I should probably not post anymore but after mmrarkte #23 post, I had some of those same thoughts for a while but just didn't post. Sorry for long incoming post probably my last for a long time.
IMO it's very important to properly define the word "competition" when doing a comparison like this that spans players and teams from vastly different eras. It's one of the factors that Tery got mostly right in his list and seems to be lost on some posters in this thread. Don't confuse the word competition with skill level. It's not about comparing skill levels at all. That is a useless comparison in this setting. It's more about asking how hard it was to win or be generally successful against a lot more high-quality competition.
Players today are far superior in skill to players 10-15 years ago, that is not up for debate. Just like in any athletic sport or online game, the discussion should be based around the competition level for the player at the time they played and what they achieved. Mostly all backup NHL goalies right now would be better physically, mechanically and more technical than say Martin Brodeur or Patrick Roy. Are those backup goalies to be ranked above them on that basis? Hell no, they need time to develop and prove themselves against the competition of the times they play.
No offense to anyone but to say RGL era players have or had more competition is just flawed thinking.
The fact is that the ESEA era players from say Season 3 thru 7 saw 4 teams close at the top of the division most of the time and always at least 3 teams. Anyone could have won back then, and it was extremely competitive. Season 8 thru 19 was around when Froyo went crazy and undefeated, but they still had 3-4 team competition for the most part and some legendary finals were played during those times. Competition was quite high, and you can even go farther into ESEA later seasons 25 thru 30 and still see 3-4 teams right at the top together almost interchangeable every season.
Compared to RGL era, I don't see the same comparison on competition at all with the exception of maybe a few seasons here and there. The fact is many players simply left after ESEA and it hurt the overall competition level vastly. Yes, new players stepped up and are insanely good now 10-15 years later, but most RGL seasons are 2 team races from the start of the season until the end. Some RGL seasons had 3 or maybe 4 teams in the mix here and there but even those had an invite division with 10 teams, compared to ESEA's 8 team division, so the RGL W/L records are inflated a bit.
A new list today would clearly show many older players bumped out or lowered in ranking for newer RGL players who have had time to achieve results. When the list came out, some great players now had just started their invite career's so it just insane to think they were snubbed or whatever at the time of the list.
My thing was about someone just randomly posting that Tery's list was out of date the day it was posted is why I initially posted. Thats an ignorant BS comment from someone who has no real insight at all or did any research or any facts to stand on. I hate when someone shits on other people's work like that, just my issue I guess.