Magic number question

OK, I googled and did tons of research before asking this, but I just can’t find it. Can the magic number go up? I know it goes down with each win and down more with our closest competition’s loss, but can it go up like if we were to lose and our competitor win or does it still stay at 3 and not go up again no matter what? I have a very studious autistic kid that really wants to know and I’m about to scream because I cannot find the answer online.