Ooof, that will teach me to read the wrong row. (I thought the bulk of their points would get the 70% factoring.) That's also the case, though, for most of the teams that could catch them from Euros/Worlds points by the end of this season, but would drop back after their points were removed and last season's factored by 70%. I don't think they'd be in a first group because they didn't earn at 4C's.
McBeath and Parkman do need the WS points as much Shin/Nagy and Efimova/Mitrofanov for starting orders. (E/M are currently 9th on the SB list and are safe to be guaranteed at least one through SB, two if they're Top 10 at Worlds.) None are close to Top 24 WS for a guaranteed GP spot through WS, and M/P could use a guaranteed spot. There have been limited field internationals that qualify for WS points for the Top 5, like the Olympic qualifier, but there need to be five pairs from three countries in the event, or no WS points, so I don't know what M/P get from the 26 test event competition.
M/P are currently 20th on the SB list; S/N are a little more than 3 points behind in 23rd. While WTT also has celebratory/inflated scores, I don't see any of the teams behind M/P getting enough points to surpass them at that event, but between 4C's/Euros and Worls, M/P are vulnerable to being dropped out of the Top 24 SB (guaranteed spot), with Nagaoka/Moriguchi being less than a point behind them, Vouillamoz/Bouvart and Shin/Nagy just a few points behind, and Vaananen/Fillici currently 7 points behind, which is not entirely out of reach. (Typically at least two competitors blow out their SB at championships, and Roscher/Schuster, who I think are the third German team at Euros, are 10 points out and should be less of a threat.) S/N will have 4C's to move up the SB standings and, hopefully, be guaranteed just one.
The more guaranteed spots there are, the less dealing needed to get any team one spot, leaving more cards to play to get a second for any team guaranteed one.
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