21 分, Kattさんが言いました:

Of course, not you. There's alot of people on twitter said so. While I think it could play a small part, its far from the main reason. Nathan and Shoma skated well in SP though. What I want to say is, sooner or later, they have to face that kind of pressure, since Yuzuru won't be there until they retire. Yuzuru bombed serveral times while being favorite too, but I didnt see anyone said its because of X orY's absent. (As for me, I already knew everything would go wrong the moment Yuzuru WD from NHK )

 

 

Well, I did say the same thing though mine was based on a little observation, and not pure bias. I must admit, I was hoping for a bit of a bloodbath between the two with everyone else, especially Hanyu, out of the picture and what I got in the end was a parade in the rain with the fireworks show later cancelled. (That actually happened to me before during a trip to Disneyland.)

 

Still, it did confirm something for me. Since the scores were inflated in about the same degree for both of them, and they both got about the same degree of leniency (and strictness) and made about the same degree of mistakes, with what Uno has Chen lacks and what Chen has Uno lacks but both getting high scores for their lacks anyway, their scores ended up more or less on par, with Uno having the slightest edge (if we discount his -1 deduction).

14 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Well, I did say the same thing though mine was based on a little observation, and not pure bias. I must admit, I was hoping for a bit of a bloodbath between the two with everyone else, but especially Hanyu, out of the picture and what I got in the end was a parade in the rain with the fireworks show later cancelled. (That actually happened to me before during a trip to Disneyland.)

 

Still, it did confirm something for me. Since the scores were inflated in about the same degree for both of them, and they both got about the same degree of leniency (and strictness) and made about the same degree of mistakes, with what Uno has Chen lacks and what Chen has Uno lacks but both getting high scores for their lacks anyway, their scores ended up more or less on par, with Uno having the slightest edge (if we discount his -1 deduction).

I must admit I didn't read your post when I submit mine so :)) Well, I hope for a real bloodbath as well, especially after the SP, and Shoma he had good practices in the whole comp.  It means everything is unpredictable, Olympic would be so wild. High BV does not mean that much if you don't land/rotate all the jumps and combo. Who could've thought Yuzuru's COR is 3rd highest score in GP series, and his LP is 2nd highest (should've been 1st to me) 

Shoma always have a bit edge over Nathan with better spin/SS. And IMO it a bit easier to inflate Shoma's pcs since his skating is quite smooth despite alot of crossover and lack of transition. If you look at Nathan's feet during his performance, is edge is so flat and his stiff knee as well. Shoma has more flow and better upper body movement though

8 分, Kattさんが言いました:

Shoma always have a bit edge over Nathan with better spin/SS. And IMO it a bit easier to inflate Shoma's pcs since his skating is quite smooth despite alot of crossover and lack of transition. If you look at Nathan's feet during his performance, is edge is so flat and his stiff knee as well. Shoma has more flow though. 

 

Yeah, I thought of that as well when I said what Chen lacks Uno has. But Chen definitely has the technical edge over Uno although the scores don't really reflect that. But with this competition's scoring the way it is, they seem to be overlooking Chen's lacks more overtly than usual. So even though Uno has the slight edge still, as they balance one another out with their strengths and weaknesses, it all pans out to them getting about the same kind of scores.

7 minutes ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

 

Yeah I thought of that as well when I said what Chen lacks Uno has. But Chen definitely has the technical edge over Uno although the scores don't really reflect that. But with tonight's score, they seem to be overlooking Chenls lack more overtly than usual. So even Uni has the slight edge still, as balance one another out with their strengths and weaknesses, it pans out to bout the same kind of scores.

This is the 2nd comp when Shoma lost to Nathan with small margin, with the same amount of mistake, so idk how's the gap would be had both of them skate their best. 

 

 

7 分, Kattさんが言いました:

This is the 2nd comp when Shoma lost to Nathan with small margin, with the same amount of mistake, so idk how's the gap would be had both of them skate their best. 

 

 

 

If tonight's any indication, probably about the same but only much higher? As in over the 300-mark sort of higher. But they won't be too far apart from one another, I don't think, because of the yinyang* thing they've got going on. 

 

*Uno's yin and Chen's yang

3 hours ago, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

 

He could've. It's too bad for Uno. Nothing went right for Nagoya. They put up all those restrictions only for them to be rendered unnecessary but they have to stick to them anyway. Uno could've won but got waylaid by a deduction score that could've been avoided. I'll be the first to admit, though, that the pettier side of me that was born thanks to all these non-sporting shenanigans, and the part of me that roots for Chen (in the absence of the 3 older dudes) aren't particularly saddened by this outcome. The guy did good enough under the circumstances for that gold. And Uno didn't do worse than he did last season. He did better, in fact.

 

What restrictions were put in place?

Translation of interview with Shoma.

He explains why he didn't tack on at least a 2T to his 3S.

 

Wow, Shoma lost because of that deduction. That sucks a lot! TBH I thought he had it in the bag even before he even skated. Nathan's score wasn't hard to beat. But it wasn't to be...

 

I don't think I would rewatch any of the programs last night. I thought there were way more URs than were called, but...whatever. On replay I thought Shoma's first 4T and the 3F were UR...but I guess they only call the URs and DGs when the landing is obviously botched.

 

I hope Nathan gets his blade issues fixed, but tbh, I don't understand what's wrong with the blades? Like, I get that boots need to be broken in, but blades? You don't "break in" blades, do you? Can't he just get them made exactly how he needs, or does he not know what he needs? Um, skating on wrong blades...not to mention doing multiple quads...sounds insanely dangerous/scary so please get them fixed ASAP... In both his short and his free he looked pretty scared/tense to even be out there at all.

 

Welp, regardless of how the competition went, congrats to Nathan. He's still undefeated this year! That's really really impressive. Hope he gets those issues fixed soon.

1 час назад, katonice сказал:

Translation of interview with Shoma.

He explains why he didn't tack on at least a 2T to his 3S.

 

Shoma is always one of us: 

 

Thoughts on the ‘Hanyu-less GPF’?

S: It doesn’t feel like the Grand Prix Final. It just feels like a regular GP Series competition.

I was bothered enough by that time deduction making the big difference in the results here that I actually went and checked Shoma's SP music length. Sure enough it's down to the wire at 2:50. But he never got any penalty for it before, and it's been the same length since the GP season started. 

 

The timekeeper here was very harsh, and couldn't even forgive 1 or 2 secs of perceived extra movement. 

 

I wonder if Shoma's team will make any edits to the music cut now, or just maybe have Shoma start moving a few secs later. 

warning: unnecessary textwall no one needed and that adds nothing to the thread. just me rambling

 

What's happened overnight to the tech panel and judges? They did (most) of their jobs.

Ok, I suppose that these days we're all so used to mad scoring that as soon as we see something decent it shines brighter than it really is, but I have a bit less to be salty about the fs than the sp.

Wait, Shoma got stsq lv3, and what's happened to his second spin (the flying change foot)? (and just how much did his last spin travel?)

As for the not called URs, I would have liked to see at least an UR on Shoma's 3F, which is basically a little more than a double

Today still 88.44 pcs for Nathan. Against Shoma's 91.36... imo Nathan's should have been lower.

*goes to watch the programs...reads the protocols...sees in Marseille Yuzuru got 92.36 for his free skate with higher TES than Nathan's and Shoma's in Nagoya, despite lower BV... gets salty again*

tbh Nathan looked tired already at the start of the stsq. That's the part of the choreo that I like (just after the first spin), and imo it looked more convincing in SA. Yeah, I know he bombed SA, but I remember thinking that that part of choreo was really good...here...not so much

I think Shoma might have deserved to win, imo Nathan'SP was the more overscored than Shoma's, and his pcs for the fs are still too high so maybe Shoma should have won (I swear I'm not telling this because I predicted Shoma gold ).

Tho if we were to talk about actual rotations in the air things would get more comlicated

Good thing Mika managed not to bomb himself out of podium (tho I reckon he tried his best to do so )

grandaddy uncle Voronov was only 6 point shy of winning the final against youngsters with 5-6 quads, including F, Lo and Lz... when they say FS is an unpredictable sport...

Cheers for Voronov tho! He and Mika look by far the favourites for those oly spots. please let Russian skaters be at Olympics
 

In the end, it's happened exactly what I feared, the time deduction decided the match. Poor Shoma, he must be feeling very kuyashii, but I think all top 3 must be feeling a bit disappointed, because they couldn't skate at their best.

Among the medalists, maybe Mika is the one who feels happier, because at the start of the season he wasn't thinkig he had much chances at the final, and even less at a medal. It's good that he has learned to fight till the end of his program despite mistakes. Hopefully his confidence will grow and he'll make that 4Lz behave  

4Lz has been a bit capricious in general in this competition...I know, I know, lutzes were missing Yuzu too

This will be another learning experience for the the three medalists. Nathan has won but without brilliant skates, in a competition that was quite lacking in brilliant skates in general.  So he isn't going to get max boost from this title but, still, he's the current gpf champion and this season he's been beaten only in Japan Open thus far, so propaganda machine can still do its job. Tho media should have learned by now that all that hype can hurt the one they hype, too.

Allow me to feel a bit of selfish glee for karma coming back to bite US media propaganda showing men's skating is consistently inconsistent.

Also, a bit of relief that judges weren't given the chance to overinflate pcs...

 

I hope there's no more than fried nerves here, or at most those unfamous boot issues and not some injury. It's likely they were all just burnt out, after starting the season as if they'd bring the house down.

And again, in hindsight, maybe it's been a good thing that Yuzu has been forced to take a break. But I hope that he's healed and he's training well, now, with confidence but without rushing. Nationals are coming and I'm starting to worry about how he's faring. Sorry, I've just read @Gladi's last translation and I'm a bit emotional

 

ETA oh from Shoma's interview it looks he's going to channel his kyuashii just fine

The reasoning about not doing a 3T was good. I wonder tho, couldn't he try a 2T instead?

ETA 2: wait, was it because he couldn't tell if his 4T was that bad that it could be counted as 2T?

He could still try to make a 2Lo. Or a 3Lo

That cursed time deduction

So, I watched also this segment of competition of the men. There is not so much to say more than is already is done (the UR not called here and in the SP, the laughble PCS scores, the non existent - to me - IN...).

 

I thought: "It's true. Each of the top contenders has a lot of stress on himself for different reasons (already mentioned before by someone of you). It was for that". But then I thought at all the stressful situation in which Yuzuru delivered (from 2011 all the most important ones, with the exception of Boston, if you want).

 

Then I thought also: "It's just because they are too young, mentally and emotionally. They have still to grow in this aspect". And maybe this is the problem, at least for Nathan and Shoma.

Maybe after Yuzuru won over the older and more experienced and acclaimed Chan, most people has taken for granted that a youngster with strong technical content could easily do the fantastic things Yuzu did at GP and Sochi in 2013-2014 to overcome the "uncles" and Yuzuru himself. With Chen, also with the choices of his programs this year, they are trying to play the same/similar game that Brian-Yuzu did in 2013-2014 (modern and smart SP to cover stifness and to underline youth and freshness of the skater; FS with more slow and emphatic music, strong packed in TES to cover the difference in PCS).

But I am afraid that Nathan is not Yuzu, not only from the point of view of talent in skating, but also in term of personality and mental strenght. We will see next months. For Shoma the situation is different but maybe we will see better at Nats.

In the meantime, after I watched the FS of the men in this GPF, I felt the urgent need to look again at this (when BESP commentators still loved him...).

 

 

I know that the technical content is not comparable. But I have the impression that the huge difference in the performances is not because - or not only - because of this.... And here he was just 17 (younger than them), it was WC and this was his first senior season (a very stressful situation, indeed).

P.S. PCS in line with the time: 83.00.

Yay Voronov, well done laddie! 

Disaster competition  I feel like only Voronov deserved a medal today. Mika was his usual self, at least second part was good. I dunno what happened to Shoma and Nate: are they too tired, too much presser or maybe 5 quads in FS are really too much? And can Nate have a new shirt already?

3 hours ago, katonice said:

I was bothered enough by that time deduction making the big difference in the results here that I actually went and checked Shoma's SP music length. Sure enough it's down to the wire at 2:50. But he never got any penalty for it before, and it's been the same length since the GP season started. 

 

The timekeeper here was very harsh, and couldn't even forgive 1 or 2 secs of perceived extra movement. 

 

I wonder if Shoma's team will make any edits to the music cut now, or just maybe have Shoma start moving a few secs later. 

 

Because 2.51 isn't technically 1s overtime. It's 11s since the SP should be 2.40 in length, with +/- 10s as a leeway. So I guess it was really pushing it. Still kind of a stupid deduction to make.