2018/19 GP Assignments

[yumeaki]

14 minutes ago, glilikoi said:

I've never been to Moscow and I'm biased as a Finnish person, but I would say Helsinki is probably easier because it is multiple times smaller. It has a subway and municipal rail that connects all the main neighbourhoods, there is a nice tram system overground - although public transport is not as frequent as in bigger cities, it's reliable enough and there should be no problem getting where you need to be. And as for walking, the center is not that big and is very walkable. Traffic is safe and the city is generally well organised so it's easy to navigate. 

Thanks! This is good to know! 

[kaeryth]

Time to dig this up...

 

[asiacheetah]

I'm really surprised that they didn't try to get Yuzuru to NHK. I know Shoma is a seeded skater, but having experienced competition in Japan and the crazy popularity of Yuzu, I really thought they would have tried to get Yuzuru there. With the way GP series is this year, Japanese Yuzu fans will have to travel far to see him, since he won't be there until Japan nationals. Plus we got so used to him going to NHK for 4 years in a row. Who know how much longer Yuzuru will continue competing. I know Shoma deserves this assignment and is overdue, but I feel like the event organizer missed a prime opportunity to see their home grown hero competing on Japan ice. I mean what if he drops a 4Axel during GP. They could have seen that in action (I kid...or AM I?)

 

Oh well, good luck Shomita. He's pretty much guaranteed a win in NHK.

 

Who else is shocked at Cup of not China is now GP Finland? I wonder why Korea turned them down. It's not like they don't have a perfectly good arena and infrastructure in place. I would have thought they would have tried keeping 2 in Asia. As I'm in Japan and might have a possibility of going to Korea, I'm a little bummed because I don't usually try to go for NHK (unable to compete for tickets with crazy Japanese fans). However, I'm excited to see Yuzu return to the WR setting Worlds location.

 

As for Yuzu's 2 GP assignments. While I'm surprised he's not meeting up with Nathan or Shoma at all until GPF, I'm excited that he has some good competitions with Kolyada in both assignments and Boyang in one. With his tendency of loosing the first GP event of the season, maybe Boyang and Kolyada will sneak in with a win. I'm a little leery about Yuzu competing in Russian against Kolyada. I'm predicting some score suppression on the judge's part.

 

So...if Yuzu comes in second in GP Finland, and second in Rostelecom...

Predicted GPF participants:

Nathan: easily win SA, I'm predicting he'll win at France as well

Shoma: guaranteed win in NHK, probable win at SC

Kolyada: I'm guessing top 3 finish at GP Finland, and win at Rostelecom

Yuzu: top 2 finish at all GP

Boyang: I'm guessing 1st or 3rd at GP Finland, 2nd or 1st in France

 

as for the 6th Men...

I'm guessing Keegan might have a really good chance. His 4A practice looks fully rotated and smooth exits. He'll probably win 2nd at SC, he might podium at Rostelecom.

Vincent might get in there too. He most likely will get second at SA, NHK field is looking pretty weak actually. He might podium there.

Jason might make his second GPF as well. He might be able to podium at SC against a relatively weak field, and might be able to get 3rd or 4th in France.

[asiacheetah]

For the ladies, I kind of wished for a showdown between Alina and Evgenia before GPF, but oh well. Looks like Russia picked a side toward their Oly Champion and gave the Rostelecom assignment to her.

 

Predicted placements and thoughts"

SA: Bradie will get unreasonably inflated scores and win. Satoko will get unreasonably low PCS score (as usually the case for all Japanese ladies) and come in second or 3rd. Kaori will probably podium. Radionova might as well. Oh boy 4 ladies for 3 spots. Should be the two Japanese ladies and Radionova, but this is SA we're talking about. (Also, SA continues to push their most bland lady skater EVER)

 

SC: Evgenia will win. Wakaba will podium. Tuktamaysheva might podium as well if the 3A is with her. Gabby should podium unless she has a meltdown. I'm guessing Evgenia and Gabby will podium for sure and Wakaba and Tuktamaysheva duke it out for the 3rd spot.

 

GP Finland: Alina will win. Carolina will podium and so will Kaori.

 

NHK: Tiny queen Satoko should win. Mai Mihara should podium. Tuktamaysheva might probably podium, as well as Maria Sotskova (the Russian version of the bland lady skater).

 

Rostelecom Cup: Alina will win. Wakaba should podium. Against a surprisingly weak Russian field, Gracie might make an epic come back and podium in her first and only GP event of the season.

 

Int de France: Evgenia will win. Carolina will podium. Mai might be able to podium as well at Sotskova and Bradie. Rika (depending on her 3A) might score really high technically and make a great senior debut. I'm hoping Laurine has 2 good programs this year and score well.

 

GPF predictions:

Alina: wins both GP events

Medvedeva: wins both GP events

Wakaba

Sotoko

Kaori (wait that might be too many Japanese ladies and the judges love to underscore them)

and another Russian lady (I'm rooting for the triumphant return of Tktamaysheva and her 3A)

or Bradie (the blandest of the bland) _{*I'm so mean. sorry not sorry*}

 

[Forcefield]

28 minutes ago, asiacheetah said:

So...if Yuzu comes in second in GP Finland, and second in Rostelecom...

Predicted GPF participants:

Nathan: easily win SA, I'm predicting he'll win at France as well

Shoma: guaranteed win in NHK, probable win at SC

Kolyada: I'm guessing top 3 finish at GP Finland, and win at Rostelecom

Yuzu: top 2 finish at all GP

Boyang: I'm guessing 1st or 3rd at GP Finland, 2nd or 1st in France

 

as for the 6th Men...

I'm guessing Keegan might have a really good chance. His 4A practice looks fully rotated and smooth exits. He'll probably win 2nd at SC, he might podium at Rostelecom.

Vincent might get in there too. He most likely will get second at SA, NHK field is looking pretty weak actually. He might podium there.

Jason might make his second GPF as well. He might be able to podium at SC against a relatively weak field, and might be able to get 3rd or 4th in France.

 

This looks eerily like my predictions of the Top 6 men pre-Olympics season when I thought podium finishes were guaranteed. I was so sure that Yuzu will win NHK and go to GPF. Then Javi bombed COC. Pchiddy managed to uncurse the Canadian gold. NHK happened. Boyang opted out of GPF.

 

Since everything bad happened last season, praying that we have a good season this year.

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, glilikoi said:

Yeah ticket websites have a tendency to be the worst so I think they expect me to call a number that costs 2€/minute + extra fees from calling internationally... I tried sending them an email though, hope they can show a bit of understanding (preparing for the worst, spending like 30€ just to not lose even more money though xd). Oh well, this will teach me some reading comprehension!! Feel soooo stupid now. 

 

Anyway so ticket sales only begin in August.. that is so late! But at least I will have time to make back the money I just lost  Seriously though, I wonder if they will sell out lightning-fast. Should have been suspicious with this Finlandia Trophy precisely because there was so much availability.. I just kind of thought "oh well, maybe Finland is just too remote for many people", but realistically speaking they might sell out really fast. Like someone pointed out, Helsinki is linked to Japanese cities via direct flights so...

Finlandia is part of the Challenger series, isn't it? There should be some interesting skaters at it, so maybe you can just resell?

[Xen]

1 hour ago, kaeryth said:

I just realised no Vale/Ondrej..... Who will lift the Celestian Maiden^TM?

Well there's Han Cong...I'm sure Sui won't mind, she might encourage it. And there's always Bates-remember how Swanyu was doing "hand clasp begging face" to Bates before? There's also Ivan Bukin.

1 hour ago, hoodie axel said:

Men's GPF predictions: Boyang, Nathan, Yuzuru, Shoma, Vincent, Mikhail Kolyada.

I'm looking at assignments and worried for Boyang. He probably won't win against Yuzu nor Nathan if everyone goes clean. So he's really fighting for 2nd place.

(Honestly, I'm rooting for a Boyang > Nate upset at IdF, and I'm amused that USFSA avoided putting Boyang into SA, so they finally see him as a podium threat against their men)

TCC boys have it *hard* this season

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, kaeryth said:

I just realised no Vale/Ondrej..... Who will lift the Celestian Maiden^TM?

No Misha Ge to take the photo either, so will the Maiden feel the need to be that extra ?

[glilikoi]

3 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

Finlandia is part of the Challenger series, isn't it? There should be some interesting skaters at it, so maybe you can just resell?

I could try that too! It does seem like it would be a fun comp to watch if I lived in Finland, but it's still a flight away from me and it's just a month before the Helsinki GP so it would be too much of a hassle to go to both.. But I'm sure they will have some good skaters too. I'll try to resell if they reject my plea for refund  

[freyaminnie]

2 minutes ago, Xen said:

Well there's Han Cong...I'm sure Sui won't mind, she might encourage it. And there's always Bates-remember how Swanyu was doing "hand clasp begging face" to Bates before? There's also Ivan Bukin.

 

 

It still puzzled me how Bates can resist the "hand clasp begging face" from Swanyu till this day. His force is too strong! 

[Forcefield]

5 minutes ago, Xen said:

I'm looking at assignments and worried for Boyang. He probably won't win against Yuzu nor Nathan if everyone goes clean. So he's really fighting for 2nd place.

(Honestly, I'm rooting for a Boyang > Nate upset at IdF, and I'm amused that USFSA avoided putting Boyang into SA, so they finally see him as a podium threat against their men)

TCC boys have it *hard* this season

 

If Yuzu crashes and burns like at ACI, I'd rather he lose to Boyang though. Just because, like Javi, somehow they make me feel better about it. (Also Boyang is at TCC now so that works, right?)

 

Idf (and SA), waiting to see if Lorrie Parker will be on the panel. Of course, she doesn't have to be for Nathan to get 9+ PCS though. BV and GOE levels have reset but bias candies and PCS will most likely not. 

[SweetSakura]

5 hours ago, Yatagarasu said:

 

I expect it. He has earned a status of legend by now so he's partially protected in that way but at the same time, it's also an ideal excuse for JSF to not lobby for him and focus on Shoma. 

 

I'm not up to date with JSF politics. Why would they want to focus more on Shoma and what is their agenda? Thanks!

[hoodie axel]

36 minutes ago, Xen said:

I'm looking at assignments and worried for Boyang. He probably won't win against Yuzu nor Nathan if everyone goes clean. So he's really fighting for 2nd place.

(Honestly, I'm rooting for a Boyang > Nate upset at IdF, and I'm amused that USFSA avoided putting Boyang into SA, so they finally see him as a podium threat against their men)

 TCC boys have it *hard* this season

Considered a few possible scenarios. Outside of health/random melt downs, that ought to be the finals list. Boyang's worst might be a 3 (FIN) + 2 (FRA) -- he made it to the GPF last year with a 4+2 (although because Yuzuru withdrew). Made it in 2015 with a 2+2, 2016 with 5+1 (don't care what the "official" "results"/politciking polluted bs says). Yale!Chen might indeed lose to Orser!Boyang, and I'd hardly call it an upset.

[Xen]

1 minute ago, hoodie axel said:

Considered a few possible scenarios. Outside of health/random melt downs, that ought to be the finals list. Boyang's worst might be a 3 (FIN) + 2 (FRA) -- he made it to the GPF last year with a 4+2 (although because Yuzuru withdrew). Made it in 2015 with a 2+2, 2016 with 4+1 (don't care what the "official" "results"/politciking polluted bs says). Yale!Chen might indeed lose to Orser!Boyang, and I'd hardly call it an upset.

What about Aliev > Zhou for GPF? He could go 2 (NHK)+ 3 (IdF)?

[hoodie axel]

11 minutes ago, Xen said:

What about Aliev > Zhou for GPF? He could go 2 (NHK)+ 3 (IdF)?

I did consider it, and I think that's in the back of my head, but Vincent's quads and (credit where it's due) effort in the PCS department ought to take the cake. Thing is, Aliev has a great style, but his technique isn't a lot better. Zhou looks like 2+2 to me.