GPF Barcelona 2014 live thoughts / reports

FS-rrb, did you happen to take any videos of the programs?

Normally I don't care for fancam videos (theyusually gives me motion sickness from shaky cameras), but someone posted one of Yuna's FS in Sochi and I was amazed at the ice coverage (especially the 3Z combo) and overall movement and patterns she created on ice! Things like that which broadcast camera fails to capture, because they are always zoomed in on the skaters.

Thank you very much for all the reports :agree:

Thank you for your observations FS_rrb much appreciated!

Thanks for the reports FS_rrb and I don't think you were harsh

Such an awesome thread! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences of the competition live! I can't believe you were at Barcelona and TEB 2013 to Hanyu and Patrick among others! how amazing!
I do hope you can share the LP experience for men and women, too! (well and pairs and dance!

Unfortunately I didn't record any program. Now I regret it but I wanted to enjoy the performances completely so I decided not to use cameras, smartphones, etc . My father recorded Stolbova and Klimov's FS with his ipad, though. I'll ask him!

Finally, I have some time to write my report of the finals!

Day 3 (part 1): Pairs and ladies free skates

Pairs free skating

The competition started with Kavaguti / Smirnov and the arena was still half-empty. Theirs is a beautiful yet powerful program, and definitely one of my favorites this season. Maybe I was expecting too much but the performance didn't touch me as much as I had thought. They went for all their big elements but emotionally were colder than at Skate America, for example. I think they were not really motivated after their disappointing SP, and being the first pair to skate in the very first event of the day and with the audience still moving to get to their seats didn't help either. I feel they were not able to create a special atmosphere this time. They were good, but this program has much more potential.

Yu / Jin have a very appealing lyrical style. They have beautiful lines and look very light on ice. Good throws and twists but they still lack the ability to connect with the audience and project, something understandable because they are quite young.

Peng / Zhang's program is quite interesting and well choreographed. She's a very elegant skater and her landings on the throws are unbelievably soft and have incredible flow. I think some choreographic movements were not sharp enough and lacked conviction, especially having in mind how Carolina attacked her program when she skated to this music. Anyway, great comeback and beautifully skated program to such a difficult piece of music.

Sui / Han's quad twist looks insane! She rotates so fast it doesn't seem real. Their throws are great too, superior to both Stolbova / Klimov and Duhamel / Radford, but overall I got the impression that they are still in a slightly lower class than these two pairs. They looked overpowered by the music at some points of the program, so my impression was that they skated well but their performance was not powerful enough to make that music justice. Really looking forward to seeing how this program develops as the season progresses, though.

Stolbova / Klimov were in a different class. Their elements might not be super difficult and their throws might no be as high as the Chinese pairs, but these two skate with great speed and ice coverage and project their image really well when performing their Notre Dame de Paris program. Overall, I was impressed because they had that special "something" that captured my attention. Literally, I couldn't take my eyes off them. I'm still impressed by how well landed the last triple Salchow was. Standing ovation!

Finally, Duhamel / Radford played their cards and ended up skating a great program. As I said, their skating skills and ice coverage are inferior to S/K. However, they are still quite a fast pair and despite some awkward posture and not beautiful positions (for instance Meagan's landings on throws) they are nice to watch and their difficult elements make up for their inferior skating skills. I enjoyed their performance...I think not as much as K/S but the fact that they go from one difficult element to another adds excitement to the competition and this is always great for the audience.

Ladies free skating

I was impressed by Ashley's performance. I've never been a fan and I'm still not a fan but she attacked that program with great determination. Jumps looked good, but I think the 3F-3T was very borderline. This program is powerful and she sells it really well. My complaint about her skating though is that despite her attack she doesn't impress me with her skills...I mean her skating looks slightly heavy to me and her speed and edges are average. She's not my cup of tea but I have to admit that she's quite a performer. Well done!

Rika was not particularly engaging for me. She should try to improve her posture, too. Jumps were good, but the 3-3 was obviously underrotated.

I love Anna's speed, ice coverage and huge jumps. Her 3Lz-3T is probably the best among the current ladies in terms of height and distance. Her firebird is a beautiful program. It's a pity that when she fails she seems to give up and it affects her interpretation. As I said in the short program report, with her amazing skills what she needs is to be more confident and prove everyone that she is a special skater able to move audiences.

Lena's program was exquisite in my opinion. Her new dress looks gorgeous in person and her light skating really stands out. Her posture should be corrected and it's obvious that she's still growing and sometimes her legs look too long, but as an interpreter she's already great and her ability to project is remarkable for her age. Her 3Lz-3T had great ice coverage, although her landings look more labored than last year. The program is well constructed. Intensity keeps increasing and so does her speed, which is quite awesome at some points of the program. Rachmaninov's pieces are not easy to interpret, and at some points it looked like it was too much for her, but I think she did quite a good job taking into account that she's only 15. Hers was the program I enjoyed the most.

I'm sorry to be so harsh but Julia was a mess. When she's on her jumps look beautiful because she rotates very fast and lands them quite gracefully. Not sure what happened, but it looked like she had some problems in the take-off of some jumps. The mistake on the axel was really unexpected. As for the flip, I guess that the edge calls are making her nervous and so she attacks the jump without conviction. This program is nothing exceptional and seems quite empty, and so her skating looks quite small. Hope she regains her confidence soon!

Elizaveta was on-fire. Hers might not be the most sophisticated or complicated programs performance-wise, but she surely knew how to sell it. I'm not a fan of this programs based on dancing, moving and posing...I'm more into more complex programs that try to express deeper emotions. However, one has to admit that Liza's jumps are a beauty and she is engaging throughout the whole program. I'm still a little annoyed by her skating skills, because at some points of the program she seems not to move with enough freedom or cover much ice. I think she has improved a lot in this aspect, but still looks like she's making a big effort to keep her speed going. With two clean performances, though, I think she deserves her gold.

Dance and men coming tomorrow!

Great! Can't wait for the next one.

Thank you so much Fs_rrb! Really looking forward to the next one! Love live reports! :yay:

Thanks for all the wonderful live reports! Very much appreciated.

I hope K/S will regain their confidence soon. Their LP has so much potential.

rollerblade said:

Normally I don't care for fancam videos (theyusually gives me motion sickness from shaky cameras), but someone posted one of Yuna's FS in Sochi and I was amazed at the ice coverage (especially the 3Z combo) and overall movement and patterns she created on ice! Things like that which broadcast camera fails to capture, because they are always zoomed in on the skaters.

Click to expand...

some disciplines are on this channel
I hope we're gonna have something like this for every competition.This is a better way to notice speed/ice coverage/flow across the ice

Yuzuru's SP, fancam: http://youtu.be/5kE6zmY-pvQ
And here is his FS fancam, from that angle as well: http://youtu.be/VeMubotjl1Y

Another fancam, different angle of Yuzuru's FS: http://youtu.be/Y3rhQCrcCnY
From this angle his 4S looks monstrous!! :shocked:
Different angle of Yuzuru's SP, from this fancam his quad toe was omg, and the ice coverage was awesome. That 4T should be +3GOE: http://youtu.be/5soymZHU19g

Meoima said:

Yuzuru's SP, fancam: http://youtu.be/5kE6zmY-pvQ
And here is his FS fancam, from that angle as well: http://youtu.be/VeMubotjl1Y

Another fancam, different angle of Yuzuru's FS: http://youtu.be/Y3rhQCrcCnY
From this angle his 4S looks monstrous!! :shocked:
Different angle of Yuzuru's SP, from this fancam his quad toe was omg, and the ice coverage was awesome. That 4T should be +3GOE: http://youtu.be/5soymZHU19g

Click to expand...

Thank you for these videos! They will help me in my post-GPF depression. Seriously, I'm so sad it is over...it's been awesome!

Tatsuki's SP fancam: http://youtu.be/ixJXzptf_UM
After watching the fancam I kind of understand why the judges gave that score (94.08) for Yuzuru and quite lower score for Tatsuki (87.82). Tatsuki was quite tense that day. And oh no the posing. And the dramatic movements. I wish he brought back East of Eden.

Javi's SP fancam, he was really off: http://youtu.be/auXh9WZPhtQ

Last but not least, Yuzuru's exhibition program. The choreography is kinda empty but he has improved his skating skill so much, constant mover: http://youtu.be/EojNXM6IeuU

Meoima said:

Tatsuki's SP fancam: http://youtu.be/ixJXzptf_UM
After watching the fancam I kind of understand why the judges gave that score (94.08) for Yuzuru and quite lower score for Tatsuki (87.82). Tatsuki was quite tense that day. And oh no the posing. And the dramatic movements. I wish he brought back East of Eden.

Javi's SP fancam, he was really off: http://youtu.be/auXh9WZPhtQ

Last but not least, Yuzuru's exhibition program. The choreography is kinda empty but he has improved his skating skill so much, constant mover: http://youtu.be/EojNXM6IeuU

Click to expand...

Yes, Yuzuru was in a different league even with the fall. I especially like the first fancam of Yuzuru's SP, it really shows how incredibly fast and airy he was in the step sequence, as well as how gorgeous her quad toe was.

Thanks for your live report, it is a lovely read. and fancam is the BEST

Thank you for the accounts and also fancams

I'm most shocked by the difference in ice coverage between Tatsuki and Javier. I did not expect Tatsuki to have that little coverage in comparison to (a really off) Javi because the televised version makes Tatsuki seem like he skates a lot bigger.

That was the most surprising thing about the fam-cam version, I think. Just from the normal videos, I would have thought for ice coverage Yuzuru = Tatsuki > Javier, but now I think Yuzuru = Javier >> Tatsuki 0__0! Changes my perspective a little on PCS.

AprilS said:

That was the most surprising thing about the fam-cam version, I think. Just from the normal videos, I would have thought for ice coverage Yuzuru = Tatsuki > Javier, but now I think Yuzuru = Javier >> Tatsuki 0__0! Changes my perspective a little on PCS.

Click to expand...

It seemed to me that Yuzuru had much better ice coverage than both Tatsuki and Javier. I thought Tatsuki would be better than he actually was but the fancam shows otherwise. Maybe he was nervous and tense?