asiacheetah

I am not surprised at all. It's why I thought JSF is insane for not inviting him to NHK.

For the ladies, I kind of wished for a showdown between Alina and Evgenia before GPF, but oh well. Looks like Russia picked a side toward their Oly Champion and gave the Rostelecom assignment to her. Predicted placements and thoughts" SA: Bradie will get unreasonably inflated scores and win. Satoko will get unreasonably low PCS score (as usually the case for all Japanese ladies) and come in second or 3rd. Kaori will probably podium. Radionova might as well. Oh boy 4 ladies for 3 spots. Should be the two Japanese ladies and Radionova, but this is SA we're talking about. (Also, SA continues to push their most bland lady skater EVER) SC: Evgenia will win. Wakaba will podium. Tuktamaysheva might podium as well if the 3A is with her. Gabby should podium unless she has a meltdown. I'm guessing Evgenia and Gabby will podium for sure and Wakaba and Tuktamaysheva duke it out for the 3rd spot. GP Finland: Alina will win. Carolina will podium and so will Kaori. NHK: Tiny queen Satoko should win. Mai Mihara should podium. Tuktamaysheva might probably podium, as well as Maria Sotskova (the Russian version of the bland lady skater). Rostelecom Cup: Alina will win. Wakaba should podium. Against a surprisingly weak Russian field, Gracie might make an epic come back and podium in her first and only GP event of the season. Int de France: Evgenia will win. Carolina will podium. Mai might be able to podium as well at Sotskova and Bradie. Rika (depending on her 3A) might score really high technically and make a great senior debut. I'm hoping Laurine has 2 good programs this year and score well. GPF predictions: Alina: wins both GP events Medvedeva: wins both GP events Wakaba Sotoko Kaori (wait that might be too many Japanese ladies and the judges love to underscore them) and another Russian lady (I'm rooting for the triumphant return of Tktamaysheva and her 3A) or Bradie (the blandest of the bland) *I'm so mean. sorry not sorry*

I'm really surprised that they didn't try to get Yuzuru to NHK. I know Shoma is a seeded skater, but having experienced competition in Japan and the crazy popularity of Yuzu, I really thought they would have tried to get Yuzuru there. With the way GP series is this year, Japanese Yuzu fans will have to travel far to see him, since he won't be there until Japan nationals. Plus we got so used to him going to NHK for 4 years in a row. Who know how much longer Yuzuru will continue competing. I know Shoma deserves this assignment and is overdue, but I feel like the event organizer missed a prime opportunity to see their home grown hero competing on Japan ice. I mean what if he drops a 4Axel during GP. They could have seen that in action (I kid...or AM I?) Oh well, good luck Shomita. He's pretty much guaranteed a win in NHK. Who else is shocked at Cup of not China is now GP Finland? I wonder why Korea turned them down. It's not like they don't have a perfectly good arena and infrastructure in place. I would have thought they would have tried keeping 2 in Asia. As I'm in Japan and might have a possibility of going to Korea, I'm a little bummed because I don't usually try to go for NHK (unable to compete for tickets with crazy Japanese fans). However, I'm excited to see Yuzu return to the WR setting Worlds location. As for Yuzu's 2 GP assignments. While I'm surprised he's not meeting up with Nathan or Shoma at all until GPF, I'm excited that he has some good competitions with Kolyada in both assignments and Boyang in one. With his tendency of loosing the first GP event of the season, maybe Boyang and Kolyada will sneak in with a win. I'm a little leery about Yuzu competing in Russian against Kolyada. I'm predicting some score suppression on the judge's part. So...if Yuzu comes in second in GP Finland, and second in Rostelecom... Predicted GPF participants: Nathan: easily win SA, I'm predicting he'll win at France as well Shoma: guaranteed win in NHK, probable win at SC Kolyada: I'm guessing top 3 finish at GP Finland, and win at Rostelecom Yuzu: top 2 finish at all GP Boyang: I'm guessing 1st or 3rd at GP Finland, 2nd or 1st in France as for the 6th Men... I'm guessing Keegan might have a really good chance. His 4A practice looks fully rotated and smooth exits. He'll probably win 2nd at SC, he might podium at Rostelecom. Vincent might get in there too. He most likely will get second at SA, NHK field is looking pretty weak actually. He might podium there. Jason might make his second GPF as well. He might be able to podium at SC against a relatively weak field, and might be able to get 3rd or 4th in France.

Um how did Kakuchi-san get MORE hair? Or did he shave before and it's different lighting. I'm surprised they still have similar height difference. I thought Yuzu grew a lot since he turned Senior.

I actually thought he looked like he lost weight at Kobe. I was worried he was loosing weight as he tends to during ice show season.

Dies laughing at bold You're not the only one who likes the ruffles. People are saying get rid of it. Well you get rid of it and all you're left is a pink version of the Swan. I disagree. Maybe some of the larger looser pieces can get trimmed down toward the top part of the arms, but those ruffles work so well with his arm choreography and the delicate music. You can't have celestial maiden without those ruffles!

They HAVE to invite Shoma or Nathan? Why? I really don't know how they choose which GP to go to. I'm seriously asking.

When's the last time Shoma went to NHK? Has he ever? I suppose I just took it for granted that Japan will always pick Yuzu so he'd be host pick. The last time Japan had two top skaters at NHK was back when Daisuke Takahashi was king (and had to withdraw due to injury) and Yuzu swooped in for the win. Edit: NHK Men's field was kind of decimated by injuries and withdraws last season. Hoping for a better field this year.

Why is it for sure that Shoma will get NHK? Because he's second seed in the world? I thought the host can pick anyone. Yuzu is still a lot more popular in Japan than Shoma based on crowd response.

So Canada will have SC and COC (wonder what the name will be). Bad time for Kate to take the GP off and for Chiddy to retire.

They heard me

Give us the short program you cowards!!!

You think he will keep the 3F? I've always thought that's the one jump guaranteed to go the way of the Dodo. I see him putting in a 4Lutz because he doesn't go backwards technical wise unless of injury. Somewhere in that mess would be a 4Axel when he gets it.

Absolutely agree. There's a smoothness and flow to his movements. Everything looks effortless (which is why when he falls it breaks the flow and punishes the program). When performed perfectly, as in his WR setting WC win, it's a masterpiece and master class in skating.

Thanks for the clarifications! I'm not sure how I feel about this. I know it's in response to the ladies field and making sure not everyone is going to have a back loaded program. But who else remembers that when Yuzu first came on the senior scene, he managed to be so competitive because he's been backloading his jumps since the beginning? I remember watching Nice WC the British uncles marveling at him doing 5 jumps in the second half. Would he have advanced so quickly and broken so many records without all those backloading?

I just saw a video on Instagram full of Yuzu wilding jumps during gala or exhibit practices. There was one session when he kept tacking on loops at the end. He can get it, but looses balance on the landing. Mr. perfect landing and difficult entry Hanyu would never perform a combo he can't give his best.

I have a question regarding second half bonus. I know the rules are 1 bonus in the SP and 3 in the LP. My question is, which jump gets the bonus? Is it the first jump (SP) or first 3 jumps (LP) after the half way point? or is it the last jump in the SP and last 3 jumps in the LP? Looking at Yuzu's intended 2017/2018 layout, the difference is pretty big. SP: 4Loop // 3A, 4T3T is now either 4Loop, 3A, 4T3T (bonus) or 4 Loop, 3A (bonus), 4T3T LP: 4Lutz, 4Loop 3F // 4S3T, 4T-loop-3S, 3A2T, 3A, 3Lutz is now 4Lutz, 4Loop, 3F, 4S3T (bonus), 4T-loop-3S (bonus), 3A2T (bonus), 3A, 3Lutz, or 4 Lutz, 4Loop, 3F, 4S3T, 4T-loop-3S, 3A2T (bonus), 3A (bonus), 3Lutz (bonus) I don't know which I prefer the first 3 in the second half or the last sets. I know toward the end of the program is when everyone is tired and hard to perform the jumps so in that sense, I think the second half bonus should go to the last 3 jumps in the LP. Or maybe they should choose by highest BV in the second half. Any thoughts, clarifications?

NIKKA Sports

Good grief. I haven't responded previously, but seeing multiple pages of discourse on this, I just want to clarify that I was responding to Micaralis (sorry misspelled). Her definition of elite was if you are expected to medal at every event. In that vein, I don't believe Yuzuru was a shoo-in for a medal at every event prior to his WC Bronze breakout which happened a few short months before he moved to TCC. I didn't follow Yuzuru back then (or Men skating much). I have no idea who's in the conversation as far as the elite field. He wouldn't have made US news because, you know, it's the US and they frankly don't care about Men until these 2 seasons. My comments had nothing to do with Nanami-sensei or her work with Yuzuru. There's no doubt she formed a great foundation that helped sculpt him into a great skater. On the same token, she's not his only teacher. He learned jumps, spins, and basics prior to her. Let's not erase those coach's existence either. Yuzuru might have been part of the elites in Japan, but I don't think he was elite level in the world before moving to TCC because A) he was only 17 B) Just won his first WC medal after a breakout season C) he was an up and comer, but not quite top of the tier at that moment. I guess my definition of elite would be top 6 rank in the world and gets to skate in the final group of men. +/- a few elites who might have been ranked lower due to previous injuries. Just my take on it. I mean if he was already ranked top 6 by the time he skated at his first WC (SP, not long) I'll revise my estimation on his previous elite status. Different people have different definition of 'elite.' Let's leave it at that. Can we calm down now.

Yuzuangel also loaned her banner to me during the Olympics. It was shown (along with a lot of other Planet Hanyu fans' banners) in Japanese newspaper.

Who else skated to Ludovico Einaudi? Is that the same guy who did Experience that Laurine LeCavallier skated to or something completely different? I love that song by the way.

By that definition, I don't think Boyang's reached it yet solely for the fact there are so many skaters right now (SQUAD) that could podium in whichever order. I don't get the sense that Boyang is "expected" to podium by the commentators if the entire SQUAD is there. Evgenia is expected to win every event due to her consistency. I do agree though that Yuzu wasn't quite elite level when he moved to TCC, but he reached that level within 2 years.

The one I'm surprised about is that it's Shue that approached Brian at WC. I've always known she's a coach along with her husband heading up Chinese FS, but she's always been so behind the scenes.

Looking at the judges' scores for his record setting 2015/2016 GPF. I am outraged! Who is judge 5? A 9.0 for skating skills and Transitions? A 9.25 for Choreography? For Chopin 2.0? How dare you!

I loved this moment and Jason consulting with Satoko backstage to make sure he wrote it correctly *and still got his name wrong*