- Joined
- Mar 23, 2014
2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017
What year had the best World Championships? What year had the worst? Sure, it's easier to rank them by discipline probably, but what about taking all events into account? For mine, I'll go by discipline first, then try to puzzle out what the best WCs was overall (at least in my opinion).
Ladies (best to worst):
2016 (Lots of memorable, great, and CLEAN performances from many, many ladies)
2014 (Emotionally speaking, Mao's perfect SP and title win after Olympic disappointment made this post-Olympics event worthwhile)
2017 (Kind of tied with 2014, but I give 2014 the edge because of Mao's SP. Lots of disappointments, with zero suspense regarding the winner. Two surprise and deserving medalists make this event better than 2015)
2015 (3A, and the culmination of everything Liza had done throughout the season. But looking back, the level of skating here is just lower than every other year.)
Men (best to worst):
2017 (Anything could've happened, and the favorite finally won. Lots of great performances, and lots of not so great performances, but I think the good outweighs the bad. The suspense made this event fun and stressful!)
2016 (Javier's INSANE title defense against all odds! Many memorable performances here, just maybe not as many as in 2017?)
2015 (All the favorites made mistakes, the guy with the least mistakes won. Boo. Not good. Remember back when Denis Ten was a WGM contender? That's weird. How times change.)
2014 (OGM wins WGM. Yawn. Lots of mistakes all around, sans in a flawless SP from Tatsuki Machida, who arguably should've won the title. Worse than 2015 because of debatable Hanyu win).
Pairs (best to worst):
2017 (Gorgeous performances from S/M and S/H - with S/H winning by a hair. The entire skating world cheered. Sets up a great rivalry going into an Olympic year. Nice comeback for St/K in LP. Still some disappointments from others like D/R, due to injuries.)
2014 (Excellent performances from S/S and St/K, but everyone was happy for S/S winning their final WC title together. Truly the end of an era in pairs skating. They made this event special.)
2015 (The inevitable coronation of D/R despite flawed skates after a season of unprecedented dominance. Lame because St/K withdrew for no reason. Breakout of S/H and the swan song of P/T make this event worthwhile nonetheless.)
2016 (Given how STACKED AF this event was, it could've been amazing. Everyone under-performed sans defending champs D/R, who deservedly won with a LP that fit them very well.)
Ice dance (best to worst):
2016 (Is this the fault of my P/C bias? Maybe. Swept in with a stunning, gorgeous FD to win by a lot. Shibs also had a great FD, and an adorable SD. Yeah, this is probably because of my P/C love. Sorry.)
2014 (I couldn't decide if this event belonged in first or last. Anything could've happened. I/K were the faves, but a disastrous SD kept them off the podium. Less than a point between the top 3 makes this event crazy! C/L's win....kind of disappointed lots of people. Still, lots of suspense, and it's hard to not appreciate an event that ends so closely.)
2017 (The return of OGMs V/M mean this event SHOULD be the best. Too bad everyone made so many darn mistakes. Great SD from V/M and great FD from P/C, but still, so many mistakes from so many teams.)
2015 (Semi-unexpected victory for youngsters P/C with the best FD of the season. Disappointment for W/P after winning just about everything else all season. Nothing really memorable here aside from P/C's FD, sadly. No wonder they won.)
So.....looking at this mathematically, and assigning points accordingly for how I ranked each year per discipline (this seems like the best way for me to do it since I can't decide)...
2014: 6 pts
2015: 2 pts
2016: 8 pts
2017: 8 pts
And to break the tie between 2016 and 2017, I have decided that 2016's camerawork and video accessibility beats 2017! So:
2016
2017
2014
2015
Am I suffering from recency bias or is it just normal that stuff will generally get better closer to the Olympics? Anyway. Yeah. How would you rank the Worlds of the past quad?
What year had the best World Championships? What year had the worst? Sure, it's easier to rank them by discipline probably, but what about taking all events into account? For mine, I'll go by discipline first, then try to puzzle out what the best WCs was overall (at least in my opinion).
Ladies (best to worst):
2016 (Lots of memorable, great, and CLEAN performances from many, many ladies)
2014 (Emotionally speaking, Mao's perfect SP and title win after Olympic disappointment made this post-Olympics event worthwhile)
2017 (Kind of tied with 2014, but I give 2014 the edge because of Mao's SP. Lots of disappointments, with zero suspense regarding the winner. Two surprise and deserving medalists make this event better than 2015)
2015 (3A, and the culmination of everything Liza had done throughout the season. But looking back, the level of skating here is just lower than every other year.)
Men (best to worst):
2017 (Anything could've happened, and the favorite finally won. Lots of great performances, and lots of not so great performances, but I think the good outweighs the bad. The suspense made this event fun and stressful!)
2016 (Javier's INSANE title defense against all odds! Many memorable performances here, just maybe not as many as in 2017?)
2015 (All the favorites made mistakes, the guy with the least mistakes won. Boo. Not good. Remember back when Denis Ten was a WGM contender? That's weird. How times change.)
2014 (OGM wins WGM. Yawn. Lots of mistakes all around, sans in a flawless SP from Tatsuki Machida, who arguably should've won the title. Worse than 2015 because of debatable Hanyu win).
Pairs (best to worst):
2017 (Gorgeous performances from S/M and S/H - with S/H winning by a hair. The entire skating world cheered. Sets up a great rivalry going into an Olympic year. Nice comeback for St/K in LP. Still some disappointments from others like D/R, due to injuries.)
2014 (Excellent performances from S/S and St/K, but everyone was happy for S/S winning their final WC title together. Truly the end of an era in pairs skating. They made this event special.)
2015 (The inevitable coronation of D/R despite flawed skates after a season of unprecedented dominance. Lame because St/K withdrew for no reason. Breakout of S/H and the swan song of P/T make this event worthwhile nonetheless.)
2016 (Given how STACKED AF this event was, it could've been amazing. Everyone under-performed sans defending champs D/R, who deservedly won with a LP that fit them very well.)
Ice dance (best to worst):
2016 (Is this the fault of my P/C bias? Maybe. Swept in with a stunning, gorgeous FD to win by a lot. Shibs also had a great FD, and an adorable SD. Yeah, this is probably because of my P/C love. Sorry.)
2014 (I couldn't decide if this event belonged in first or last. Anything could've happened. I/K were the faves, but a disastrous SD kept them off the podium. Less than a point between the top 3 makes this event crazy! C/L's win....kind of disappointed lots of people. Still, lots of suspense, and it's hard to not appreciate an event that ends so closely.)
2017 (The return of OGMs V/M mean this event SHOULD be the best. Too bad everyone made so many darn mistakes. Great SD from V/M and great FD from P/C, but still, so many mistakes from so many teams.)
2015 (Semi-unexpected victory for youngsters P/C with the best FD of the season. Disappointment for W/P after winning just about everything else all season. Nothing really memorable here aside from P/C's FD, sadly. No wonder they won.)
So.....looking at this mathematically, and assigning points accordingly for how I ranked each year per discipline (this seems like the best way for me to do it since I can't decide)...
2014: 6 pts
2015: 2 pts
2016: 8 pts
2017: 8 pts
And to break the tie between 2016 and 2017, I have decided that 2016's camerawork and video accessibility beats 2017! So:
2016
2017
2014
2015
Am I suffering from recency bias or is it just normal that stuff will generally get better closer to the Olympics? Anyway. Yeah. How would you rank the Worlds of the past quad?
