IEN State Finals

My husband, Joe, sits on the Board of Directors for Indiana Esports Network (IEN) and a couple weeks ago was their State Finals held at Ball State University.  Joe took the day off work and we went to Muncie the day before to help set up for the event.  We had to borrow my parents' mini van to fit all the stuff we were taking with us.  It was a long day.  When we were done setting up, we went out to dinner with almost all of the other board members, most of whom Joe had not met in person yet.  Then we headed to our hotel.

We got up early and after quick showers and packing up, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Ball State for the big day.  Before long, students, coaches, and families started pouring in.  There was an area for registration that flowed into the college fair.  Then across the hall from registration was 3 out of 4 of the competition rooms with the 4th room across another hallway.  Below that on the main floor was the food court that had lots of yummy options.  Then up on the third floor were classrooms with sessions running throughout the whole day.  So everything was really close together which was quite nice.

Initially I was supposed to have a room on the first floor to work from.  This was going to be a place for me to store the snacks and drinks we brought, the camera equipment I wasn't carrying with me, and the laptop so I could run the social media throughout the day when I needed breaks from taking pictures.  Unfortunately, the first floor flooded the week before, so I couldn't be down there.  Instead, I sat in the corner of the registration room on top of the big windowsill to take breaks and post online.  It was a long day and over 600 people came (initially IEN had planned for 500).  It was quite packed at times with people standing or sitting on the floor as there wasn't near enough chairs for everyone.  But overall, I think it went well and everyone seemed to have a great time.  I really enjoyed seeing so many parents, kids, and grandparents there to support their students who were competing.