I've paid to have my badge shipped to me in advance and I will do the same with my event tickets. So I don't expect to need to stand in the Will Call line. What time should I plan to arrive to run a 9am even? Is there a line to get into Gen Con on Thursday morning? What time do the doors open?

Also, is it true that this year Gen con is gong 100% eticket? I worry about my would be players stuck in that Will Call line early event. 

Whoever told you that Gen Con was going 100% e-ticket this year was misinformed.  See: https://www.gencon.com/forums/41-events-2019/topics/14409-eticket-procedure?page=1#54336

The doors are open 24 hours a day starting on Wednesday about noon through Sunday evening.  If you are the GM of an event that starts at 9AM Thursday, as long as you arrive at your table in enough time to be setup and ready to run at the start time, you should be good.  I know that once the Con gets going and people are moving between back-to-back events, a grace period of 5-10 minutes on either side of the event is always appreciated.

Good luck!  Thanks for GM'ing!!
 

There's no line to get into the ICC, whose doors should be open 24/7. Will Call will have been running all night.
But I'd avoid the entrance near the vendor hall where there will be a crowd waiting for that to open. 

So you mainly need to budget time for parking and for setting up your event.

I don't think they're planning to go 100% e-ticket. I guess you'll find out based on whether they tell you to come pick up a scanner.

Just FYI, for a Thursday morning event, attendance might be iffy. People like to rush in to the exhibit hall when the doors open at 10.

I'll also say add: its the player's responsibility to show up at the event on time.  The Will Call line is open at Noon on Wednesday.  If they have a 9AM game on Thursday and they are waiting until Thursday to pick up their badges, they should get there very early to ensure there are no issues.  If they are walking into Will Call at 8AM on Thursday, welllll...you might be short a few.  :)

I usually show up to events (the actual event location, not the ICC) about 30 mins prior.  Get set up, greet players, etc.

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I wasn’t thinking no-shows, just people not attending. There are probably enough people who don’t want the opening crush that will do events at that time.

I never go into exhibiters hall on thursday morning its just too crowded. I like to start off the convention with gaming.

I feel a lot better! I'll keep my Event were it is on Thursday morning. Thank you all for you feedback. Hope to see you at Gencon. 

Thursday morning is usually a good time for me to run games. No shows are rare. This is usually the first game of the convention for many and they want to get started right. Saturday, early morning, on the other hand...

I’ll second the motion that there are *lots* of us that don’t want to bother with the crush of humanity trying to get into the hall as soon as it opens.  Never have found that experience appealing.  

I specifically look for 8AM and 9AM games on Thursday so I can avoid that area - my experience is the same as “dark riders” above: few, if any, no-shows - seems like people choose to participate in games during that time slot because they want to get going on the gaming.  :)

Also depending on what you are running (an RPG for instance), your event may be placed in a nearby hotel. So you might not even see the ICC that morning.

Since it is a 9:00 AM game on Thursday, no one should be using your space just before you, so it depends on how long it takes to set up your game. I try and get to my table about 30 minutes before my start time and if the table is empty, I begin setting up. I also use that as restroom time and such.

You did not ask, but for the Paizo PFS and SFS games, you should get there 15 minutes early at a minimum and maybe even earlier if you want to fill a table with three to six of your friends. If you show up at the event time, chances are the tables will be full or you may not be able to play together if you have a group of friends.

As mentioned, the convention center is open 24/7 once the Con starts...

This is, of course, speculation, but I'm inclined to think that the kind of people who will sign up for a Thursday morning game likely (a) already will have their badge and (b) don't want any part of the mad rush in the dealer hall and have purposefully booked on top of it.

I ran an RPG on Thursday morning for the last couple of years, and had 100% attendance of those who signed up. It's anecdotal, so YMMV, but I think worth considering.

Added note:  GENCON Policy is to set up and run the game in the time you have requested.  I ran into this last year when he table I was scheduled for did not finish until the exact time my game was supposed to start so had very minimal set up time.  Early Thursday games generally do not run into this issue, just making you aware of the GENCON point of view for the game times you select at game event submission.