Best Events & Community in Washington — 13 verified listings

• PAX West — Seattle. Labor Day weekend gaming festival at the Seattle Convention Center. PAX West 2026 takes place September 4-7 with four days of expo halls, tournaments, freeplay rooms, and developer panels showcasing t
• Halo Championship Series Invitational — Seattle. Premier Halo esports event at the Seattle Convention Center December 12-13, 2026 as part of Halo Fest. Features a $150K HCS Invitational with top invited teams plus $50K open tournaments. Held in Seat
• Sakura-Con — Seattle. Pacific Northwest's oldest and largest anime convention at the Seattle Convention Center April 3-5, 2026. Features gaming halls, cosplay, dances, AMVs, and over 100,000 sq ft of exhibits. Held in Seat
• Emerald City Comic Con — Seattle. Pacific Northwest's largest comic and pop culture convention at the Seattle Convention Center each spring. The 2026 edition March 5-8 drew 90,000+ fans across 200+ panels, gaming, and 500 artist alley
• Bumbershoot Gaming Stage — Seattle. Seattle's annual arts festival at Seattle Center each Labor Day weekend featuring a gaming stage with esports demos, indie showcases, and music-and-gaming crossover programming. Held in Seattle, Washi
• Take This — Seattle. Take This is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) founded in 2013 to decrease stigma and increase mental health support in the game enthusiast community and the industry. It is best known for running AFK Rooms a
• Game to Grow — Seattle. Game to Grow is a Seattle nonprofit that pioneered tabletop RPG-based social skills groups for neurodivergent teens, and developed Critical Core, a therapeutic D&D starter set used by thousands of the
• Child's Play Charity — Seattle. Child's Play was founded in 2003 by Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins to push back against negative perceptions of gamers by getting toys and games into children's hospitals. The Seattle-
• Rise Above the Disorder — Seattle. Rise Above the Disorder is a nonprofit that started as a World of Warcraft guild and grew into the world's largest community-funded mental health effort. It has helped more than 40,000 people in 135 c
• DigiPen Institute of Technology — Redmond. DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, Washington was the first U.S. school to offer a bachelor's in video game development. Programs span game design, computer science, fine arts, and engineerin
• Speedrun.com — Seattle. Speedrun.com is the central scoreboard and community hub for the global speedrunning scene, hosting leaderboards, rule discussions, and Discord links for thousands of games. The U.S.-based site is the
• Take This AFK Rooms — Seattle. AFK Rooms are Take This's signature in-person service at PAX, Anime Expo, and other major conventions, providing quiet spaces staffed by clinicians and trained volunteers. Attendees can decompress, ta
• Critical Care RPG (RPG.LLC) — Seattle. RPG.LLC, run by Adam Davis and Adam Johns (also founders of Game to Grow), is a Seattle-based professional services practice offering applied tabletop role-playing game therapy, training, and therapeu

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