That time of year...

The new ratings are generally published around mid-to-late November so that players may plan for early 2008 tournaments. I would expect to see the new ratings within a week or so, though I've not heard any official date announced.

It will be interesting to see how the local ratings have changed from the midyear ratings. Houston saw one of its teams in 4.0 head to Nationals, where they had mediocre results (albeit against top-flight competition). If their players receive mediocre ratings, it will keep most Houstonians from being bumped up out of 4.0...as the Hurricanes pretty much ran over most teams in Texas in 2007.

Houston's 5.0 team did not do anything special up in Dallas, and most of their players will not receive espeically high ratings. This may result in some "bump downs" from 5.0. Both of Houston's 4.5 representatives at Sectionals performed well, and most of their players will either be rated 5.0 or in the upper reaches of the 4.5 range. Remember, ratings "filter down", so a great performance by a team at Nationals generally results in high ratings for their players....and as a result the players who played them at Sectionals often receive high ratings if they played a competitve match with the Nationals player(s). And so on...

Personally, I was (rather inexplicably) on the "bump up" list at midyear, but expect that I may be back down when the official ratings come out. Remember, those players "within tolerance" (I believe tolerance is .05) will have their appeals granted automatically. The appeals process has become much easier nowadays. Freeman knows the ins and outs of the process and could explain it much better than I can if anyone is curious.