game on!

Wildly popular esports tournament powers up at NRG Stadium with a historic twist

Watch elite gamers face off in League of Legends.

Heads up, gamers. The most popular esport is coming to the Bayou City. The League Championship Series (LCS), will host its marquee championship event at NRG Stadium (8825 Kirby Dr.) on April 23 and 24, the organization announced.

Not only is this the first time the tournament will be held in Texas, it’s also the first time the prestigious League of Legends competition — the LCS Spring Finals — will be hosted in an NFL stadium. For the uninitiated, League of Legends is a wildly popular, team-based multiplayer strategy game.

Houston fans are invited to attend both the pregame Fan Fest celebration and the LCS Finals, a first since the pandemic. The Fan Fest starts at 10 am Saturday, April 23, and the first match starts at 2:30 pm.

As the league’s first seasonal championship event of the year, the competition will see North America’s top three teams vie for an LCS trophy, a banner in the LCS Studio rafters, and an invite to the international Mid-Season Invitational in Busan, South Korea next month, per a release.

Developed and run by influential and prolific developer and publisher Riot Games, this championship will be held in North America across four cities — Mexico City, New York City, Toronto and San Francisco, a first since 2016, a release notes.

As the most-watched esport in the world with 12 international leagues, the 10-year-old LCS is actually the third-most popular major professional sports league among 18- to 34-year-olds in the U.S., per industry insiders.

For some perspective, more than 465 million people watched esports in 2021. Esports generated more than $1 billion in revenue, according to a Newzoo report.

For more information on the Fan Fest and tournament, visit the official site.

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Record Store Day 2026

Record Store Day brings special releases to 13 Houston-area stores

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Record Store Day draws people to indie stores for a chance to find hundreds of early access or limited edition releases.

Houston music-lovers with a soft spot for physical media have a special day coming up. This Saturday, April 18, is Record Store Day (RSD). Independent record stores around town and the rest of the country have signed a pledge to sell special releases at a fair price "in the spirit of Record Store Day."

There are many special releases each year; in 2026, there are about 350. Because these are not regular album drops, many of them are live records, B sides, radio sessions, deluxe anniversary editions, and other compilations. There are three types of RSD releases: exclusives for physical sales in indie stores only; RSD "first" for prioritizing indie stores before potentially opening up to other retailers, and small run or regional titles, made for very limited release.

What you can buy will depend on what each record store has decided to stock. Even though this could be a fun excuse to visit new and less familiar record stores, shoppers who want something specific should prioritize stores they know align with their taste. Many of the stores hold special events related to the day, and shoppers frequently line up early to get first choice.

The participating Houston stores are:

Cactus Music
Evolution Records, Tapes and More (Baytown)
Music Town (Klein)
Sig's Lagoon
Sound Exchange
Sound Revolution (Spring)
Sound Revolution II
Soundwaves
Space City Audio (Spring)
Sweet Spot Audio and Records (Webster)
Vinyl Edge
Volume Music (The Woodlands)
ZT Records (The Woodlands Mall)

For more inspiration going into Record Store Day, check out the Record Store Day Podcast, merch, and charts showing what's selling best at indie record stores each week.

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