with a two ticket entry cost. For those not so lucky, or those needing tickets, they can sell singles from their opened packs to help defray the costs of the next draft. Some online tournament players fund their continued play by selling the packs they win as prizes and extra cards they open for tickets, which they then use to enter more tournaments. While there may be a very small number of successful players who are able to sustain their tournament play indefinitely this way (termed: "going infinite"), this amount of success is not the norm. Shortages When Magic Online launched in the summer of 2002, the current set of the time was late Odyssey block. As a result, the preceding Invasion block was only sold for a very short time on Magic Online. This short supply, combined with rising demand as Magic Online'''s user base grew and the server became more stable, helped spike some early cards' prices. Chase cards from these early sets demand much higher prices than their paper counterparts; popular rares sell on eBay for 5 to 10 times as much as the physical version, and even commons can command a premium. Odyssey block and 7th Edition'' also had a shorter than normal "print run", though not as extreme. To counteract the shortage of Invasion block cards, Wizards began offering Invasion block packs as prizes in special tournaments in lieu of normal prizes. Magic Online Championship The Magic Online Championship, formerly known as the Magic Online World Championship, has been held each year. It was originally held in conjunction with the Magic: The Gathering World Championship in 2009, but has been held as an independent event since 2012. The year in the event name (for events since 2012) denotes the year in which players qualified; the event itself takes place the following calendar year. Eligibility The 2009 tournament contained only 8 players: the winners of seven end-of-season championships and the Magic Online Player of the Year. In 2010, the tournament was expanded to include 12 players: the winners of ten end-of-season championships, the Magic Online Player of the Year and the winner of a last chance qualifier. The 2017 Magic Online Championship featured the previous Magic Online Championship winner, the finalists of four end-of-season playoffs, the winner of eight opens, and the rest were filled by at-large slots until the event had 24 players. Tournament Structure