I like competitor weakness because if everybody is rising, then you don't stand out from the crowd but the onus is still on us to take advantage of it.
If we have a good 1.0 and some positive BitAsset announcements then our rise to no.3 juxtaposed with a declining market will be very noticeable and cast the spotlight on us that we've been missing up to now.
It also sets the stage for a rapid psychological transition from POW to DPOS. Such a rapid potential transition wouldn't be possible if Bitcoin & POW as a whole was strong.