Home country advantage on scores (esp PCS)

I wonder if it is mostly due to the crowd reactions. If that's the case, Johnny skating in Russia and Jeff skating in Japan would have automatic advantages with so many loyal fans who passionately cheer for them, clap during the performances, prepare banners, and throw countless flowers after their performances. Seriously, Jeff got as much cheering in Japan as Japanese skaters.

Or is that anything more than that?

It would be wonderful to do a home-court advantage analysis on skaters' PCS. Could be very interesting (especially if I had the time to do it). We could compare variations in a skater's PCS across different venues along with crowd reaction. Imagine the statistics on a PCS to flower ratio! Or maybe we could get a decibel-meter at each rink to determine PCS to cheering ratio!

I recall a young Jeff being described as a medalist for the # of flowers in Japan. Johnny is also extremely popular there.

There are definitely certain venues that some skaters seem to do very well in, Jeff in Japan, Johnny in Russian. There seems to be something about these venues that brings out the best in those skaters. It's hard to say if its crowd or something less tangible. You would think that the first time Jeff skated in Japan the crowd would not have had much knowledge of him so would the crowd have been a factor the first time? Maybe not I cannot remember that first time for Jeff in Japan. Perhaps a great skate iin a venue followed by a strong crowd reaction leave such an impression of the skater that any return to that venue causes the skater to get pumped and in the same mind set thus perpetuating the experience.

Hmmmm..... Sounds like a good study for some psych student.

The crowd reaction is a part of it, but it is mostly due to the politics and the business, I guess.

If two skaters did equally good performances, I think Judges tend to let a home country skater win.
Like kimmie won over Miki at Skate American a few years ago.
Why? Because if so, the crownds can be happy, home country TV viewers can be happy, the home country federation can be happy and TV stations can be very happy due to the rating.
As ultimately this can elevate the popularity of the skating in that country, the federation can make more money and more young kids like to try figure skating.
So this is very important for them.

However, if a home country skater is a less known one, and his/her opponent is the international champion, judges tend to let the champ win as he/she got lots of fans all over the world,
in order to protect their "names" as their business effects cannot be ignored.

I remember Witt vs Ito at NHK in those days.
At that time, Kat was already a very popular Champ/Star and Midori was an upcoming skater.
After SP, Midori first and Kat second, and Kat landed only one or two clean triples for FS,
then Midori landed about six triples including triple-triple combo.
But still judges let Witt win.
That was the most outrageous judging I have ever seen in my life.

There is one "home court advantage" score that has me baffled this season. Ryan Bradley went from 56.70 PCS in his LP at TEB to 68.50 PCS at SA. Thats an 11.80 point PCS bump from one comp to another. Ridiculous IMO. I'm guessing it was just "home country" PCS bumps like the other countries recieved. Unless his 2 landed quads in the LP had that much of an impact. But an 11.80 PCS bump?

There is a home crowd boost, but PCS at nationals are always higher than those given to hometown skaters at the GP or other international events.

AliasJohnDoe said:

There is one "home court advantage" score that has me baffled this season. Ryan Bradley went from 56.70 PCS in his LP at TEB to 68.50 PCS at SA. Thats an 11.80 point PCS bump from one comp to another. Ridiculous IMO. I'm guessing it was just "home country" PCS bumps like the other countries recieved. Unless his 2 landed quads in the LP had that much of an impact. But an 11.80 PCS bump?

Click to expand...

Ryan's score vary quite a bit from competition to competition, ranging any where from 175 to 212 points (and yes I know he has scored higher at national events but they are always over inflated). Falling on a jump typically doesn't have huge impact on the PCS scores unless that fall affects the overall performance noticably.

Other than audience response there is not much reason for the majority of the judges to favor a home court skater. Usually only one judge is from the home country at an international. A quick look at the range of PCS's would suggest that SA was scored overall a bit higher than TEB.

In Ryan's case, there is no mystery at all, in my humble opionion. In his first event he was blah, at Skate America he gave the skate of his life.

Bennett said:

I wonder if it is mostly due to the crowd reactions. If that's the case, Johnny skating in Russia and Jeff skating in Japan would have automatic advantages with so many loyal fans who passionately cheer for them, clap during the performances, prepare banners, and throw countless flowers after their performances. Seriously, Jeff got as much cheering in Japan as Japanese skaters.

Or is that anything more than that?

Click to expand...

Japan has become quite a force in figure skating in the past ten or so years and their fans are just as knowlegeable and passionate about figure skating as any crowd anywhere on the planet. I am confused about the home reference part in regards to Jeff (Buttle) - he is Canadian and Johnny (Wier) is from the US. On the same note - Yuna Kim skated here in Vancouver, BC at Four Continents and the crowd went crazy - doesn't hurt that we have a large portion of Asian people living here. Figure skaters in Japan are very popular and the crowds like to show their enthusiasm - I really don't think that has any effect on the skaters marks with the judges.

Ladskater said:

Japan has become quite a force in figure skating in the past ten or so years and their fans are just as knowlegeable and passionate about figure skating as any crowd anywhere on the planet. I am confused about the home reference part in regards to Jeff (Buttle) - he is Canadian and Johnny (Wier) is from the US. On the same note - Yuna Kim skated here in Vancouver, BC at Four Continents and the crowd went crazy - doesn't hurt that we have a large portion of Asian people living here. Figure skaters in Japan are very popular and the crowds like to show their enthusiasm - I really don't think that has any effect on the skaters marks with the judges.

Click to expand...

Some of us believe it is more of a venue advantage rather than "home" advantage (somewhere farther up this thread is my original post on the subject). Certian skaters have traditionally done very well in specific venues be they at home or half way around the world. Jeff and Johnny seem to love skating in Japan for whatever reason and the fans there love them back.

Where it can have an effect on the skaters marks is in the performances they give. If you love skating in a particular venue then you will give a better performance the in the case of skating the judges will reward it.