Just had the time to catch up.

All I can say is, well, what else is new? 

Oh, wait. Chan received lower PCS in CANADA! That's new, I guess. And Uno's black pants in place of the gray ones! Good move.

 

I am so glad I did not waste my sleep over this.

 

ETA:

Also, @Yatagarasu, I don't think we would need a separate thread for the FS. So also with the ladies.

 

We are all satellites to a fault: no Yuzu, way less enthusiasm. 

 poor Patrick! 

 

- I dont like Patrick's SP as much as his Blackbird last year. His skating is still beautiful and easy to watch. But I'm afraid he will continue to have this kind of pcs because judges dont like these music and style, that's the reason why he and Yuzu's H&L was underscored last season. 
- Great performance from Shoma. I thought he did 4-3 when I saw the score. The 4F landing here is probably the best I've seen from him, but the GOE is lol, who care about step before solo jump.  At this rate, he's gonna get 48 pcs at GPF
-Jason skated this SP better than in senior B. I'm still not sold yet, too much posing to me I think. Jason got a +2 on his 3A so I guess people can stop ranting about a single +3 on Yuzu's 4lz last week.
-Jun's new SP is ok, he perform way better than I expected. The UR calls were right, but he's still in pain so at least, there's no fall

 

 

Finally got around to watching Shoma's SP. It's not bad, I like it much better than his FS, but god, I hate Vivaldi. He definitely deserves first place here, especially with Patrick's skate being kinda sloppy, but I really wish he'd work on his elements other than jumps. Some of those spins were not what you'd expect from the guy the judges are lauding as #1, he was moving all over the place. But well, it's still early in the season, hopefully the program will get better. 

Watched Jason, Patrick and Shoma live in the middle of the night. They were all so gourgeous.

Shoma´s Winter is a masterpiece imo. After Lombardia they have made at least two changes in the program, one in the enter to the short stop, one in the last gorgeous spin. Maybe more is coming. I believe he´ll try to get some more speed to the step sequence. And the landing of 4F was better than ever. Noticed some time ago that Winter and Turandot are the only warhorses he has skated to.  

Fuck. I missed the SP. WHY??

I thought it was gonna be tonight ;_____;

Lol at the SP protocols... J2 and J7... what the actual. 

Vivaldi is rolling in his grave. 

Watched 

 

Jason was great! And I'm not fond of his music but he made me like the program! Though I don't like whenever 3A has long set up (sorry, I got spoiled).

 

Same with Patrick, his music isn't my cup of tea but he makes it work. I liked the flow of each step and upper body movement into the next one (the only real break in the flow was before the 3A, but hey, it's the 3A ).

 

Shoma skated clean but I still think the highlighs of his Winter are the last spins, which are really beautifully matched to the music  (though this time all the spins travelled a bit). Tbh I still have my doubts about his connecting step/free skating movement before solo jump because it looked a bit too distant from the 4F. Not saying he should do any of the crazy things some junior girls are doing before their required solo jump, because it's still a quad, but if I were a judge I would let him pass the requirement but no way I'd give the jump a +3 (plus the goe bullets wouldn't warrant that anyway). Still, likely it was Shoma's best 4F.

 

As for Jun hwan, I think he can make this SP work (though maybe not Wakaba level). I love the InaBauer moment and part of the stsq. I think he lost speed towards the end of the program, which is understandable, of course. Crossing my fingers for his free tonight.

 

The true surprise here was pcs scoring. I'd never thought it could come the day patrick would be beaten there in Canada. True, the previous years Yuzuru was far (very far) from clean, but imo this sp, though flawed and maybe not skated at the best in IN and PE, doesn't warrant for some of the numbers I've seen. And for SS still you have to consider multidirectional and one footed skating, which are historically were Shoma is lagging behind if we compare with Patrick, though maybe it's less evident in the SP. So judges who put him above or very close to patrick in SS are wrong and not because I think so, but because the IJS says so (mind you, even if we're not comparing, 9s and 10s are meant for "outstanding").

But I guess Shoma got some olympic medal during summer, and now he's considered an above 9 skater in PCS (sorry, this isn't against Shoma at all, just a semi-playful jab at one british commentator)

 

Oh wait, I've just realized both Shoma and Patrick got lv 3 on stsq 

And Jason lost a level on one spin 

The world is ending

Btw I've tried watching half of Shoma's SP while watching his upper body, and half while watching his legs/feet. 

Upper body: kinda cringey imo, but interesting moments here and there. 

Lower body: Nothing. Ugh. Oh well. 

15 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

Btw I've tried watching half of Shoma's SP while watching his upper body, and half while watching his legs/feet. 

Upper body: kinda cringey imo, but interesting moments here and there. 

Lower body: Nothing. Ugh. Oh well. 

I've tried watching all top three focusing on footwork more, and the difference is there. Jason and Patrick have very different styles but even when looking mostly at their feet I noticed how they used their whole body in a way that looked very natural. The upper and lower part didn't feel disconnected to me.

I'm not a fan of the kind of sharpness of Shoma's upper movements, but I think it's because in general I might like modern/contemporary dance more, so it's really just my personal taste there. But his lower body movements are a bit underwhelming, outside of the stsq, expecially after watching Jason and Patrick.

I really really really hope Jason lands that quad tonight and he doesn't hurt himself in any way! The 4T from practice yesterday looked sooo smooth.

 

I know there's no chance of him outscoring Shoma, even in PCS though I think he should be up there with Shoma at least and Pchiddy a bit higher, in general. But I really really want Jason to have a score that makes him happy.

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

Btw I've tried watching half of Shoma's SP while watching his upper body, and half while watching his legs/feet. 

Upper body: kinda cringey imo, but interesting moments here and there. 

Lower body: Nothing. Ugh. Oh well. 

Wow, what an interesting exercise. I just tried. My takeaway is that he needs better choreography. The upper body doesn't match the music at all. Feels kinda random. I think Shoma has the potential for a good, musical performance, but I guess there's not much of a chance for it when he has to think about jumps jumps jumps all day. And when the judges overscore him anyway, they get the message that there's no point bothering with anything other than jumps... 

Since I left an angry post last night about Shoma's PC score I feel that I need to clarify  so that it is understood that I am not hating on Shoma or anything.

 

First, I don't think he was outrageously overscored or anything, I personally would have given him 43-44 in PC for that performance. 

 

Second, Performance wise, I think both Shoma and patrick can be much better than this and both of them are using programs that are within their comfort zone and plays to their strengths, so IMO neither is better than the other. Patrick has issues with his jumps but his inbetweens and the step sequence are brilliant and showcases his amazing skating. Shoma was better with his technical elements and his TES is mostly deserved but he was not his usual intense self and his arms movement was pretty awkward especially in the beginning of the program.

 

Third, I commented before about how I liked the camera work in this event and I will say it again. The angle of the camera made it possible to see the footwork and the tracing on the ice and it was very illuminating in showing the difference between the skaters skating skills and transitions. That is why it was easy for me, who is not an expert in FS to pick on the issues that Shoma has in his skating, and watching him after Patrick made the comparison easy. 

 

To sum it up, I do think that Shoma's lead is deserved and I am still rooting for him to win overall and have a clean free. However, I do not think that was a 46 PC skate or that he is anywhere near the skills of Patrick.  I am saying this even though I like Shoma more but it is the truth.

 

Hopefully all the men will have great skates tonight but I am not watching it live. I have a feeling I will be annoyed with the scoring again and it is not worth losing sleep over.

8 minutes ago, guitarist said:

Wow, what an interesting exercise. I just tried. My takeaway is that he needs better choreography. The upper body doesn't match the music at all. Feels kinda random. I think Shoma has the potential for a good, musical performance, but I guess there's not much of a chance for it when he has to think about jumps jumps jumps all day. And when the judges overscore him anyway, they get the message that there's no point bothering with anything other than jumps... 

 

I feel like his coreographer 'tried' to emulate Vivaldi's baroque style (which is a cold style of playing, if you will forgive me the crude term) through 'strict' and compelling moves. But the result is that Shoma looks like a puppet on ice thb. It's too much! Some moderation was needed!! 

Just caught up watching the men's and ladies' SPs, and I have to agree with most of the sentiments that've been posted here.

Out of Patrick, Jason and Shoma, Patrick really held my attention the most, even with the mistakes on some of his jumps.

His wonderful skating was really showcased here, and even if at first I thought I wouldn't like his program (I thought "Dust in the Wind" was a bit of a boring choice for skating music actually), he really made it work and I forgot about how I felt about his music selection.

 

For Jason, I thought this was the best performance he's had for this program yet. I haven't been convinced of his Hamilton program from the two times I've seen it in previous competitions, and tbh I'm still not fully sold. But with this outing, I feel like I'm finally seeing the potential of the program, and it's looking more cohesive to me than before. Jason is just a joy to watch, so looking forward to seeing a clean FP as well from him tonight (or tomorrow morning in my timezone).

 

For Shoma, I'm afraid "Winter" is not growing on me, and I don't feel like it's improving from his previous outings of it. And I have to agree with other people's comments that he was scored generously on SS and TR here. He really didn't do much with his feet during his performance, so I'm not sure where the judges are getting their scores from. He does have speed and power to his skating, but so does Patrick, and even better I would venture to say. Edgework, hmm I don't think anyone could say that Patrick would be lagging or be just about his equal there (and really Shoma didn't showcase much of this in his program). For TR I feel sorry for Jason... I mean c'mon he didn't even hit 9.0 with his TR score?? What was all that he was doing in between his elements then? Strolling?? 

 

Ah well... I guess I shouldn't let myself get so worked up over the scoring. Not yet anyway. And I sincerely hope it doesn't get worse than this.

 

For Jun Hwan, I was shocked when his scores came out. He didn't even get to the 70s... that must've been really disappointing. Hope he rallies back in the free. Really enjoyed Keegan and was amazed at his 4T combo. That stumble during his wonderful spread eagle sequence was really a surprise, but it's good that he was able to recover from it and finish his performance nicely. Feeling bad for Brendan. It just wasn't his night and the jumps just weren't cooperating. Hope he gets back and pull out a great performance in his FS.