8:09 a.m. – Alexander Hayne rolls over in bed and clumsily mashes the snooze button. Five more minutes to recover before tackling the day. It had been a late night of board gaming, and everyone in Hayne's group of friends knows you can't leave an epic board game unfinished.
The truth is nights like this have been hard to come by for Hayne, who has spent most of the past decade traveling the globe for Magic tournaments. He's seen the world and accomplished almost every conceivable milestone in the game, from taking the 2011–12 Rookie of the Year race by winning Pro Tour Avacyn Restored to being named one of the inaugural members of the Magic Pro League, but you don't rack up eleven Grand Prix Top 8 appearances without putting in time on the road and away from board-game nights at the kitchen table.
8:14 a.m. – The alarm attacks again. Time to start the day. First up is a full slate of streaming, as he does every Tuesday and Thursday. Streaming, by far, has been the biggest adjustment to life in the MPL for Hayne, replacing time writing articles in airports with time spent playing MTG Arena while teaching and entertaining hundreds of viewers.
It may seem like a given in 2019, but when Hayne first discovered professional Magic a decade ago, this wasn't what he signed up for. Hayne saw his first Magic card on a childhood camping trip but didn't seriously take up the game until college, when he found his first Friday Night Magic and quickly began to work his way up through the ranks of Canadian Magic, including a heartbreaking 9th-place finish at Nationals in 2007.
Back then, Magic was an intensely personal pursuit for Hayne, a chance for the former competitive chess player to solve a new and ever-changing puzzle. It was his escape from the stresses of the day, and a goal that allowed him to continuously strive for tangible improvement. Success meant mastering the cards on the table, the finer points of public transportation and not much else.
Success today is much different. Weekends on the road have been traded for maintaining a consistently engaging stream at regular hours, podcasts, and the little matter of winning matches in the Magic Pro League.
"With where Magic is going, I want to be working toward building my brand, which isn't something I used to think much about–the fame isn't why I ever went into Magic," Hayne admits. "But I've been enjoying streaming more than I thought I would, and I definitely enjoy not having to travel all the time. You would have those weeks where your suitcase only gets half-emptied, and you lose any sort of schedule or rhythm. Now I'm at home way more and can see my friends and family here."
2:05 p.m. – Five hours later Hayne closes the stream for the day, having wrapped another session in which he kept viewers on the edge of their seats for a very particular reason: which hat was going to be the lucky one today?
Sorry, Nassif fans, the yellow hat was not lucky this time.
3:15 p.m. – Hayne wakes up from a nap and heads to meet a friend.
"I've had Igor since November of last year," Hayne explains proudly. "He's a wild one, but he's very personable and likes being next to people. He's a very free bird, he's smart and has a strong personality. Mostly he likes to sit on my shoulder or on top of my head."
Daily life has drastically changed over the past year, but Igor has helped to ground Hayne through it and certainly provided moments of comfort as he wages a daily battle against an opponent more challenging than any in the MPL.
"I suffer from depression, and it's been kicking my ass lately," Hayne says. "Depression is a chronic disease and has ups and downs. When I was eighteen, I became very depressed. I didn't feel like there was a point to anything. I tried therapy and antidepressants, but the only reason I would ever really leave the house was to go to FNM. I had a low view of myself, but discovering Magic really helped me build my self-esteem back up. When I went to the store, no one was judging me, I was just another Magic player playing cards. It was a social activity and made me interact with people more. It really helped to lessen my anxiety.
"The biggest advantage I have now versus then is that I have a much better support network. Magic taught me how to be honest with myself, and I'm much better about being open than I used to be. I have these friends from all over the world, and when I posted about it, I had a lot of people reach out and talk with me, which is really important. It felt like the flavor text of Lyra Dawnbringer, you know?"
5:00 p.m. – Hayne meets up with friend and fellow Canadian Magic legend Kar Yung Tom to catch a movie and then find a coffee shop to record Table for 2, their unique take on Magic podcasting, where they chat about the game in a public location, whatever that may bring.
11:30 p.m. – Walking home from the restaurant, Hayne reflects on the full day he's had. From streaming to hundreds of people to publicly recording for thousands more to simply getting out of the house, it's been the kind of day the eighteen-year-old version of himself couldn't imagine being possible.
And that's why Hayne is sharing his day with us.
"If my experience can help someone who is struggling and feels like there's no way out, then I want to talk about it," he explains. "I know a lot of the things that people always say—'it'll get better,' or 'get help,'—I know it's very hard when you're in that spot to believe it will get better. So what I would say is just focus on taking small steps, and one day at a time try to slowly do something different to move forward. Even if it seems laughably small to 'normal' people, just do it. Get out of bed by noon. Do that until it feels normal, then go outside every day until that feel normal. Don't be afraid to be open with the people around you. They want to help and support you."
12:15 a.m. – Hayne sets his alarm for 9 a.m., and as he lays down to sleep he can't help but think ahead to another big day tomorrow. He's got a Magic Pro League match in the morning.