Old Cat Lady

...and more importantly, can he even fit into those pants anymore after the weight he's gained? Let's be honest, those things were stretched to their limit in 2017.

Yes, but they don't do the galas Last year only Skate America had the gala. They didn't even show the worlds gala. Skate America and Nationals were also the only events with commentary, though that's mostly a good thing. Johnny and Tara were SOOO annoying.

Too bad they didn't announce this before I wasted money on that stupid NBC Gold, but I suppose that was the point. I don't blame the ISU in this case since I understand they need to prioritize the sport's financial interests, but I'm annoyed at myself because I don't even like NBC Gold but I decided that I'd rather pay the money that supports this shoddy product than learn something useful when I didn't even need it yet. Now I need to get off my lazy butt and finally figure out this VPN business.

These questions are supposed to be a specific skater/couple rather than a discipline. Still plenty of time to change your answers But this gives me ideas for new questions on the next events

I made this before I found out that Rika wasn't going to attempt the 4s and after Tuk got negative GOE on all her axels at her first event but before Finlandia. Thought about changing it but figured it's just one question, no big deal. eta 3 days later: It took me this long to realize Rika isn't in this event and if she were, it would make the question even dumber. I have no idea what I was thinking when I did that bonus question then. Probably mixed up events. Oh well.

That's pretty incredible. Is there no guideline for entries? There's such a big difference between challenger events. I find this to be one of the weakest, least interesting challengers even with so many entries.

If anyone still wants to participate, I changed the thread title for the prediction game to encompass the whole series. The deadline for predictions is when Skate America begins. The countdown is on their site https://www.2019skateamerica.com/page/show/1760277-home

Firstly, it is not true that a leg wrap (or tilt for that matter) requires a deduction. There is nothing in the guidelines that say so and I personally wouldn't reduce for either unless it was excessive. There is only a reference to having a good body position with no reference for what it should look like. Judges have shown over and over that they don't reduce for things that aren't obvious or aren't marked by the tech panel. Judges are not taking stills of jumps mid air and a tech panel doesn't flag body position. Alena's body position looks fine in real time. I doubt most judges would take off for it, nor is there a requirement to do so. Unfortunately I'm no good at tech stuff so I can't make any stills or GIFS, but even in the stills you posted, you can see that Rika has much more of a tilt than Alena. They're not supposed to, but judges clearly compare skaters when marking GOE and a tilt is much more obvious. Even if you don't want to give her body position, Alena still hits more bullets than Rika. 2nd, you have to go by this year rather than last year when talking about transitions. I never said that Rika had long prep, but that she has no difficult entries. And there is literally not a single one so far this year - I'll change my mind if the choreography changes. As far as technique, she was never a particularly big jumper so not sure what difference last year vs. this year is. 3rd, I already saw you comment about Rika's spins -repeating the same statements aren't going to make me change my mind. I see nothing wrong with Alena's Biellman and frankly I don't remember how the I-spin compares. And once again, even if you want to give Rika these 2 spins, they're only 2 of many. Overall, Alena's spins are faster, more centered, more musical, with nice positions.

Absolutely and by a significant margin. Judging by what we've seen so far this year, her jumps are bigger, have a much better running edge, have a better landing position, normally a more difficult entry, often a more difficult air position, and often have some sort of musical detail. Rika doesn't have a difficult entry on any of her jumps - there's only 2 that really have anything before the jump but there's such a large break between the steps and the jumps that it isn't really part of the entry. Rika's jumps are consistently very tilted in the air, which I personally don't consider a big deal but tilted jumps usually take a GOE hit. Alena hit the outside edge in the SP and flat in the FS so it's a matter of the execution on the day on whose lutz is better. It's irrelevant that it's a shallow edge if she hits it - there's no extra GOE for a deeper edge on a jump. Even if you want to argue that it's always on a flat, it only one aspect of only one jump. Whatever leg wrap you're seeing doesn't affect the aesthetics of the jump - I highly doubt most judges are going to deduct for something that has no impact on the overall appearance of the jump. I disagree that Rika's spin positions are better. Alena's are also faster and more centered.

I wonder how much weight he's gained in the last couple years though. He used to calculate his body fat because apparently there was a difference in the quality of his jumps when he veered from 4%. What is several pounds of muscle going to do? His jumps have looked heavier but I'm not sure how much is just injury vs. adjustment period while training new quads vs. adjusting to a new body composition

The return of Alena's 3axel is a complete game changer! She goes from being in the middle of a dog fight for Russia's 3rd world spot to a favorite. I haven't done the projections yet, but new rankings after this weekend 1. Trusova 2. Kostornaya - better quality on her elements than Kihira 3. Zagitova/Kihira - I think it'll just come down to how well each executes - not just being clean, but the quality of the elements on the day. This, of course, is assuming that Kihira heals and puts the lutzes back in her program. 5. Scherbakova 6. Medvedeva 7. Tuktamysheva 8. Sakamoto - perhaps a little wishful thinking here, but right now I'm just going to write off her first competition as early season rust 9. Miyahara 10. You - higher scoring potential than Lim. I dropped Tursynbaeva because if she's so injured that she can't even bend forward to receive her medals, I don't see how she's going to get that quad back this season. Mariah Bell is on the bubble for the top 10 I will emphasize again that this isn't a ranking of how I think they SHOULD score but how I think they WILL score. Last week I was sure that Zagitova was on the world team but now I think it'll be a fight. I still think she's the favorite for the team, but there's real pressure on her to perform consistently. She desperately needs to keep her reputation up.

I wonder what her motivation is. If it's just to enjoy skating and end her career when she's in a happy place, then good for her. But if it's to try to be a medal contender or national champion or even to be a figure skating star, then I really worry for her. I don't think she's going to achieve any of those things and I'm worried it'll crush her when she's already fragile.

Honestly, I don't think it'll be relevant to her results. It's all completely riding on whether she can land that quad and even then it's a long shot to podium at worlds so it's better to at least be healthy. Back injuries are so scary because they affect so much of your movement and are hard to treat. I don't know what it is, but I'm worried she's going to be in lifelong pain if she keeps pushing it.

ISU sure is waiting til the last minute to figure things out ... yes, I'm sure the way to make FS more popular is to prevent even the people already watching from doing so

lol, you notice that I didn't admit my budget either ... It's probably better that I don't think about it. I started mid-year so I also used up all my vacation days on Yuzu with the intention of even using unpaid days if necessary but luckily my boss is awesome and said I could use sick days in place of vacation. This reminds me of the Chinese money bouquets that some men use to propose. Maybe we need to learn how to make those - can you imagine if all those plushies were replaced with wads of cash ... giving me ideas for next year

I see it now. Thanks For those of you who still want to buy it, here's a link to make it easier https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B07W95FCWT/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_api_i_26TtDbVEH10XP?fbclid=IwAR2VFThu8-LTFJ_6YTp7Ej9AfACeBlQMebWkyPB-PO_gd6fcJb4eyAfTTu0&language=en_US The language selector is right next to the search bar. btw, anyone want to admit what their Yuzu budget is? or maybe what percentage of their income it is?

Trying to buy the Yuzu Blu Ray but google can't seem to translate the Japanese Amazon page... The main reason I want to buy it is because I want to support his official merch in hopes that it'll encourage doing shows outside of Japan so the rest of us have a shot at seeing him when he retires.

If you take Japan Open seriously - and it does have ISU judges and tech panel - Zagitova is more competitive than I originally thought. Her PCS rose since world's and, in spite of losing levels in 2 elements, which she doesn't usually do, there was only a 6.12 point difference in the free skate, which she almost makes up in the SP. Granted, Trusova had several messy landings and a lost level in her skate so she could shut the door completely by skating cleaner, but JPN Open shows that she needs to skate clean even with her giant tech gap. Zagitova World's SP score = 82.08 JPN Open actual score = 154.41 JPN Open FS projected score with lvl 4 everything = 155.92 Projected total score = 238 Trusova Ondrej Nepela projected SP score w/8.5 pcs = 76.71 JPN Open actual score = 160.53 JPN Open projected FS score if clean = 168.51 projected total = 245.22 *Note. Trusova's projections are based on a rise in her PCS as the season goes on. Her PCS actually went down from her score at Ondrej Nepela FS in spite of it being a fluff competition. With the ISU being criticized so much for not having a "woman" win (lol, that a 17 yr old is the "woman" amongst girls) and the desire to promote rivalry, I wonder if there will be a push to keep Trusova's PCS down (fairly, but that's a different discussion) Even if Kihira skated cleanly, Zagitova would have beaten her in spite of two 3 axels (proj score=152.58). If you replace her 2a with a 3lz and use her worlds FS PCS, I end up with a projected fs score of 156.17 eta: btw, Kihira's high SP score is from WTT = 83.97 83.97+156.17 = 240.14. I'm assuming she'll do a lutz instead of a 2axel when her injury is healed. However, WTT scores tend to be high.

Yes. And to be fair, the character's face and his mannerisms look more like Yuzu than Machida. Though the body and story line are more like Machida's. Don't know if the same gestures were in the manga, but considering that the anime came afterwards, perhaps the creators modeled at least some of the character's mannerisms after Yuzu since Yuzu's popularity was one of the things that propelled the anime's production. If nothing else, Raf is there to keep him grounded. I still get the impression that if he weren't Nathan's coach, he'd be more of a Yuzu fan than a Nathan fan and we have to remember, that Raf is a crafty strategist. He's not going to let media hype influence what he thinks is needed to win. kind of cracks me up that he's doing manner hands that hover right over the posterior. He seems to have developed a habit of dropping one of his hands pretty low which wouldn't happen if he just did a bear hug that would come naturally to a lot of Westerners.

The only video I saw was the Youtube video posted in the event thread, but I honestly think she's just getting better at holding the outside edge longer. The angle of the blade at the end of take-off is definitely inward due to the rocking motion at take-off, but because it happens so quickly, you can't be 100% sure if it went completely toward the inside at picking or if the momentum caused it to turn that way after. Depending on what their video looks like, I think this call is understandable. Of course, there was no slo-mo replay of the lutz

1.List the top 3 of each discipline. (optional - 4 in case someone withdraws) Bonus Questions 2. In ladies, will there be more clean (positive GOE) 3 axels or quads? 3. Who will have the highest PCS before factoring? 4. Who will receive the highest GOE on a single element (before factoring)? 5. In ice dance, will anyone who was not top 3 after the rhythm dance end up with a medal? 6. Which disciplines will have a new season’s best? Grand Prix Finals Qualification - to be scored after NHK. 1.Who will qualify for the finals. *Optional - list alternates in case of withdrawal (2 for each correct) 2.Who will be the top qualifier in each discipline? If there is a tie in points for placement, I will use highest total score as a tie breaker (2 for each correct) 3. Which disciplines will have a new world record by the end of the series?

Made a game for Skate America and GPF qualifications.

No, you have to skate in an event in France for that Made a new game for Skate America and the Grand Prix final.

Doesn’t look like Joey is doing the game this year. Hopefully she’s still around and ok. eta: There was a request to keep it all in one thread so I changed the title and all the prediction games will be in this thread to make it easier for everyone to keep track. For the first event, since there's so much to keep track of, I just did a simple reply format so that people can change their answers until the deadline. There's a countdown on the Skate America site so I'm going with that as the deadline https://www.2019skateamerica.com/page/show/1760277-home After this, I'm going to try Google forms to reduce thread clutter and so I don't need to feel embarrassed by how bad my predictions are Rules 1.If you make any changes to your predictions, please edit your original reply rather than posting an additional one. 2.I suggest predicting a top 4. If someone withdraws, I’ll bump everyone you predicted below that person up a spot. 3.All predictions due by the warm up of the first event. First day of Skate America is Oct. 18 Scoring 1 point if your skater ends up within 1 place of your prediction. 3 points for every correct placement 2 points for every correct answer to bonus question Entries for Skate America are here: http://www.isuresults.com/events/fsevent03111918.htm 1.List the top 3 of each discipline. (+ extra in case someone withdraws) Bonus Questions 2. In ladies, will there be more clean (positive GOE) 3 axels or quads? 3. Who will have the highest PCS before factoring? 4. Who will receive the highest GOE on a single element (before factoring)? 5. In ice dance, will anyone who was not top 3 after the rhythm dance end up with a medal? 6. Which disciplines will have a new season’s best? Grand Prix Finals Qualification - to be scored after NHK https://www.isu.org/figure-skating/events/grand-prix-of-figure-skating 1.Who will qualify for the finals. *Optional - list alternates in case of withdrawal (If someone withdraws before the final but after all the series events, I'll take the list of people who outright qualified) 2.Who will be the top qualifier in each discipline? If there is a tie in points for placement, I will use highest total score as a tie breaker. 3. Which disciplines will have a new world record by the end of the series?

1. The pink version of this wins hands down. 2. This bluish version. 3. Dory 4. Xylitol - if you ripped the orange thing off, you had a nicely fitted body suit and I love him in white. The costume was actually quite fetching from the back side. How did they manage to mess up every aspect of these pictures when their subject is so photogenic? I'm starting to wonder if this was meant tongue in cheek - you'd have to be doing this on purpose to do it this badly, right? Terrible colors - check. Baggy enough to hide his trademark body proportions - check. Make his face look even creepier than that wax figure - check. At least with Dory and Xylitol, you still had a beautiful face and proper fit to look at it. The worst thing about this ad is what they did to his face. Looks like they dunked his head in bronzer and then still CGI'd it.