Mana Games

[Curtis]

I thought I knew how this was done — that the LD was the player with the worst ranking who did not have to pass through a qualifying tournament — but that does not appear to be the case. Emily is currently participating in a Futures tournament in which the LD has a ranking of 459, but twelve other players (four of them qualifiers) have rankings of 459 or worse. The 'true' LD would appear to be one of the two players ranked 474.

[manutoo]

I think it's likely coz the draw is made 1 week in advance, and thus, the lower ranked players lost ranking points & thus their ranking lowered for the week of the tournament...
You can check this by looking their ranking on the week before the tournament.
(I hope it's clear and not confusing... )