playBunny: The observation I referred to was statistical -- I can't prove it, but the point was that any history more than 400 experience points old had little effect on your rating -- I think we have all experienced how ratings can swing. If you've been winning recently, your rating is relatively high; if you've been losing, relatively low; it doesn't matter much what it was this time last year. This is different from the 400 points needed to get past the "newbie" factor, of which I am also aware.