Magic Online Championship Series

The Magic Online Championship Series (MOCS) was a tournament series taking place on Magic Online. Each year, 24 players earned invitations via the MOCS to the Magic Online Championship, an event with a $200,000 prize purse as of MOCS 2017 (The Finals itself running in year 2018). For 2020, the MOCS was replaced by the Magic Online Premier Play Program.^[1]

History

The MOCS was first introduced in 2009.^[2] It contained seven seasons, each with its own season championship event; the winner of each event qualified for the 2009 Magic Online Championship as well as the 2009 Magic World Championships, held concurrently. In order to be qualified for the season championship event, players needed to earn 15 Qualifier Points (QPs) over the course of the season leading up to it. QPs could be earned by doing well in events, such as by winning 8-player drafts of finishing in the top eight of premier events. In addition to the seven MOCS event winners, the 2009 Magic Online Player of the Year qualified for the Magic Online Championship. The Player of the Year title went to the player who earned the most QPs over the course of the seven seasons. In 2009, this player was Shota Yasooka.^[3] The eight participants played three rounds each of Classic, Zendikar booster draft, and Standard; the top two players after these nine rounds played a final match, with the format being Standard.^[4] Ultimately, these two players would be Shota Yasooka and Anssi Myllymäki, with Myllymäki taking the title and he $13,000 share of the overall $50,000 prize purse.

Over the years since its inception, the MOCS has undergone several changes; the Magic Online Championship was increased to 12 players in 2010, with a $100,000 prize purse,^[5] and after the 2012 premier event changes, the MOCS was separated from the World Championship, serving as its own event held each year in Seattle, Washington.^[6] The winner qualified for the new 16-man Players Championship (later renamed the World Championship). The first of these events featured 16 players and a $116,000 payout, with the winner being Russia's Dmitriy Butakov.^[7] For the 2013 Magic Online Championship (held in 2014), the winner was also awarded Gold status in the Pro Players Club. For the 2015 Magic Online Championship, this was changed to Platinum status. For the 2017 Magic Online Championship, the number of players was increased to 24, with a prize purse of $200,000. However, the winner no longer received a qualification for the World Championship.

For 2020, the revamped Magic Online Premier Play Program was introduced that incorporated both the Players Tour system and MOCS into a single program.^[1]

Qualification

In the 2017 season, there are two main ways to qualify for the Championship: By finishing top two in MOCS Playoff Events (the traditional qualifiers that utilizes Qualifier Points (QP)), or winning in MOCS Open held right after each expansion's release.^[8]

The traditional MOCS qualifiers has three stages:

Earning Qualifier Points. Players earn points by playing in selected regular events such as Leagues. Or given on a monthly basis if a player has SIlver level or above in Pro Players Club and/or in Hall of Fame (15 QPs for Non-HoF Silver Pros and 35 QPs for the rest). QPs are not confined to a specific month, meaning that players can earn points over several months in order to play in a MOCS event.
MOCS Monthly Event. These cost 35 QPs to enter (or if they only have 15-34 QPs, winning the last chance qualifier that costs 15 QPs to enter), are held roughly twice every month (one Constructed and one Limited), and all players achieving a 6-2 or better record are invited to the MOCS Playoff Event.
MOCS Playoff Event. An invitation-only event where only players qualified via the respective Monthly Events are invited. The top two players are invited to the Magic Online Championship as well as the next Pro Tour.

In 2017, two MOCS Open tournaments were held right after each expansion's release. The format was Limited of the respective set, and winner of each MOCS Open was invited to the Magic Online Championship as well as the next Pro Tour. Unlike traditional Monthly Events, MOCS Opens do not require any QPs in order to participate.

Additionally, the previous year's Magic Online Championship winner is invited; the rest of the slots are awarded as "At-large slots" to the top players on the MOCS Yearly Leaderboard (the players with the most leaderboard points that year) until the Magic Online Championship has 24 players. Players invited via At-large slot will also receive invitations to the Pro Tour following the Magic Online Championship event.

Format

The Magic Online Championship is a multi-day format featuring multiple different formats. The formats vary each year, but each event features at least one Constructed format and at least one Limited format.

For example, the 2015 Magic Online Championship (held in 2016) used the following schedule:

Day 1:
- Three rounds of Legacy
- Four rounds of Standard
Day 2:
- Three rounds of Shadows over Innistrad booster draft
- Four rounds of Modern
Day 3 (featuring the top four players after 14 rounds of Swiss play):
- Semifinals and finals were played as best-of-three-matches (each being best-of-three-games) featuring three different formats (Legacy, Standard, Modern); the top seeded player would choose which format to play first, the other player chose which format to play in the second match, and the third match, if necessary, would be whichever format had not yet been played.

Prizes

The prize payout is, as of 2019, $250,000, distributed as follows:

Place	Payout
1	$50,000
2	$30,000
3–4	$15,000
5–8	$10,000
9–16	$7,500
17–24	$5,000

Before 2019, the winner would also earn Platinum status in the Pro Players Club.