it does. It is the game night that requires no planning. Show up, see what is running, get in. San Diego's competitive scene is real and mostly invisible from outside; this is one of the nights it is all in one place, ten dollars to enter, full title list at gamesync.us. Bring the friend who says they are not good enough yet. Nobody was.

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Triton Gaming Expo 2026

May 30, 2026 Price Center, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr…

The Triton Gaming Expo at UCSD's Price Center exists because students wanted it to exist. That is the entire origin story — no corporate sponsor, no outside promoter, no venue deal negotiated through a regional events company. A gaming expo organized by people who go to school here, for an audience that actually plays. That is what makes it feel different from the moment you walk in. May 30, 2026 at Price Center, UCSD, La Jolla. Tabletop gaming rooms running open play from the time doors open. Video game setups from current-gen to deep retro. Tournaments with real brackets across multiple titles. The specific atmosphere that exists when a room is organized by people who genuinely care about what they are running — no sponsorship banners every twelve feet, no activation booths, just games and an audience that came to play. Price Center's open layout puts you steps from the coast in La Jolla in late May, which is as good as San Diego gets. If you are in the county and anywhere near the hobby, this is worth your Saturday. One of the best game rooms in San Diego, built for one day. Organized by Triton Gaming at UCSD.

Magic Meetup — Commander Night at Video Vortex DTLA

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Magic Meetup — Commander Night at Video Vortex DTLA

May 28, 2026 Video Vortex DTLA, Los Angeles, CA

Commander Night at Video Vortex DTLA is a recurring Magic: The Gathering Commander format meetup held at one of downtown Los Angeles's most unique venues — a retro video game bar packed wall-to-wall with playable arcade machines, vintage consoles, and gaming nostalgia. The combination of tabletop card gaming and a retro gaming environment makes this one of the more distinctive Commander nights in the city. Commander is Magic's most popular casual format, played with 100-card singleton decks and typically in four-player pods. The Video Vortex meetup is open to all Commander players regardless of experience level or deck power level. The focus is on fun, creativity, and the kind of game state that produces stories you retell for years. The venue's food and drink service runs throughout the evening — this is a proper bar and restaurant, not just a card shop backroom. Located in downtown LA, the venue is accessible by Metro and has street parking nearby. The May 28 session runs from 7pm. Check the Eventbrite listing for upcoming recurring dates throughout 2026.

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FanimeCon 2026

May 22 – May 25, 2026 Paid - $75-$120 San Jose Convention Center, 150 W …

No corporate booths dominating the floor. The panels, the screenings, the programming — all of it organized by volunteers who have been running this for decades, which gives it an atmosphere that is genuinely hard to replicate. It feels less like a trade show than the largest anime club meetup in California. It has run every Memorial Day weekend since 1994, drawing 25,000 to 30,000 people across four days. Programming runs 24 hours. The Saturday cosplay masquerade is a full theatrical production. The gaming hall is one of the best at any convention — tournaments, free-play consoles, retro arcades running through the night. In the dealer room and artist alley, indie creators outnumber corporate licensors. San Jose Convention Center, 150 W San Carlos St. Four-day badges sell out; single-day passes are sometimes available at the door. If you have done Anime Expo but never this, the culture is meaningfully different — and the difference is the point.

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Anime Conji 2026 — San Diego

May 22 – May 24, 2026 Handlery Hotel, 950 Hotel Cir N, S…

Anime Conji is San Diego's longest-running fan-organized anime convention, held annually at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley for a three-day weekend of anime, manga, gaming, cosplay, and the specific community that has kept this event running for over a decade as an independent, fan-operated alternative to the larger commercial conventions. The convention's fan-run character gives Anime Conji a distinct personality: the programming decisions are made by people who attend because they genuinely love the material, the guest selection reflects real community enthusiasm rather than marketing considerations, and the convention floor has the energy of a community gathering rather than a marketplace. Anime Conji features programming across multiple rooms covering series-specific panels, AMV (anime music video) competitions, voice actor guest Q&As and signings, a dealers room with merchandise from licensed and independent vendors, an artist alley with original work from regional creators, and a cosplay competition with detailed craftsmanship judging. The Handlery Hotel is at 950 Hotel Cir N in Mission Valley, accessible from the I-8 at Hotel Circle. The Mission Valley Trolley stop connects to downtown San Diego. Convention badge holders receive discounted hotel rates at the Handlery when booking through the Anime Conji room block. Weekend and single-day badges available through the Anime Conji website.

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Card Party 4 San Diego

May 22 – May 24, 2026 Gaylord Pacific Resort & Conventio…

Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center, 1000 H St, Chula Vista. May 22nd, 2026. Card Party 4 is the trading card game pop-up market that treats the hobby the way it deserves — a real venue, a serious vendor selection, and the specific energy of a room full of people who know exactly what they're looking at. Card Party is not a casual flea market. The vendors who table here specialize — sealed product, singles, graded cards, vintage sets, and the newer releases that have been moving in the secondary market. Walking the floor is the experience of seeing the full spectrum of what collecting looks like at every level, from the person pulling a specific card for a deck they've been building to the collector sitting on long boxes of raw vintage stock. The Gaylord Pacific Resort gives the event the setting to match its ambitions — a convention-scale resort venue in Chula Vista, accessible from San Diego and across the South Bay. card.party for the full vendor list and ticket details. If you collect cards of any kind — Pokemon, Magic, sports, vintage — this is the show that covers the entire hobby under one roof. Come with a want list. Leave with more than you planned.

Pokemon TCG City Championship — San Diego

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Pokemon TCG City Championship — San Diego

May 17, 2026 $20 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

TCS Rockets, 7626 Miramar Rd, San Diego. May 17th, 2026. $20 to enter. The City Championship is where the format gets tested by players who have been preparing since the last Regional — and where your deck either proves it was built correctly or you find out which matchup you forgot to account for. The local tournament circuit is where competitive Pokemon is actually played. Regionals get the coverage; Cities are where the work happens. The players at the top tables have logged the hours, tuned the lists, and know the format well enough to read the matchup before the first coin flip. That level of play is worth watching even if you're not competing — the gap between a list built for theory and a list built for the actual meta becomes visible in about four rounds. $20 entry. May 17th at TCS Rockets, a venue that runs Pokemon events with real tournament infrastructure. Side events run throughout the day. If you've been sitting on a deck you want to test at this level, this is the right room — competitive but accessible, with judges who know the rules and a bracket you can finish in a day. Registration at play.pokemon.com or at the venue.

The Real Escape Game — SD: Gaming Edition

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The Real Escape Game — SD: Gaming Edition

May 9, 2026 From $38 The Real Escape Game, 550 W B St, …

A gaming-themed escape room event in San Diego — puzzles designed around video game logic, pop culture references layered into every room, and the satisfaction of solving something that's actually hard. Groups of 2-6. Book your time slot in advance.

Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

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Pokemon TCG League Challenge — TCS Rockets

May 2, 2026 $5 entry 7626 Miramar Rd Suite 3900, San Di…

Monthly Pokemon TCG League Challenge — the competitive stepping stone before Regional Championships. Earn Championship Points toward the World Championship invite. Masters, Seniors, and Juniors divisions. Bring your best 60-card deck and your game face. Registration opens at 10 AM, rounds begin at 11 AM.

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