EisElle

ok this is hard and oc the fear of jinxing is there but...I've predicted Zuzu gold till now and (WD aside) got it right so...skating gods I can tolerate if I lose this game BUT gimme Zuzu gold plz plz plz Ladies: these are more of my anti-jinxing for Rika...and Kaori...than predictions but oh well and I'm feeling bad for leaving out Satton Men: Pairs: feeling bad for not having more faith in S/H and P/J Dance: trying to predict politics here too 1. Which country will win the most medals? 2. Will we have an all Japanese/Russian ladies top 6? 3. How many of the gold medalists will win with at least 1 world record? 4. Which skater/team will win by the largest margin? 5. Which disciplines will have no falls from any of the medalists? 6. Will there be a +5 Final GOE element in the competition? 7. Who will get the most points on a single element? 8. Will anyone get a Final PCS of 10? 9. Who will have the highest total TES score? 10. Will the US increase its world team for next year (currently 9) 11. Will Canada or Japan have the smaller team next year or will they tie? 12. Will Russia qualify for 12 entrants in next year’s worlds?

Thank you @sallycinnamon for the interview! Marton sounds like a very friendly guy and whoa I'd love if one day Yuzu could skate on his live music. Was it at rostelecom cup gala that Marton played during the finale? I kept thinking how great it would have been if Yuzu was there too... Crossing fingers for future collabs

I hope this time there won't be "I feel no pain because I'm on painkillers, you know, and actually I still feel pain but I'm pretending I don't and I'm just gonna will the OGM into existence" Well, of course I hope he can truly will two clean & gorgeous programs (and the gold medal) into existence at Worlds, but I hope he'll also be truly pain-free and that he has had nice and proper full training. And that there won't be any more scary falls during practice, warm-up, competition, on ice and off ice (I'm trying to cover everything). Please skating gods I'm trying hard to keep my zen but everytime I remember the wait is about to end I feel all the zen slipping away or rather running away

since it's still March 11th in my timezone, I'm gonna pretend I'm not late for spamming some gifs* from one of the less known Requiem performances, from “24 Hour TV” 2015 (big thank you to Kaeryth's compilation otherwise I wouldn't have found the source, and thanks to yuzu_pino for the upload). Yuzuru was skating for the population of the affected areas. The occasion and the setting, with all that fog in the cold rink, make for a particularly eerie and intimate atmosphere though I wish the cameraman wasn't shy with the close-ups and didn't almost lose Yuzu at a point *I originally meant to also gif White Legend and Notte Stellata, but.. alas! sadly days are not 48-hours long (tho with all the the catching up I'd like to do, it's likely not even 72-hours long days would be enough.... edited to add source. @anyanee I understand your feelings. I believe I was able to enjoy figure skating much more when I took scoring without questions and I had no real fave, and I'm sure I'd be much, much much less stressed if I cared a tiny bit less about Yuzuru achieving what he wants... sometimes it's really mentally draining. If it can be of any help, when worrying about Yuzuru, think that at least he has already accomplished what everyone else couldn't even dream of. Even if judges were to make him lose undeservedly in the future, it would be sad, it would make us angry, it would make him disappointed, but it wouldn't be heartbreaking. He's gone thorough Boston and the following months, he's gone through those 3 months before PyeongChang and he overcame all of them. If you feel that the positive emotions you get staying in the figure skating fandom can't make the bad things at least endurable, it's good to step back. Don't fear of feel guilty about the chance of moving on from figure skating. I'm sure that even if you were to forget Yuzuru, one day you'll rewatch one of his programs again, by chance, and you'll remember why it mattered so much to you, and you'll realized you haven't quite really let him go. You don't need to think about Yuzu everyday or follow the events he takes part in and watch his videos to keep cherishing the good things that he and his skating brought into your life. Those good things are part of you now, storing them away for a while won't make them disappear. Plus, learning to be a better version of ourselves is something we can take from him, too, isn't it? please, take care of yourself, but still, feel free to reach out and talk whenever you need to let out you feelings too, without worrying about bringing gloominess. In case you haven't noticed, mood swings are commonplace here on the Planet one way or another, something crazy or cute or hilarious will pop up and balance things out

Ahhhh allow me a moment to publicly gloat because I've managed to buy those line stickers (thank you, kind fanyu who came up with that vpn method) who cares if I don't know anyone using line, and hey, it could come in handy for a satellites meeting in a future comp

me reading through the last few pages, seeing the page count had increased quite a lot since my last visit and dreading that some unnecessary twitter drama was going on here too and finding talks about hieroglyphs and elven languages: I love this Planetand how crazy we can get Also, congrats to Brian (and whole TCC team) I find it amazing that he's got the award despite being non-japanese (and that's he's only the second FS coach to get it!) but it's so well-deserved, for all the years of hard work (hard work that included those amazing days in PyeongChang, when you could really see and feel the trust and bond among the coaches and Yuzu). There have been some (sometimes big) bumps along the road, and who knows, there might be more in the future, but the Yuzuru we love and admire wouldn't be who he is now if, 7 years ago, he hadn't made the choice to go and train in TCC, if he hadn't leaped into the unknown and met Brian and Tracy and Ghislain and Jeff and Shae-Lynn (and of course a kind-hearted training mate). And his skating wouldn't be the same, either* *not that I don't love his skating before TCC (it was already so essentially him, despite the young age you could already see that he had a voice of his own, different from that of his role-models, different from anyone else's). I'm thinking more about how he has been able to soak in all the different influences from different schools, coaches, philosophies to build his own unique skating How every single encounter, every single experience has molded him and his skating. Also, without moving to TCC we likely would have not had some of the greatest and most iconic programs of all times ETA: OT I love my current rank

bouncy Yuzu and Queen! This needs to happen! next season one day! Please skating gods & Jeff (and please ankles, do behave too) make it possible! but while already daydreaming about new programs, I can't wait to see the current programs...we've seen them only 3 times sob this isn't fair please skating gods, after 4-months of being deprived of of Yuzuru's skating, in Saitama WC the world deserves to be blessed with a set of beautiful skates to Otonal&Origin(and HYK), right? Right? (and Yuzu deserves good ankles and general health too, plus all the gold medals and to be bouncy and happy on top on podium, please and thank you) ETA: I also want to add a general, huge WELCOME to all new satellites, and thank you thank you to all satellites here on the Planet, I've been reading again the "when you become Yuzu fan" thread and it's just so soft and funny and wholesome and full of relatable stories awww I'm melting (the streaming party has put me in *soft* mood)

thank you @4Nessie for hosting the streaming party! and for the extra too thank you satellites still a few weeks waiting.....ok hopefully all this soothing content will keep me from starting freaking out already.... for...maybe... a day or so

I hope this time I can stream from phone, sadly TV is already taken

I'm honestly dumbfounded. I guess Liza wasn't the only one being naive. Why did they even waited these two days and make drama escalate even more if they had no intention to wait till Universiade for Stasya? Well, I'm glad at least the skaters can now focus on worlds. Tho the circumstances aren't good... (oh Brian, couldn't you leave out the 'fair' part? I understand and approve supporting your skater in front of media, but that word really rubs people the wrong way rn, with the whole decision-making process being so debatable). Sad for Liza. What more could have she done? And does Rusfed really want to pass the message that skaters must skate at Nats even when sick and injured, because if they don't skate (or crawl) there all the hard work and results outside that one comp they missed (not because they chose to but because of serious health issue)don't matter? And yes, I wonder, if Evgenia had been in Liza's place, would have they really let one point difference in scores in one local comp decide who to send? (Likely not) (people who atm don't feel particularly benevolent towards Zhenya can skip the spoiler) @shanshani I agree that it looked like Zhenya was recovering from the bumps in first half of the season, but truth is that Liza was in upward trajectory after her pneumonia, too. If she had showed no improvement at all after her first after-illness competition, I would have understood, but she did so much better in russian cup, to me it looked like she could replicate the same successful trajectory she had the first half of the season. Also, she is less at the mercy of tech panel than Zhenya atm. True, Zhenya has higher scoring potential and an undeniable pcs cushion (tho it's to be seen how much it would hold on if she didn't skate well again), but this season she hasn't really come close to that high potential, not even once (well unless we want to count the russian cup fin but even there she wasn't flawless, at all), so tbh I expected Rusfed to choose stability and reliability over scoring potential, this time....as I said, IMO Liza's most recent comps suggests she was back on track. I'm surprised and tbh disappointed at the overhelming majority of fed people who picked Zhenya over Liza for the team. With available data, I can't think of that overhelming majority as something logic. Also...idk I hope Alina and Zhenya competing together again won't be unnecessary additional stress for the ladies... this season, whenever Alina vs Zhenya drama ensued things didn't go so well for them... Wishing all the russian representatives to show their best. (OT but hoping for Misha in particular to do well, too) I don't think there are high chances of russian ladies losing a spot, but you never know....well maybe, on a second thought, I do glimpse some sense in Fed choosing another skater (other than Alina) who can score decently even with bad skates...there is Sofia for stability(it feels like she'd be some kind of lifeline for the fed) and then two high potential but wildly unpredictable...BUT there are not so many ladies who are scored better than a Zhenya (or an Alina) with a couple of falls....and e.g. among the 12 ladies with higher SB than Zhenya, 5 won't be in Saitama....maybe, choosing Zhenya, the Fed is being more conservative than I thought...as in, "assuming our skaters do badly, how to manage to keep the spots....easy, I send skaters who can still score well enough (compared to a Satoko, a Bradie, a Mariah, a Llilbet)!". And if they do well, I believe Zhenya is a potential gold contender too. Atm I'd say it's unlikely, but if international judges are even remotely eager to throw points at her, clean Zhenya can easily score better than clean Kaori (which, ngl, would make me extremely upset. I love both but atm and with their programs and under this scoring system, Kaori shouldn't score less than clean Zhenya. Using Kaori as example because they have quite a similar jumps layout). This of course doesn't make the whole thing any fairer for Liza tho

I love that Sota has taken the role of the dependable & caring senpai all team Jpn interactions at Challenge cup were so wholesome, all those group pics were so much fun also, belated congrats to the skaters who won medals and stole hearts at that comp some more info: I can't believe how far he's come in just a few months OMG bb please don't work too hard she's been crossing oceans and mountains back and forth non-stop this season after worlds (and WTT, I guess), please take a good rest sad wishing steady recovery to Ryuichi, concussions are tricky I'm extremely disappointed that JSF isn't able to build a decent pairs and ID program. With the wealth of skaters Japan has (and maybe more help from foreign coaches for pairs especially), they could do so much better. I understand that maybe it's hard to find male skaters who can throw and catch girls, but what the heck, Han Cong isn't a giant either...and some skaters have very successfully switched to pairs after skating for many many years as single skaters (like Marchei/Hotarek). So IMO it's likely more a matter of difficulty in getting dedicated ice time in crowded rinks and unavaliability of specialized coaching....maybe even lack of enough incentive for single skaters to switch to pairs and ID instead on leaving amateur skating for good to focus on education. All issues that could be somehow solved if JSF was really interested.

the only acceptable reaction to that program Yuzuru, I hope you know what that program, skated like that on that ice, meant for us. What all PyeongChang OWG meant for us. Thank you

LOL they are really going to make everyone wait till the very last moment, aren't they? I can't say I understand RusFed rn To me things were much more unclear before the most recent competition. Or even before the FS of Russian final cup (sorry for commenting here, I have missed the live-drama in the thread during russian cup, so putting this under spoiler, my point has probably been made several times already) I wish Russian fed could cut the drama and decide soon, so skaters can focus on their training. While it's true one still trains with the "chance" of a WC in mind, my personal experience says that, when the deadline is sure and fixed, focus is much sharper Is it bad that I almost wish the same? But then I think about the skaters (all the skaters who next season would need to fight even harder if spots were only 2) and...nope nope nope it would be a real nightmare (like when Japan had only 2 spots not that having yhose 3 spots makes things easy, but, at least, 3 deserving ladies get to go...) Watching that 3-3-3 combo from Alina, I wonder if her team might decide to switch to 3Lz3T in the SP...the strategy paid really well for Anya, and I doubt the loss in BV would be too tragic for Alina, especially if it could mean less stress for her and higher chances to have the jumps fully rotated. GOE would probably obliterate any BV loss....

@4Nessie is Black Swan referred to White Legend? Is there a particular reason why it's planned before NS and HYK? Asking because in my mind Requiem-NS-HYK are a trilogy and I always watch those 3 programs in that order, tho of course WhiteLegend and NS are also closely related anyway, out of curiosity, which version of Swanyu, spring fairy and Hana ni nare are planned? also...which WoW? the one with the awesome 3T exit and IB from Makuhari or the one with the swept-back hair from Kanazawa? as for extra suggestions ...*aggressively points at 2014 Change* Yeah I know everytime there is a streaming party I try to sneak that one in, I just can't resist LOL it's my adopted not-so-famous Yuzu program Nevermind, it doesn't really fit the spring theme so I can survive without it I was thinking it would be nice to add the CiONTU finale, but it's about endings and new start, maybe it would fit better the mood of an after-WC streaming party...tho it makes me soooooft

Thank you for the OT, loved the info For laybackInaBauer lovers, some IB for every taste here https://twitter.com/yuuhi_hy/status/1097795072093958145 I love how Yuzuru uses his arms in different ways in every program. Even when he does the same move, like holding his arms up and then opening them, he can make it look gentle and dream-like as in NS, or fierce and explosion-like as in Origin. OWG Seimei was also extra-special and extra-powerful among all the Seimei IB thanks to that added little flourish

Lol FS stans vs Golf dudes would be a battle I'd like to see (I feel golf dudes wouldn't survive tho) But really, one wonders why so many sports are widely accepted as sports while fs, that pushes the limit of what's physically and mentally possible for a human body, is disregarded on regular basis just because looks prettier (and sadly it's a sport that takes a huge toll on the body, I don't think a 40 years old skater would be able to be competitive....even if he wanted to, and even if he was relatively injury-free...) ETA: I wanted to add this because it's too funny https://twitter.com/tikudzi/status/1097597381288300545 More seriously

Re: Laureus https://twitter.com/axelsandwich/status/1097579367004139520 Ngl I'm lolling so hard reading twitter reactions rn because #relatable Well, not unexpected, and still great that Yuzu was nominated (tho... honestly I would have been happier if anyone but the actual winner had got the award...) And Japan still got its first Laureus winner, and I consider Naomi a honorary satellite so I' m twice happy for her Yuzuru, let the kuyashii burn and conquer in Saitama next month!

thank you @sallycinnamon for hosting the streaming party and thank you everyone for the fun

Happy 2nd OGM anniversary to the Planet and again a million CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!! to Yuzu who made his will become reality (and what a reality!)

Ahhhhhh is this new yes it is ahhhhh omg so much content today I'm crying 😭 I guess it says a lot about us that 30s long video message + 1 sec greeting on another skater's insta, after 1 month of radio silence, is "so much content".... also, I guess this means we'll need to survive on this content until he sets foot in Japan for WC.... but I'm so happy Yuzuru let us actually see and hear him on this anniversary...all according to the plan!

I love 1 (one) King of delivering. On this special day, he shows up again awwwwwwwwwwwwww THANK YOU YUZU, you've just put a huge smile on my face the timing!!!! gosh it's SO like him!

Congrats to Yuzu for his come back SP in PyeongChang it was a dream come true for fans and a declaration for all competitors. The last performance in competition of Ballade n.1 couldn't have been more iconic

Ahhhhh I'm definitely stealing tv for the sp(tho last group will be during dinner nooooo even if I can keep tv no chance of religious silence and maybe my father will try to steal tv back to watch the news he watches the news everyday all day multiple times, he can skip them once or twice, right? Sadly can't join for the FS maybe I can pop in on phone a bit but no chance for when it's Yuzu's time but I'll still be gushing mentally with all of you Thank you anyway

US media reinventing the wheel Equipment for panels isn't the best, this isn't new, and it's a bit disappointing that we have articles about that only thanks to Vincent of all the skaters it's as if jpn media had started a campaign for better camera angles claiming Satoko's jumps were unfairly called (sorry Satton). All skaters are judged with the same bad equipment, included Vincent's competitors at 4CC. It's likely all of them have sometimes been unlucky (or lucky) with camera angles on some jumps and have received unfair calls (or avoided fair calls. Leaving aside the selective blindness from panels atm). But for Vincent to have such monumental bad luck so often...!!! (oh wait...when it's not bad equipment, there are ballerina ankles to blame) I think it's already the second article in a few months framing Vincent as The victim of unfair calls...but...well, I'll be happy if US media could really put some pressure to ISU and force them to improve the equipment. YES, please. btw, leaving aside the reason of the article, I don't think the piece is bad. I agree with the main point -- ISU should give better tools to panels (and also work on making scoring more consistent....but one step at a time). ISU owes that to skaters, whose careers depends on the calls they receive. That's true too. Same could be said about the argument 'lenient panel but consistent panel is fine'. No, I want a strict and consistent panel. maybe it's just one skater, but if that one skater has rotated all the jumps, he/she deserves to see that reflected in BV, even if it means the other 15 skaters have lower BV due to the strict calls. Why would that one skater count less than the other 15? It's not like the other 15 are being unfairly dinged... nice from LynnR. to say that and whoa is that PRE-ROTATION I read, on NBCsport? Weird, I thought no one in the skating workd cared about PR, why is she even mentioning that? not so long ago, someone, somewhere else, felt compelled to claim that, on behalf of the whole skating community, so this is actually quite funny YES PLEASE I'M BEGGING In the meanwhile Japan is out there experimenting with ice-scope...who knows, maybe in 20 years or so the currently available technology will be implemented in FS... after all ISU is still stubbornly insisting on CDs...in the era of cloud sharing... 20 years feel like a reasonable time tho ISU is in good company in behing way behind the times...it took an awful lot for football to even start experimenting with VAR...and at least there is one practical reason for ISU's delay: fundings (or rather, their lack of) why no billionaire is interested in making donations in figure skating? It's a such a beautiful sport...so diverse...full of riveting narratives, athletic feats, unexpected twists and there is DRAMA

@cronkitewelcome! Ahhh I see statistics can make people delurk, nice let's keep them coming! as for the bolded part not OT but still about jumps: Last season there was a russian anaysis of men's jumps (I'm sure it was discussed in the general skating chat) and while Yuzuru wasn't the one with the highest jumps (iirc he had the highest 4Lo tho...but the sample of 4Lo was small and the other skaters jumping it weren't 'big jumpers' anyway). While one can discuss about the accuracy of numbers, comparisons were interesting. It looked like the trend was: higher number of quads, smaller jumps. Maybe because smaller jumps are less draining and a skater can skate a whole program with many quads without being dead at the end Anyway, Yuzuru was among the few who could achieve the multiple quads while still jumping big. (and this while also having programs packed with skating content between elements not bad for a skater who has never had stamina as strong point) Yuzuru also combines jumping high with jumping long and that makes the trajectory of his jumps look particularly good @Henni147 thank you for your video! (and please keep them coming, I love them) I have watched the most recent subbed snippets about Yuzur's earphones, Nobu and Uchimura and I have squealed repeatedly (particularly at the footage of OWG Yuzu) It's the usual missing Yuzu hours for me actually, it's go-to-bed hours so I'm out LOL