Xen

You guys brought up a potential worrying point. But I think it might be alright? 1) You guys are forgetting its the lunar new year's celebration week, that might reduce the amount of fans going to practices. Plus the prices-I think in the end they may show up for competition, but not for open practice. If you factor in how early the practices are, I think that would reduce the locals from attending since they likely won't be living in local hotels? 2) We've had plenty of opportunity to have similar things happen. WC SH with all the chinese fans. I think general, even with the more rabid Chinese fans, they are able to remain quiet and respectful while he practices. There's a certain aura during practice that kind of forces you to not make excessive noise. And if it's just clapping, well he's used to that by now. Plus, there's a bit of "face of the nation" at stake here, and I think that is taken very seriously in east asia, so the more extreme reactions would be subdued out by local fans, and called out for national shaming if they don't subdue down. 3) Mobbing at airports/entrances etc- um, he's used to that by now, and if ACI 2017 was any indication, his team is very good at ninja-ing. And in general team japan is very protective of their skaters.

ah, welcome to east asia, and Yuzu does not check out daum. Actually, think speed skating would be the worst, since china, korea and japan are all involved and we do not like each other.

Oh, what if he stays another quad? If beijing gets their way, prime time in China is about 8 pm, aka 7 am est/4 am PST. If we compromise with NBC, maybe we could do it at 1 pm beijing time (9 pm pst/ midnight EST). The latter isn't that different from Seoul, but maybe can avoid the 6 am practice sessions.

Beijing time is 1 hour behind Seoul. =) I wouldn't really count on scheduling changes for 2022 for TE, but it seems the Olys will happen at the tail end of the Chinese New Year's, so maybe to cater to the domestic audience in China, events may be later in the day (at least the popular ones-such as pairs, speed skate and men's) since 9 PM EST is around 8 am Beijing and would be outside of prime time in China. Depends on how negotiations go between NBC, IOC and CCTV though.

There's Chinese new Year's coming up, a new cart of paprikas might be very useful to have around. Yeah....free groceries always welcome, just have to thoroughly inspect for poisoning beforehand I guess? The narrative a la quad ladies style, because with the positive news, my muse bunnies are back to frolicking and snooping into the palace grounds. Hope this doesn't offend anyone, since it might come off a touch too "light" for some. My apologies beforehand if it does. And if this is not appropriate for this thread, please feel free to move it. Warning that it's also long-LONG.

...They are going to worlds this year right? Still pissed at IOC, it's a bit rude to first invite, and then rescind with no explanation.

And that people, is how you persuade lady 4Lutz to join your court after 3 years of chasing.

He did a 3Lo-Lo-3S in Seimei in ACI 2015...don't make me think about him doing the quad rendition of that in the second half. That's too much, not sure my hair can take it.

Probably more likely to start 4T 4Lo 3F// that interferes the least with his jumps timing, keeping the order roughly intact. If he decides to toss in the 4Lz for worlds, he can still go toe-edge-toe for his first 3 jumps.

Well, we still have that idea to give Brian knit pooh mittens at some point. That's very un-sportsman like. So no, he's probably the kid who will ask you to play with him *again* and *again*, all in the same day even, until he beats you. I dare someone to learn shogi and play against him. =P

Go to general skating chat- there are already a couple layout hypothesis floating around.

A description of what happened actually on the plane ride. Yuzu: Javi, you have to play with me. Javi: *moves up eyecover* No. Yuzu: You must. Look, I even made a character for you. Javi: *tired moan* No Yuzu: I even called the character QuadSalchow in honor of your salchow Javi: Yuzu... Yuzu: It's a good name right? Oh wait, maybe you wanted me to call it Charlie, or Don Quioxte instead? Oh, I know we can make 2 characters, and then call them those names. Javi: ...I want sleep... Yuzu:...but which class should we make Charlie, and which should we choose for Don? Do you think a pure melee class would work? Javi:....Yuzu, gods, no.. Yuzu:...wait, but maybe a bow class would be better for Don... Javi: *tugs Tracy* Mom, make him stop.... I want sleep! Tracy: *moves up eyecover* Yuzu, be nice and leave Javi alone. He needs sleep and you need sleep too. Yuzu: *pouts* ...fiiinnne. But I'm not going to sleep now, I'm just adjusting for the time difference right now, Javi could look into that too.

First and foremost, @gladi: a HUGE thank you! A dozen strawberry parfaits and perfect pancakes with jam (hope you like jam) for the translations! Lots of bright news and answers to chew over while we fret over McMemeface. @SparkleSalad: well Nobu doing a 4Lz, well I guess Yuzu has pressure from his senpais too. Also you forgot this tidbit: Well, I'm not sure what would happen if the known guy swan serious wears a leotard (UA is close), especially if you combine that with see-through. Weapon of mass murder confirmed?

Well Brian's definition of Yuzu's training going well might be "He's not so taken over by Kuyashii that he's kill everything in a ten KM radius. My hair, Javi's hair, effie, the ice at TCC get to live a bit longer." Brian might be more concerned about Yuzu's mental state than physical state-is my guess, so maybe he means Yuzu's doing better mentally/calmer than he expected (given Yuzu's general intensity).

Thanks. So I guess 4T 4Lo 3F//4S3T 4S 4TLo3S 3A2T 3Lz? BV of 105.43, pure TES capable of exceeding 127, and final score able to go over 223, and capable of hitting over 332 overall with a 109 SP? Still not bad, since I gave pretty conservative estimates for GOEs and PCs if he goes clean. And he might hit 110 again with his SP (even with a 4S instead of 4Lo). Um, should I even try a 4Lo in second half layout? He's not that crazy yet, right?

Since the recent news that Yuzu is doing well on all jumps, but the 4Lz and the guesswork that he might leave out the 4Lz, then the entire issue of jump rhythm, I'm placing my hypothetical layouts here. So Yuzu's (planned) jump layout at Rostel2017 is: 4Lz 4Lo 3F//4S3T 4T 4T1Lo3S 3A2T 3A Which follows the pattern of Toe-edge-toe// edge toe toe edge edge So if we go the route of not wanting to fix his jumps/steps pattern, there are a couple he could consider: (using FISK app) 1) Assuming he doesn't take out the 4Lz but takes out 4 Lo: 4Lz 4S 3F// 4S3T 4T 4TLo3S 3A2T 3A- BV 109.76, again +2 GOEs only and his TES is at 130.96, if we add in PCs, again, staring at over 226.96 in Long, with a total of 335.96 (if we add in a 109 pt SP). Give or minus a bit of GOEs, better SP and he could hit 340. 2) 4Lo 4S 3F// 4S3T 4T 4T3T 3ALo3S 3A- (was this the summer layout?)- 108.16 BV, +2 GOEs puts TES at 129.36, and if we give 96 PCs again, 225.35 in the long. Add in a 109 SP and we're at 334+again. 3) 4T 4Lo 3F// 4S3T 4Tlo3S 3Lz 3A2T 3A- BV of only 103.23, add in +2GOEs we're looking at 219.83, and add in SP probably around 328.93. Which means he's still capable of breaking the 330 point WR he holds. With only 4 quads. So um, he's in pretty good shape. I played around with a lot of Layouts for Nate, up to including a 4Lz in the second half. The points he needs to get in GOEs and SP score alone to hit over 330 is higher than what he's gotten internationally so far, even with a 6 quad layout.

I agree-part of it is strategy, and part of it is just as @Katt mentioned, there's been no news of him for a while, and media is starting to write him out to a degree. So Brian might have just mentioned it "off-hand" to keep the media back in line. Regarding the layouts, I'm dragging mine into the General skating thread instead. Still have some numbers to crunch.

Or he could do the layout he had at the summer media day. Still 5 quads so the BV is close enough, but with his more stable quads. Though....there's a part of me that still wont' believe it until Yuzu shows up on ice. Also, what if he goes for 4Lz in SP? o_O

Let's go take over the music thread. It's getting close to off-season and discussing next season (because of course he'll continue next season) will be strangely soothing during these weeks. Plus, I want to try to envision him doing a tango, like assassin's tango or tango de roxanne.

You need to join us for 2018 GPF. Yuzu has a tendency to do relatively clean, if not GPF2015 style squeaky clean at GPFs. >_>

Pish, Shae Lynn and Yuzu doing a program to Tango de Roxanne. Or maybe a version for short with Jeff. It'll be so good you will swear it is the only acceptable interpretation by a male skater for said music.

Don't rule out summer shows- Seimei is essentially part of Yuzu, so I think he'll show it sometime afterwards, even if never in competition again. @Floria: Some of the warhorses are odd. Like Bolero-I can see it working for Ice dancing, but not that much for singles, so when people used it for singles, it always puzzled me. Same applies for Adagio. But whatever...Yuzu can skate to anything. With other skaters, "Oh no, not a warhorse again!" Says I. But when Yuzu skates to it, I know my reaction will be, "Here, take my heart, my soul, my everything."

Well if you put a gun to my head and ask me to choose, I might have to give the edge to Seimei. But that might be because just I prefer the music of Seimei a bit more than H&L. H&L has less...climaxes than Seimei, and there were parts of the music which I didn't find as fitting (like the hydroblade section) if you had to put a gun to my head and told me to be nitpicky. As for the advantages of H&L-well it can only be skated by someone who has enough flow, glide and control where they can easily say "my jumps are transitions" and "my jumps can have silent landings." Which means minus him, none of the other guys can try it anytime soon.

It means judges like Drama music, which isn't surprising. H&L was lovely, but the music's flow isn't that good unless you skate clean. But from a general audience view, most non FS fans I know of are more awed by Seimei than H&L. H&L for all its beauty is a subtle piece of work, with minute details in choreography that you have to glue your eyes to to notice. Not quite the case in Seimei-the pacing of Seimei as a music piece is much easier to get into, and "in your face" is easier to grasp than subtlety. Which speaks more of how much guts he had to try H&L, since the music itself, in my opinion, automatically gives you a disadvantage. Normally, I'd imagine H&L something I can see a female skater skating to, but not necessarily a male skater trying to skate to. Also, skating order at Helsinki. If he went last and skated clean, I imagine the PCS would have gone up more.

Haha...oh gods, Stojko a Fanyu? But it is very nice to hear these words from someone not so enmeshed with the media these days. Hmm, I wonder if we should expect more neutral judging from Canadians this Olys in the men's, since they don't really have a skater to contend for a top 3 spot, especially if no one splats a lot. I think I mentioned in the Gen skating chat before, that Yuzu is the "default" choice for everyone when he goes clean (or goes cleaner than others). His scores are "pure" in that we can trust it to almost reflect his actual scores(well his actual scores should be higher>_>), not something other men can claim that easily.