GPF a little flat this year? | Golden Skate

GPF a little flat this year?

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
Did the GPF fall a little flat for a lot of folks this year? Maybe it was the several withdrawals or something, or we're still missing the likes of Lambiel and Buttle, who knows, but I really thought I'd be glued to the computer all weekend and the rest of this week keeping up with posts. Not so at all -- hasn't taken much time to read every new post on all the threads on the GPF.

I know discussion will persist, of course, but still -- last year's Ladies LP thread had 401 posts, with offshoot threads about Mao and Yuna. This year not nearly so much despite Mao's 2 triple axels. The Free Dance generated 175 posts last year -- only 85 so far this year. Again, I know discussion will continue, but it doesn't seem on track to come close to discussion after last year's GPF.

Are we all just thrilled with the results, so there's not much to say?

Or are more fans still turning away from skating, for whatever reason?

Is anyone else finding a lot of performances these days busy busy busy but nevertheless boring somehow?
 

Tonichelle

Idita-Rock-n-Roll
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
the GPF stuff from last year went on for weeks last year as far as discussion, IIRC, that may be part of it ...

then our US members aren't able to see it on TV... just online, and that might have something to do with it as well.
 

Bennett

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Unlike previous GP events, I didn't see too many cat fights over Mao vs. Yuna at the GPF threads despite the controversial results at SP, which may have contributed to shortening the threads.

But I feel that people including myself posted relatively long, comprehensive posts as the treads developed.

I didn't watch ice dancing and pairs. But Men's may have been a bit dissapointing with Brian being away and Patrick falling on many jumps. For Ladies, Miki (at least points-wise), Yukari, and Joannie were a bit disappointing. But the medalists did pretty well in both disciplines.

Last season or was it two seasons ago?, GPF was really really weird with so many illnesses. It was a bit better at this time.
 
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Joined
Mar 14, 2006
I think it's because of the difficulty of viewing performances online. TV is gone (in US) and now Youtube is very limited as well. Daily Motion is good but very incomplete. How does USFSA expect audiences for an invisible sport? I feel very grouchy about it.
 

bekalc

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Maybe it's because what exactly is there to argue about?

Mao clearly won...

Abbott clearly won.

P/T clearly won

D/S clearly won

And well also a lot of the skaters ended up sick and withdrawing.
 

jyshin

On the Ice
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Maybe it's because what exactly is there to argue about?

Mao clearly won...

Abbott clearly won.

P/T clearly won

D/S clearly won

And well also a lot of the skaters ended up sick and withdrawing.

Agreed!
 

Tinymavy15

Sinnerman for the win
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
I think it was a very good GPF, lessened, only because we can't watch it on TV.
 

fiercemao

Match Penalty
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Figure skating is dying thanks to Speedy and his CoP...

Even I as a diehard fan has only watched a very limited part of GPF. I haven't watched any ladies' performance yet.:clap:
 

Hsuhs

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Did the GPF fall a little flat for a lot of folks this year? Maybe it was the several withdrawals or something, or we're still missing the likes of Lambiel and Buttle, who knows, but I really thought I'd be glued to the computer all weekend and the rest of this week keeping up with posts. Not so at all -- hasn't taken much time to read every new post on all the threads on the GPF.

I know discussion will persist, of course, but still -- last year's Ladies LP thread had 401 posts, with offshoot threads about Mao and Yuna. This year not nearly so much despite Mao's 2 triple axels. The Free Dance generated 175 posts last year -- only 85 so far this year. Again, I know discussion will continue, but it doesn't seem on track to come close to discussion after last year's GPF.

Interesting, because I thought it was just me. I certainly didn't pay attention to the # of posts in different threads. True, so many withdrawals across the disciplines.

To me personally men's especially lost it's attractiveness to a certain degree, since my favorite is injured and sitting this season out. For me, it's not so much of a sport, if there isn't much anticipation in who the winner will be.

And then those victims of food poisoning, who either withdrew or skated while not feeling well.
 

harmy18

Rinkside
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
And well also a lot of the skaters ended up sick and withdrawing.

How could I pay attention to a competition without the ones I like...

to unknown reason, I just have the chance to watch ladies:disapp: and the result turned out to be disappointing.

The ones I thought ought to get high marks turned to be really LOW marks, I kindly think they are underscored, say, Miki and Yukari should get higher marks, however.....
 

kandidy

Final Flight
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
No star from US in GP. Last year we still have Caroline.
I believed that most popular category in this board is ladies single. Without US competitors in the 6 finals. The limitation broadcast, the withdrawal and Mao Yuna bot cat fight chooed away many fans in this forum.
 

ks777

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
Figure skating is dying thanks to Speedy and his CoP...

Even I as a diehard fan has only watched a very limited part of GPF. I haven't watched any ladies' performance yet.:clap:

Where have you been fiercemao? you were gone for awhile....
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
The Ladies were obvious for gold.

The Men were a surprise.

The Pairs were the same old groups

The Skate Dance, also the same old groups.

I don't believe there will be much difference at Worlds.
 

ae9177

On the Ice
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Agree, this is probably the worst and most dissapointing GPF in decade. Nothing is too exciting, the women's single is the only highlight of the whole comp. And bekalc's summery hits all the points.
 

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
Country
United-States
IMO, CoP is chewing up skaters and spitting them out. There have been so many injuries and withdrawals this year that you begin to wonder if anyone of any consequence will be left for the Olympic season.

I also think the onslaught of URs and edge calls has stripped away the confidence of many of the top skaters. Very few men are attempting quads this season, and few of the quads have been ratified. Same for the ladies' 3/3s.

When a skater's confidence is shaken, the performance suffers, and we've seen skaters who've skated near-clean performances in the past make mistakes on elements they've always nailed previously.

I'm also extremely skeptical of the pronouncement that moves would be taken out of the ODs, FDs and FSs so the skaters would be more free to do 'moves in the field' towards their TR scores. I've seen skaters doing innovative, beautiful moves, but the TR scores don't budge. This is especially noticeable in Ice Dance, where the scores are WAY down from last season.
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
chuckm, some of the reason ice dance scores are way down is that the requirements to get the tech levels are up. We no longer have the top 4 or 5 jr teams all getting all level 4's in the FD
 

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
Chuckm, you make so many cogent points. I'm still thinking along vague lines of not liking COP programs, whereas you've gone and nailed down some specific problems. The UR and edge calls have been subject of much discussion this season, and I've hated the prominence they've taken in determining the winners of comps, but I hadn't thought about what all these calls are doing to the mentality of the skaters.

And, definitely I'm always skeptical of any of these scores operating in practice the way they're touted to do in theory. So it doesn't surprise me you're not noticing better TR scores from programs with fewer elements but more TR moves.
 

flying camel

Medalist
Joined
Nov 16, 2005
The problem for me was no TV coverage. Yea, I saw some on You tube but I was not going to look at every program that interest me. So, I just watched some of my favorites. Also the COP and all the edge calls and UR calls have made the sport less interesting for me.
 
Joined
Mar 14, 2006
I still haven't been able to find Jeremy's FP. One reason why I've been missing FierceMao! Welcome back, FM.
 

victoria90

On the Ice
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
In my case the problem was the TV coverage too. In Argentina there is no TV coverage at all, maybe they show the top 3 but 4 months later, so it's pretty much the same. Youtube keeps deleting all the vids and now the Dailymotion is starting to do the same, so I can't really comment on any of the threads because I have no idea how they skated.
Also the new rules and the scoring system is making the sport less interesting to watch. The skaters have to pay attention to a lot of things to get level 4 or 3 in everything, the lifts, the steps, the spins... and the jumps and of course they have to have good transitions. But how can a skater do a really enjoyable program with so many things on his/her mind? I think this is one of the problems why skaters can't actually skate two clean programs and why so many of them end up injured.
And now we have the UR calls and the edge calls that make the sport even less interesting, what's the point of basically show that just some skaters are able to jump all the triples? or that half of the skaters have never jumped a real flip or a real lutz? and they get so penalized for that...
But oh well... since I'm crazy about this sport this doesn't really affect me. But the truth is that for the fans that are not addicted now it's a lot less interesting to watch.
 
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