So if you're wondering why it's taken me so long to get back to this, it's because I said I'd talk about how last season's rankings looked underneath the new system. There's not much to say. Essentially, if you specifically had top 5 placements, or had top 25 placements, you came out a little better. Several people had little bumps, and one or two had significant ones (Bonk, who's had plenty of success but not so much on his actual average scores).

What will be more interesting is the ranks coming up, and how they'll differ from last seasons ranks. What everyone has to remember is that it's not just the new season's scores that are coming in that matter- they're only half the story. The other half of the story is the season that's leaving consideration. There are some people who are going to take huge knocks to their places, because they did badly this season but killed it in season 35, and are thus replacing a really good season with a really bad season. There are also some people who are going to suddenly get big bump ups, because they did really well this season and either didn't play or played horribly in season 35. This wasn't entirely intended, and I'm wondering if there's a way to dampen the effect, by making older seasons count for less over time (the average scores, at least) instead of suddenly losing them.

I'll certainly say that the new version of the ranks are much narrower up the top end compared to before- Kylrad especially has had his lead eaten away. This isn't surprising; the reality is, Kylrad's empire has been crumbling since roughly when the universal fantasy index came in- yes, this means that the further you go back, the bigger it actually is. From S36 to S31, for example, Kylrad was at an utterly ridiculous -38, with sarmo's -17 the only other fantasy player within a country mile. With an abysmal 8th placement this season, and his leaguewide 1st overall now leaving consideration, he's doomed to fall from the top of these ranks.

Presumably, he's not getting the benefits of all the research he must have put in hard yards for himself that now many people can access much quicker alone, and it's been harder to win off that stuff alone instead of thinking deeper about line combinations and whatnot. The same factor has hurt other veterans too, but most of the top names right now are veterans too- raymond3000, sarmo, Velevra and Baelor Swift have all been around significantly longer than myself, and don't seem to have been affected too badly by the universal fantasy index themselves.

With that, onto the latest rankings.