Nottingham GT and the UKTC rankings

Zachary Becker
Jan 13
4 min read

The NOTTINGHAM 40K SUPER-MAJOR has been and gone, with 355 players in the field, it acted like a rankings gravity well: it pulled attendees up the ladder and pushed some non-attendees down.

Below is a data-led breakdown of what changed, why it changed, and what it means if you care about your UKTC position (or want to start climbing fast).

The headline numbers

Using the rankings snapshot before Nottingham and the updated snapshot after Nottingham:

Players previously on the rankings list: 2,408
Total ranking points in the system increased by: +27,514 points
Nottingham attendance: 355 players
Players who entered the rankings off the back of Nottingham: 151
- That is 42.5% of the entire Nottingham field becoming “ranked” in the latest update.
- Those 151 players account for 92.6% of all new names that appeared on the rankings list in the post-Nottingham snapshot.

A Super-Major adds a wave of new ranked players who immediately take up space on the ladder in addition to shuffling the existing order.

What happened to people who played Nottingham?

Not everyone in the Nottingham field existed in the pre-event rankings snapshot (because many were unranked at that point). So there are two distinct stories:

1) Already-ranked players who attended (204 players)

Among Nottingham attendees who were present in both rankings snapshots:

Average rank movement: +410 places (up the table)
Median rank movement: +272 places
% who moved up: 98.0%
Average points gained: +96.7 points
Median points gained: +91.0 points

In plain English: if you were already on the ladder, Nottingham was overwhelmingly a net-positive accelerator.

2) Players who were unranked pre-Nottingham (151 players)

These players weren’t on the pre-event snapshot, then appeared post-event.

Their combined points injected into the rankings: 11,554 points
Typical post-event points for these new entrants:
- Median: 64.55
- Upper quartile (75th percentile): 93.86
- Max (highest): 193.11

In plain English: one weekend was enough for a large chunk of players to go from “not on the list” to “actively displacing people”.

What happened to people who didn’t play Nottingham?

For players who didn’t attend Nottingham (and who appear in both snapshots before and after):

Average rank movement: –101 places (down the table)
Median rank movement: –107 places
% who moved down: 98.9%
Points were mostly flat (median change = 0), but that does not protect you from being overtaken.

This is key, you can have a stable points total and still slide down, because others are adding results, especially at a Super-Major scale.

The elite tiers got more “Nottingham-heavy” overnight

The Nottingham effect concentrates harder the closer you get to the top:

Top 10: Nottingham attendees went from 5 → 9 (net +4)
Top 100: Nottingham attendees went from 27 → 44 (net +17)
Top 250: Nottingham attendees went from 57 → 98 (net +41)

A significant number of Nottingham attendees moved into those tiers:

New entrants into the Top 100: 19 players
- 17 of those 19 were Nottingham attendees
New entrants into the Top 500: 59 players
- 56 of those 59 were Nottingham attendees

Biggest movers: the Nottingham “rank slingshot”

Here are the largest rank jumps among already-ranked Nottingham attendees (pre → post snapshot):

Player	Rank change
Graeme Meiklejohn	+1,533
Harry Dobson	+1,375
Rob Hassall	+1,313
Chris Kinnair	+1,283
Samir Sydykov	+1,240
olive MacDonald	+1,240
Ed Sgt.Crusader	+1,222
Chris Lee	+1,213
Matt Lamacraft	+1,149
Simon Morley	+1,132

Super-Majors create high-leverage weekends where one performance can reprice your season.

Biggest points gains: Nottingham rewarded performance (hard)

Top point increases among already-ranked Nottingham attendees:

Player	Points gained
Sam Nash	+163.07
Christopher Langton	+162.39
Theo Hayat	+161.71
Chris Irvine	+161.03
Ben Jones	+160.36
Andy Quas-Cohen	+159.69
Tim Waters	+159.02
Adam Wass	+157.70
Greg Chamberlain	+157.04
Chris Kinnair	+156.39

If you’re chasing a big jump in your ranking, this is the recipe: a super-major event + a strong finish = maximal gains.

Nottingham GT: celebrating the podium

A Super-Major win is always earned, but it’s even more impressive across a 355-player field.

1st – Innes Wilson (Stat Check)

Faction: Space Marines (Astartes)
Record: 7-0

2nd – Sam Nash (Try Hard Wargaming)

Faction: Adeptus Custodes!!
Record: 7-0

3rd – Christopher Langton (Mind Goblins)

Faction: Chaos Daemons
Record: 6-1

And the Top 10 showcased both depth and variety while still underlining what many players felt all weekend: Astartes variants were everywhere. Space Marines/Blood Angels alone took 5 of the Top 10 slots.

Take Away: How you can plan your year

If you care about your ranking, the season isn’t defined by one-off good days. It’s defined by repeated results, at scale.

Super-Majors do three things:

They add a huge volume of ranked results in one update (Nottingham injected 151 newly ranked players).
They create measurable displacement (non-attendees dropped ~100 places on average in this update).
They concentrate opportunities at the top end (Top 100 became materially more “Nottingham-shaped”).

Because the Super-Majors are the biggest events in the country, they are the most reliable way to move your ranking in a meaningful way. If you skip them, you’re not “standing still.” You’re letting other people take your space.

If Nottingham is any indication, the next big UKTC weekend will do the same thing:

it will create new ranked players,
it will reshuffle the tiers,
and it will reward the people who were in the room.

If you want to climb the rankings, buy your next Super-Major the ticket now and then get down to your local RTT to get the reps in.

Tickets now on sale: