Oleg Schaefer wasn’t even aware that some cold hard cash was coming his way. It took his fellow Atlantica players to learn that he was a winner in the No Atlantian Left Behind contest.

“I came online and my whole guild told me that I won $2,000,” wrote the 15-year-old from Germany in an email. “I thought they [were] kidding me, but then I saw on the Atlantica homepage that I had really won the money. That was a big surprise.”

The prizes for the No Atlantian Left Behind contest have gradually worked their way to Atlantica players all over the world. And for some, they couldn’t come at a better time.

“I’ve been looking for a new mouse for awhile because I had problems with my old one, so this prize came right when I needed it,” wrote Andrei Marius of Romania, a recipient of one of the Logitech G5 mice awarded to players with the passing of the 5,000 Milestone of players fighting in the Free Leagues.

“I played Atlantica Online for my enjoyment, and the contest was but an afterthought for me,” said Julson Lim of Connecticut, who won an iPod nano when the number of Free Leaguers hit 10,000. “Winning the contest caught me off-guard in a very good way. I guess my days of crafting +0 Walachia rifles finally paid off!”

Give yourself a chance to let your Atlantica adventures reward you. But your window of opportunity to be a part of the No Atlantian Left Behind experience is closing soon. The 30,000 Milestone is quickly approaching. You have to be one of the 30,000 to have fought in the Free Leagues to be eligible to win the biggest prize of the bunch - $10,000. Plus, five players will be randomly selected for a Nintendo Wii.

Therefore, you must fight in one of the eight Free Leagues held every three hours - 12 a.m., 3 a.m., 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., and 9 p.m. - before the counter hits 30,000. So please hurry if you want to be entered into the pool.

The day after the milestone is reached, there will be another round of Milestone Mettle Tournaments. And then maybe you can be like Florin Smaranda of Romania, who won a GeForce 9600 GT graphics card for his efforts on the Sikyon server. “I was surprised. I didn't expect to do that well in the tourney,” wrote Smaranda. “The matches that I played made me rethink some of my strategies over the long term.”

But this time around, the prize is money: $1,000. There’s an added bonus, too. There are now five servers running, with the addition of Argos, meaning there will be 10 tournaments. You could be one of the 10 to win $1,000.