rockstaryuzu

🤣 okay, now I get it. Cute comedy act.

And Adam brought the house down! Nam asked him what he was thinking, doing the back flip. I honestly do not understand why the Georgian pair got a guest spot. Oh well. Looks very 🥵 IRL, though

Adam! Doing Uptown Funk

Lovely hydroblade from Chaeyeon

These two really understand what a gala program should be - creative, novel, interesting, entertaing. Chaeyeon has only been skating for 7 years?!

...what are Charlene and Marco wearing? A robot program? Interesting

Shoma doing "Come Together". It suits him

Kimmy Repond doing Star Wars. This is a very nerdy quibble, but she's holding her lightsaber by the blade... she should have studied up on sword handling a bit for this

So if you want a perfect example of a PCS- forward skate, check out Yuma's exhibition piece. Nice big Yuma Bauer, gorgeous everything. Simply fab. The Hungarians doing... Austin Powers. Kinda slow paced. Nam also threatened to skate. I wish he would, I miss his exhibition skates.

Lilah & Lewis next. Nam bantering with them. Doing Lady Gaga in purple. I love them! Yuma next.

- Nam reminded Elvis that he's old. Three times. -Loena 2nd. Looking gorgeous in pink. - On Ice Perspectives is here? ( turned out not to be them, just a cameraman) Loena just came right up to my section. So pretty!

Gala notes, just in case anyone cares: - the ensemble from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra is a nice start. - Nam & Joanie Rochette as MCs. - first skater is Elvis. Doing what Elvis always does

https://twitter.com/cheyuzu/status/1771657407917162765?t=t7s8Hs57qx2ChtYU3LymqQ&s=19

That doesn't mean we can't celebrate other skaters. Also, loving Yuzu doesn't mean worshipping him like he's a god. I'm sorry, but I'm having a really hard time with this idea that we're not allowed to compare other skaters to Yuzu, except if we're being unfavorable to them and exalting him. I think he's the G.O.A.T., but I also haven't lost my critical thinking skills.

So, for me, Adam's skate ( and Adam) was the star of the night. It was supremely funny to see him sit in the first place chair in the green room all the way through 2 and 3/5s groups of men. And in fact, in the end, only Ilia was better than Adam today. As for the rest, I had a bit of drama going on with me personally (not serious, more like an anxiety-inducing inconvenience) throughout the entire men's event, plus the afore-mentioned issues with my phone, so I might not remember everything of import, but here goes: -the young Korean kid - Hyungyeom? looks verrry promising! A nice clean skate. - Adam's backflip brought the house down, and got cheers every time it was replayed on the Jumbotron. Everyone loves a cheeky Frenchman! And even with him giving up 2 points for it, no one else came close to his score except Ilia. If Adam hadn't had problems in the SP, he would have given Ilia a run for the money for sure. Also, I adore Adam live. He's well worth making the effort to see him skate in person. -Donovan landed two clean programs! Hooray! Also a massive crowd favorite. Why he wasn't invited to the Gala, I can't fathom. Oh so sparkly with the costume. -Aleksander Selevko is truly spectacular in person. Not a foot wrong, and that heel turn he does in the change foot camel spin is a wow moment. You can't see through the screen just how much of a balancing act it is. And his hydroblade... *chef's kiss* - Roman got through it. Very shaky with the jumps, but as it was literally his 3rd comp of the year, he gets a pass. Lots of relieved cheering for him staying on his feet. - Jason was perfect. Of course. Crowd loved him, too. - Camden landed all his jumps in practice this morning, once again conveying a promise not to break our hearts. And he broke them again, anyway, with two falls. Pretty typical Camden. - Nikola Memola was making me nervous with how much jumps he did in practice - I thought he might be wearing himself out - but he delivered a great skate. Costume does *not* suit him - Jun. Oh Jun. *sigh* . The jump he popped - the one with the long diagonal approach down the rink - was giving him trouble in practice, too. He drilled it over and over and over again. Was it a new layout? I haven't watched enough skating this year to be sure. Anyway, hopefully he can hang in for another season! - Shoma both surprised, and didn't surprise, me. I feel like he reverted a bit to old habits with those falls, but I thought he'd left that behind. Anyway, a surprisingly expressive skate from him, otherwise. - Kao. It's hard to rememder how young he is. For his first senior Worlds, he did ok, but after tonight, no doubt he'll put "Skating is hard" up on his social media again. Hang in there, Kao. - Yuma, once again, except for that weird fall after the 3A was landed, put on a clinic. His technique is textbook. I kind of like him, JSF politics notwithstanding. - was it Gabriel who hit the boards just skating backwards? I've forgotten already. And Sihyeong nearly jumped into one of the sports photogs telephoto lenses. Quite a few of the skaters appeared to struggle with the size of the rink (NHL regulation as opposed to Olympic). - Wesley ... sorry but all I can recall right now about Wesley is the crowd cheering for him - Semen Danilliants - unexpectedly brilliant. Keep an eye on him. - Lukas Britschi - that costume and music are a *choice*. Great skate though. - Deniss. New program? Different from the rest of the season, anyway. He skated and it made everyone happy, tbh. - I don't want to leave Egadze, Shaidorov, Nordeback, and Gorodinsky out, but right now their programs are all a blur in my head, sorry And, finally, Ilia. Let me just say that I didn't know a TES of 137 could be a thing. But apparently so. I was sitting right on the 4A corner and he jumped directly in front of me. His feet literally cleared the boards. Not only is that jump massive, but he's improved it since I first saw it at SkAm 2022. And the rest of his skate... well. From where I sat in the audience, I could not see any flaw from a technical perspective, and I would hope that this is what drove the PCS so high as well. I think that perhaps being in 4th after the short lit a fire under young Mr. Malinin and pushed him to do his best. Now, should the PCS be that high? Debatable, but what I witnessed today didn't have anything that I could nitpick from the vantage point of a seat in the audience. If I have one quibble it's that I think Ilia always picks music much too heavy and serious for himself. That, and he still kind of skates straight from jump to jump, but apparently the judges like that, so 🤷‍♀️. Maybe people watching from home can see more or different things, but from row H seat 18 on a corner section, I thought it was a reasonable score for him. Argue if you want, but I saw what I saw.

I just realized I'm at 18% battery for my phone and brought the wrong cable for connecting to my power bank, so I won't be able to privide any commentary on the men until after it's over. Everybody, just watch the event, okay! 🙂

Piper & Paul were enchanting. That's as good as I've ever seen them skate. However, I will say this from rinkside: today there was a visible difference in the degree of difficulty of C/B's twizzles, with their coordinated dynamic arm movements, and G/P's twizzles, which did not have those. I know absolutely nothing about ice dance judging other than it's mostly {{{vibes}}}, but that's one thing that I feel confident a judge would pick up on. To sum up: i hated the scores yesterday, but today I thought they were closer to reality. Only a bit, though. Anyway, Piper & Paul look like they're ectstatic just to be on the podium, so it's all good!

Guignard and Fabbri had everyone spellbound. I hope they won't lose points for her dress catching on her toepick. That was just unfortunate

Well, Chock and Bates skated perfectly just now. And the judges thought so too.

Another great skate by Lilah&Lewis

Fabulous skate by Zach & Marjorie

Marjorie's dress is so gorgeous!

Allison & Saulius just gave us a whole free dance inspired by cellphone addiction. An excellent one, too!

Ah, sorry. It was meant as a " look at what the Japanese ladies have achieved! ", not " Look at what Yuzu didn't get to do". I think it's a lot harder to three-peat in the men's discipline, honestly.

Turkkila & Versluis have a huge contigent of fans here. Looking very quietly beautiful as they skate