JeffHoogland
Other Interests
Family
He and his wife have two sons.
Gaming Origins
JeffHoogland was introduced to MTG when he was around eleven-years-old, and his cousin was given a box of unwanted MTG cards by his neighbor. The two of them continued playing casually for the next decade. At that point, he started occasionally started going to Friday Night Magic (FNM) events.
After a few months, one of his FNM friends suggested that they participate in a real tournament that was happening near St. Louis. He won one of the matches and realized that he really enjoyed competitive play. He managed to rank in the top eight at his second Open Tournament. However, at that stage, he realized that it wasn’t a good idea to make that his primary career, as the expenses involved would generally lower the overall profits beneath that of a regular paid job.
Prior to becoming a fulltime streamer, he completed his masters degree in Mathematics and then worked as the Lead Developer and Bodhi Linux.
Professional Gaming
In 2014, he and his wife started recording and uploading their weekly paper MTG deckbuilding experiments and gameplays to his YouTube channel. He still continues to participate in occasional tournaments, but his main focus now is to play casually, stream and assist the MTG community with deckbuilding (for a fee). He became a fulltime streamer on January 1, 2018.
Income
According to twitchstats.net, JeffHoogland has ~5,000 subscribers. This would minimally earn him $12,500 USD per month, excluding the additional income that he gets from deck submissions, sponsorships, merchandise sales, sponsorships, advertising and casting.
Streaming Hours
JeffHoogland’s current schedule can be found on his website.
Accomplishments
- 1st - SCG Modern Classic Baltimore - 2016
Quotes
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Some of the best [deck] testing you will get is just coming out and playing. People always say, ‘how do you start playing?’ – you just do that. You show up, you register for the event, you want to practice beforehand, and you can practice, practice, practice, but when it comes down to it, getting used to the pressure of playing for high stakes is only going to happen when you’re actually playing for higher stakes.
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[When travelling to tournaments,] get a group to travel with. Everything gets cheaper when gas/hotels are split 3, 4 or even 5 ways.
