I agree, Continental rankings seem kind of pointless for TM. But they make a lot of sense for ShootMania, since you're very likely to be playing with people on the same continent most of the time, since ping matters a lot for a good gameplay experience. It certainly matters more than in TM.
I like the change. Even though there's a disconnect in numbers (i.e. 1000th in Europe might be 50th in North America), I like that I can see that I'm racing against some of the top drivers on my continent.
in some ways i like the new ranking appearsystem in some ways not
but i hate that you lose so many LP's
i lose sth like 200 LP's per week and thats pretty much in my opinion(too much to be serious )