Extra Life United Recap

I laugh at past me thinking that I could manage to write a daily recap of the whirlwind that was Extra Life United. I still haven’t fully adjusted going back to real life post-ELU and the size of my work inbox was a terrifying sight.

Still, I wanted to take my lunch break to get some thoughts on the digital page before work and dad life force the thoughts in my head to go completely stale.

Well, to be fair, the feelings and memories made likely won’t fade. This ELU was so different from last year’s affair in the best of ways. So many Miracle Champions were there this time around and were able to freely interact with everyone. They are the reason we do this whole thing after all. Seeing those kids receiving a chance to enjoy life, dance, play games, and chat with us is the best possible fuel to drive every Extra Lifer for the remainder of the year.

What may fade is the realization of the interesting spot that Extra Life is in right now. This effort started completely grassroots and is now fully integrated within the Children’s Miracle Network not just through official recognition, but in growing staff from member hospitals around the nation.

Not only that, CMN staff that weren’t associated in title with Extra Life interacted with us on a level that I didn’t see last year. They came into the ELU room when they had availability. They asked us questions. They even took effort to learn and play the games we do, including after hours at the bar!

The proof is in the pudding as well. Extra Life has well surpassed the $100 million mark and to hit the next $100 million, and continue the growing pace, grassroots finds itself in a strange an unfamiliar larger corporate structure, filled with more rigidity, stepping on toes (incidental or not), and pushing for more corporate sponsor involvement in fundraising efforts.

I’ve dealt with similar situations in my professional life. In fact, I’ve lived it for the past couple of years on a larger scale than I ever have in my career. It’s awkward and messy, but, at the same time, needed for growth.

At the end of the day, it is up to everyone involved to foster those good ‘ol feelings and continue to shape their community as they see fit.

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For any Extra Lifer reading this, I’m know I’m preaching to the choir. I had zero feel that any major community changes would ever happen. What I did notice, and had more than a few conversations about, is better described as surprise. Even in talking with Victoria Enmon’s parents (aka, the founding family of Extra Life), I could sense a little bit of frustration and concern that Extra Life could potentially lose some roots they were familiar with and want to make sure the original connections and feeling remains at the heart of the program.

I have no doubt the spirit of that little girl from Orange, Texas will forever remain. In fact, the entire event closed with every Extra Lifer coating their tongue blue via sucker as a tribute to Victoria for a group picture. We all found out that week that, during one of the first radiothons that eventually became Extra Life, she was asked on the radio what made her tongue blue, to which she replied, “a blue sucker.”

There were other older, and unofficial, traditions like the onesie movie night that found an official spot on the ELU schedule. Other traditional events, like our tournaments, saw a massive change into a “Swiss Style” competition. There were still rankings and winners, but gamers were able to keep going for the duration of the whole event even with multiple losses, a massive improvement to the fun factor!

You can tell that the staff, while focused on growing the program and helping us all be better fundraisers, still found it incredibly important to keep the original spirit not just alive, but fostering it into whatever this new era eventually looks like.

As I said in the subtitle, it’s all about community. Even if everyone has a different opinion on how to best express and foster that community on a large-scale event like Extra Life United, I don’t ever see the heart of this thing changing.

How do I know this? Well, because the entirety of the event drove home how even I lost the plot for a moment, focusing more on stream growth and views rather than the community I’ve grown. While I thought changes like streaming to YouTube would help, it…really hasn’t? The only increases have been from the amount of headaches experienced, all while losing emotes (which holy awesome feedback from EVERYONE at ELU on those!).

To better foster my community, as well as the Extra Life community at large, I’m heading back to Twitch on a weekly basis. There’s simply no easier place to share with, and discover other, Extra Lifers than there. Plus, being able to have those moments in which I have some viewers to share via raids? That doesn’t happen on YouTube (and vise versa!).

Also, I’m letting go (for real this time, hold me to it) of that view counter. I love interacting with people on stream, but I recognize my streaming times aren’t great for that. I’ve noticed that if people have the time, and my going live intersects with that, they join in. That’s all I can ask for.

Plus, my donations have never really been tied to the amount of live viewers anyways. Many donors haven’t even watched a single stream and I’m more than fine with that!

What I will try to adjust/do better on is getting VoDs edited. I’m noticing that a growing number of y’all actually watch the streams at a later time, and I’d love to get those longer streams edited down to better consumable highlights. I have a lot of work to do to get better at that, but it’s a worthy goal that I want to chase!

Also, I’m probably going to change my weekly streaming night to Thursday, but that’s something I won’t make a decision on today. So keep an eye out here for future stream scheduling news!

And as always, thank you so much for you support. At ELU, I went over the $70,000 mark. $75,000 all-time raised is well in sight and I can’t wait for y’all to help me get there!

Thanks again for being a hero!

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