General Yuzuru Chat

[Lunna]

10 часов назад, memae сказал:

Not that I'm unaware of the politicking and corruption in the ISU, but to be fair the 3 nominations for each category  were selected by the voting open to the general public a few months ago and there were plenty of other skaters people could vote for. I remember voting for Shoma for best costume (his first SP costume was the best one last season and I will not hear otherwise).

 

I do wish they made these awards less about the skaters and more about the behind-the-scenes work. Coaches and choreographers were a good category.

But I think voting was about only 1/3 of the result and we never saw voting results anyway (in TV shows like The Voice here in the final they at least show the % voted by audience and % voted by jury and then total result). And final result was decided by jury anyway.

 

And I am not so sure about coaches/choreographers/designers. FS is quite a small circle so all nominees are well-known and quite in demand anyway.

[Fay]

KOSE is congratulating too

 

 

[yuzuru_hanyu_is_an_angel]

Everyone's congratulating the best boy 

 

*whispers* media attention and sponsor appreciation 

[Veveco]

3 hours ago, FlyingCamel said:

Olympic channel published an article on the awards... and if course we know who is headlining it XD

 

Actually that article has some pretty dubious statements. Feeding the narrative that Yuzu has a gap to fill and only deserves the award because of his fanbase? That the awards were met favorably by fans? Referring to a skater as "property" is also a special choice of words...

Olympic channel knows who the big star is for sure but they do him a disservice with this one.

[Neenah]

I think it is fine if they keep the awards in this format (virtual). No need to disturb Worlds or any other competition. Just do an award show later after  the season ends to celebrate it and the skaters. This way it would be harmless and less expensive for them as well. I think it will bring more engagement from the fans if they weren't feeling cheated by losing the gala. 

[Frenchkiss70]

32 minutes ago, Veveco said:

 

Actually that article has some pretty dubious statements. Feeding the narrative that Yuzu has a gap to fill and only deserves the award because of his fanbase? That the awards were met favorably by fans? Referring to a skater as "property" is also a special choice of words...

Olympic channel knows who the big star is for sure but they do him a disservice with this one.

This is a very poorly written article and the narrative is  so biased 😒😒 

[Frenchkiss70]

9 hours ago, Ladysci said:

I'm a bit late, but as someone living in the rain ravaged part of Japan, I want to say thank you to Yuzu for mentioning this situation in his Japanese interview during the awards. He truly has great empathy for people and this is one reason I'm such a fan of his.

We are fortunate that our house in on a small hill, but far enough from steeper parts, so no flooding and no danger of landslides. Even for the Japanese rainy season, the rain fall was much greater than usual; about 400mm + in the course of 48 hours and it has been raining for the past couple of weeks. My old research institute, unfortunately by a big river, was flooded. It was good that we were "stuck" in Japan for a longer time due to the Covid situation (had been in the UK for work the last 10 years), since at least we could fix our roof before the rains started. Last year was bad also and I definitely feel that it is a consequence of ocean warming, exacerbating the rain potential.

Stay safe 🙏🏻💕

[barbara]

1 hour ago, Veveco said:

 

Actually that article has some pretty dubious statements. Feeding the narrative that Yuzu has a gap to fill and only deserves the award because of his fanbase? That the awards were met favorably by fans? Referring to a skater as "property" is also a special choice of words...

Olympic channel knows who the big star is for sure but they do him a disservice with this one.

Agree - usually the Olympic Channel is more in tune with how important Yuzu is to them and to the sport.  And "His American rival simply does not have that hubbub around him, enabling him to be more focused on what he is doing."???  How insulting.  There is "hubbub" (that would be us) around him when we can see him compete, but no one, no one is more focused on skating than Yuzuru. We know he is virtually invisible to everyone outside of his training mates and TCC and is "enabled" to focus on his skating.  He has said many, many times that his whole life is skating.   It isn't, really - he is also so attentive to the people of Sendai and Japan and everyone facing tough times and/or disaster.  He is the whole package.

[rockstaryuzu]

7 hours ago, Ladysci said:

Now everyone is paranoid about losing data, especially when you try to publish and the reviewers have a million questions.  I'm keeping mine backed up on several hard drives, along with my "million" Yuzu pics and videos---must keep my priorities straight 

Absolutely! Save the Yuzu files! Joking apart, I hope the rains let up and the floods subside soon, Japan has been hit with an awful lot of that lately. Stay safe!

 

[micaelis]

22 hours ago, barbara said:

He has said many, many times that his whole life is skating.   It isn't, really - he is also so attentive to the people of Sendai and Japan and everyone facing tough times and/or disaster.  He is the whole package.

That's why he got the Peoples Honor Award.  Yuzu is not only a complete skater, but a complete human being.  His services to Japan are too numerous to itemize but I would venture a guess that Yuzu has the highest 'trust' factor of anyone in public life in Japan.  Part of that 'trust' is that he does not put on any airs, shows no arrogance and readily opens up to those of the lower strata of Japanese society.  He is not a snob and treats the lowliest person he encounters as if that person were the emperor.  We see that also in the numerous kiss and cries where he bows to his coaching staff, recognizing the part they have played in making him who and what he is.  I think the only display of superiority he shows is in his trademark jumping up to the gold level part of the podium.  That and his trademark entry into a triple axel.

[Faithyu]

1 hour ago, Veveco said:

 

Actually that article has some pretty dubious statements. Feeding the narrative that Yuzu has a gap to fill and only deserves the award because of his fanbase? That the awards were met favorably by fans? Referring to a skater as "property" is also a special choice of words...

Olympic channel knows who the big star is for sure but they do him a disservice with this one.

 

Absolutely, this article is a big No. I'm a bit surprised about that, because they usually write quite good articles about Yuzu,

but this one doesn't work at all, there is so much wrong with it.......just no

 

[Faithyu]

4 hours ago, FlyingCamel said:

 

In my opinion, it would be great if everyone could tweet a "hands down" kind of reply to make clear, what we think about this award.

There are already a lot of tweets that show that the award is not well received, but most of them are "Yuzu" as answer to the "what was your highlight" question.

Please ignore the line "what was your highlight of the virtuel event", they just want to gain positive respones with that.

Even if Yuzu won (luckily, otherwise I would really have doubted their common sense) this doesn't change the fact that the award is just a bad idea and if they

are asking for our opinion, why not give it to them?

[rockstaryuzu]

Okay, here are my two cents about the awards. I was going to post this in General Skating Chat but since everyone seems to be talking about it here:

 

My main takeaway from this: the Awards would be best done as a stand-alone event. Even doing it virtually, getting through the six awards took more than an hour. I can't picture grafting that onto any arena event such as a Gala or even ice-show type performance that came at the end of a week of competition, when everyone's weary and their butts are sore from stadium seats and their hands are sore from clapping and skaters just want to get home . If it has to be held in any way that's connected to a competition, such as Worlds, then it should still be a separate event from the Gala. For the skaters' and audience sakes, both. Literally schedule it apart from the other stuff, and sell separate tickets to it.

 

Or, keep it virtual. The format works pretty well and probably costs less to stage.

 

It should NOT replace a Gala exhibition. Why? Because the Gala exhibition is an important opportunity for skaters to show their stuff in a non-competitive setting, as performers. It's a stepping stone to landing professional ice show contracts as far as I can tell. Especially for non-medal winners, this could be key to their future careers. Don't take it away.

 

On top of that, every year skaters retire, and the Worlds Gala is the swansong for some of them...they  and their fans deserve that opportunity to say goodbye.

 

Now, as for the awards themselves, I agree with everyone else that the lack of transparency around the nomination process, voting, criteria for the awards etc are problems. To that I would add that costume designers should be getting equal billing for the Best Costume award (and maybe this award isn't really all that appropriate anyway? seems a bit like an elementary school Halloween party idea to me. 'Achievement in Costume Design' would be a better approach), that they need to have awards categories for every discipline (pairs being left out of the nominees is a problem!), and that 'Best Coach' seems like a nightmare to judge (another award that would be best switched to the 'Achievement in' approach instead).

 

I am very pleased that Yuzu got MVS, he's put more bums in seats at competitions for the last ten years than any five of his competitors combined. And I feel mildly ashamed that as his fan, I haven't been able to live up to his level of class and graciousness in regards to these awards. On the other hand, unlike some of us, Yuzu didn't spend $1300 dollars (or more) on an all-event ticket only to find out six months later that he wasn't going to be getting what he paid for. So while I will try to emulate his wonderful manners in future, I still will give voice to my reality here.

 

Which brings me to the crux of the problem: the reason we all hated the very thought of these awards is because they were introduced to us by means of a trick. Worlds 2020 all-event tickets were sold including a traditional two-hour gala. Long after the deadline for purchasing and paying for the tickets has passed, we were then told we would not be getting the Gala but something entirely different.

 

It doesn't matter one iota that the 'something entirely different' turned out to be something sort-of okay.

 

What matters is that we were tricked initially and will not forget it.

 

I ask one thing of the ISU and all future Worlds organizing committees, and one thing only, from here on out: Be upfront about what you're selling us. Every time.

 

When people are investing the equivalent of a monthly mortgage payment in the ticket price, it is the rock-bottom least you can do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Figure_Frenzy]

12 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Which brings me to the crux of the problem: the reason we all hated the very thought of these awards is because they were introduced to us by means of a trick. Worlds 2020 all-event tickets were sold including a traditional two-hour gala. Long after the deadline for purchasing and paying for the tickets has passed, we were then told we would not be getting the Gala but something entirely different.

 

It doesn't matter one iota that the 'something entirely different' turned out to be something sort-of okay.

 

What matters is that we were tricked initially and will not forget it.

 

I ask one thing of the ISU and all future Worlds organizing committees, and one thing only, from here on out: Be upfront about what you're selling us. Every time.

 

@ ISU: we still remember where the pitchforks are, and just because you gave Yuzu a *consolation* prize doesn't mean that you have the free pass to underscore him yet again. We know your shxt games.... 😒😒😒

 

I know, talking about this in this tone make it seems like we are an ungrateful bunch, but if you look at the whole situation.... there's barely any gesture (especially from the I*U, U***A, you know, the usual suspects) to be gracious towards...

[rockstaryuzu]

4 minutes ago, Figure_Frenzy said:

 

@ ISU: we still remember where the pitchforks are, and just because you gave Yuzu a *consolation* prize doesn't mean that you have the free pass to underscore him yet again. We know your shxt games.... 😒😒😒

 

I know, talking about this in this tone make it seems like we are an ungrateful bunch, but if you look at the whole situation.... there's barely any gesture (especially from the I*U, U***A, you know, the usual suspects) to be gracious towards...

Yes, exactly.

 

pitchforks, indeed!! And there's also  torches: