This season is very important for Melissa and Denis. This is the first time they are so heavy in international competition rotation. While it's unlikely they can penetrate the top 7 teams (N&K, De&St, G&G, B&A, D&L, De&Sc, C&S), they have to establish themselves as high as possible among the next teams (I think only Domnina & Shabalin are almost guaranteed to be ranked ahead of them). Passing Kulikova & Novikov at NHK was good; if they pass Faella & Scalli here it's even better. At this rate, they're likely to make top 10 at Worlds, and be real medal contenders after 2006.