I avoided this chat for a while, as I wanted to watch the competition at my own pace without any spoilers.
Pairs - Loved the competition. Trennt is the star of the team. I love the free skate opening jump sequence with the seq 2A. They do it in unison and they get so many points on this element alone. The throws are a bit cringe as i thought they were popped singles. This is the one element they have to focus on if they want to be top 5 at Worlds. The Juniors who won silver have the most potential and were the most complete package. They made a few big mistakes, which cost them the gold. But, they had the most WOW factor for me. The bronze was a close competition. Nadeau and partner just missed out due to her messing up her first jump in the jump combo element. I think she should go for an easier jump on the combo. But, I loved parts of the program. Like @4everchan mentioned, she skates frozen, as he skates with so much confidence and smiles at her…
They also just missed 160 
. I hope they pass the benchmark at Nationals. The team that came in fifth from SK I loved too… the guy is so muscular 
and they skated well in the free skate portion. They also have potential to exceed 160 by Nationals. Lots of interesting teams in pairs. I want to see these teams internationally.
Men - This was the most boring competition for me. I think I’m most worried about our guys moving forward. The juniors were disappointing as Grayson does nothing for me. The mens competition, I guess Matthew Neumann made the most of his opportunity. He has good triple axels and skated the most cleanly. Also, his score of 217 is close to the domestic benchmark of 220. But, he doesn’t excite me. Wesley Chiu was very disappointing to me. He tried and failed on so many quads and triple axels. The bronze medalist Matthew had the program I connected to, the most. But, he doesn’t go for many hard jumps, so his ceiling is limited. Bennet Toman and Bruce Waddell were the two i was most excited to watch, but their free skate programs were dull compared to their short programs. With Keegan retiring, and Conrad and Corey not skating well internationally and Wesley losing here…. Will Roman and Stephen be able to represent Canada well moving forward? This makes me nervous. Romsky
is still my fave. He has the technical content and artistry, but not the mental strength. Him and Keegan are just miles ahead of everyone artistically. Which is what I appreciate the most in skaters
Ladies
This portion of the competition excites me the most because there are so many competitors. A lot of eliminations occurred through Sectionals and 50% of the field will be eliminated after this challenger competition. So, there is something to lose here, unlike the other competitions where almost everyone qualified to Nationals.
Juniors - Kara is just the class of the field. I just know she will land most of her triples and she is even stronger in the free skate. Also, she is connecting more to the music and I see improvements to her skating skills. Will she be 160+ for the fourth time this year? She is getting closer to 170. She is the one you can count on the most. Hetty Shi is her biggest competition (the only two to score over 60), if she skates cleanly. She is the only one in this competition to have beaten Kara this year, at NextGen. But, she is inconsistent and fell to third place at ONT sectionals with a dismal free skate. Rose and Aleksa skated really well here. But, they are more known for SP’s over their free skates. They didn’t do well at Sectionals in their free skates. Lulu wasn’t that good in the SP, and I would have had her in 7th place. Lulu placed 6th at nextGen and was supposed to compete in the Junior Circuit until that cancelation event occurred. She won ONT sectionals, so I expect her to do well in the free skate portion. My two faves Angelina Grant (finished 33rd) and Megan Woodley (19th) are in danger
️ of not qualifying to Nationals. Angelina was brilliant in winning AB Sectionals and Megan was amazing in ONT sectionals coming just behind Lulu. @4everchan is right… these two, have no international experience and the nerves showed when skating at a pressure event like this competition. I plan to watch Senior Women and then the final flight or final two flights of Junior girls afterwards. But, will have to try to time switching to Junior girls to see these two girls in the earlier flights.
Senior Ladies - An amazing competition with 14 ladies scoring over 50 and 3 ladies scoring over 60. Kaiya is just amazing. She skates the same technical layout as Mai Mihara. Which is something to be respected. I also feel that she was robbed of a gold medal at Austria due to low scores after her short program despite the difficult layout. She fixed some of her spin issues and skated just as well as when she won her Junior medals at the Junior GP. Kaiya is back! I’m thinking she could bypass Gabby Daleman and start pushing for second best status behind Maddie. Will root for her to win this competition. I love her as a person and love her Free skate program. Justine was solid. She always skates better domestically (170+) than internationally. But, she was finally okay with 160+ in Austria and you can tell that experience has given her more confidence. She could knock out Gabby for 4CC. Gabby better watch out. Fiona was solid too. As the Junior silver medalist in last year Nat Juniors behind Justine… the Junior girls from last year are really stepping it up. I expect Amanda to take over the bronze medal though. Amanda is just too solid in the free skate (winning ONT sectionals). But, it should be a close competition for the bronze medal between these two. Sara-Maude (GenX Junior winner), Lia (Pairs gold medalist) and Julianne Lussier (winner of QUE Sectionals) are the three I expect to make a move up the standings from the second group. But, the lady I loved the most was Grace Johnson from AB. AB has my two favourite ladies from CAN now. After missing Nationals last year by 0.04 with a score of 128.00, Grace was exceptional at AB sectionals placing 2nd behind Kaiya, this year. She only has 2A, 3T, 3S in her jumping repertoire. But, her skating skills and speed across the ice is just
. She only went for three triples, but landed them cleanly at Sectionals in the free skate, but has a 2A eu 2F and a double-2Lo combo to max her doubles scoring potential. I hope she stays with the same technical layout of three triples in the free skate. I enjoy clean jump programs, despite easier jumps. I was dissatisfied with her low PCS score after the SP. But, this SP result was a breakthrough for her. I hope she gets a higher PCS score in the free skate, relative to her competitors, when the judges see how fast she skates relative to her peers. Although being sandwiched between Lia and Sara might be intimidating to her and the judges might be unimpressed with her lack of technical difficulty compared to these two. I just hopes she skates as cleanly as she did in Sectionals to hang on to qualify for Nationals this year. I have a feeling the bar will be much higher than 128.04 of last year. I think the top 16 advance to join Maddie and Gabby. But, not sure about Alison. So, top 15 is needed to guarantee qualifying for Nationals and so many ladies are within a few points of one another at the 46-54 range.
I’m looking forward to watching the free skates live tmrw. Aiming to focus on Senior Ladies, then Angelina Grant, then Senior Ladies, then Megan Woodley, then Senior Ladies till Kaiya….followed by the final skaters left in the Junior Girls competition. Good luck to all the skaters tomorrow.
Pairs - Loved the competition. Trennt is the star of the team. I love the free skate opening jump sequence with the seq 2A. They do it in unison and they get so many points on this element alone. The throws are a bit cringe as i thought they were popped singles. This is the one element they have to focus on if they want to be top 5 at Worlds. The Juniors who won silver have the most potential and were the most complete package. They made a few big mistakes, which cost them the gold. But, they had the most WOW factor for me. The bronze was a close competition. Nadeau and partner just missed out due to her messing up her first jump in the jump combo element. I think she should go for an easier jump on the combo. But, I loved parts of the program. Like @4everchan mentioned, she skates frozen, as he skates with so much confidence and smiles at her…
They also just missed 160 . I hope they pass the benchmark at Nationals. The team that came in fifth from SK I loved too… the guy is so muscular and they skated well in the free skate portion. They also have potential to exceed 160 by Nationals. Lots of interesting teams in pairs. I want to see these teams internationally.Men - This was the most boring competition for me. I think I’m most worried about our guys moving forward. The juniors were disappointing as Grayson does nothing for me. The mens competition, I guess Matthew Neumann made the most of his opportunity. He has good triple axels and skated the most cleanly. Also, his score of 217 is close to the domestic benchmark of 220. But, he doesn’t excite me. Wesley Chiu was very disappointing to me. He tried and failed on so many quads and triple axels. The bronze medalist Matthew had the program I connected to, the most. But, he doesn’t go for many hard jumps, so his ceiling is limited. Bennet Toman and Bruce Waddell were the two i was most excited to watch, but their free skate programs were dull compared to their short programs. With Keegan retiring, and Conrad and Corey not skating well internationally and Wesley losing here…. Will Roman and Stephen be able to represent Canada well moving forward? This makes me nervous. Romsky
is still my fave. He has the technical content and artistry, but not the mental strength. Him and Keegan are just miles ahead of everyone artistically. Which is what I appreciate the most in skaters Ladies
This portion of the competition excites me the most because there are so many competitors. A lot of eliminations occurred through Sectionals and 50% of the field will be eliminated after this challenger competition. So, there is something to lose here, unlike the other competitions where almost everyone qualified to Nationals.
Juniors - Kara is just the class of the field. I just know she will land most of her triples and she is even stronger in the free skate. Also, she is connecting more to the music and I see improvements to her skating skills. Will she be 160+ for the fourth time this year? She is getting closer to 170. She is the one you can count on the most. Hetty Shi is her biggest competition (the only two to score over 60), if she skates cleanly. She is the only one in this competition to have beaten Kara this year, at NextGen. But, she is inconsistent and fell to third place at ONT sectionals with a dismal free skate. Rose and Aleksa skated really well here. But, they are more known for SP’s over their free skates. They didn’t do well at Sectionals in their free skates. Lulu wasn’t that good in the SP, and I would have had her in 7th place. Lulu placed 6th at nextGen and was supposed to compete in the Junior Circuit until that cancelation event occurred. She won ONT sectionals, so I expect her to do well in the free skate portion. My two faves Angelina Grant (finished 33rd) and Megan Woodley (19th) are in danger
️ of not qualifying to Nationals. Angelina was brilliant in winning AB Sectionals and Megan was amazing in ONT sectionals coming just behind Lulu. @4everchan is right… these two, have no international experience and the nerves showed when skating at a pressure event like this competition. I plan to watch Senior Women and then the final flight or final two flights of Junior girls afterwards. But, will have to try to time switching to Junior girls to see these two girls in the earlier flights.Senior Ladies - An amazing competition with 14 ladies scoring over 50 and 3 ladies scoring over 60. Kaiya is just amazing. She skates the same technical layout as Mai Mihara. Which is something to be respected. I also feel that she was robbed of a gold medal at Austria due to low scores after her short program despite the difficult layout. She fixed some of her spin issues and skated just as well as when she won her Junior medals at the Junior GP. Kaiya is back! I’m thinking she could bypass Gabby Daleman and start pushing for second best status behind Maddie. Will root for her to win this competition. I love her as a person and love her Free skate program. Justine was solid. She always skates better domestically (170+) than internationally. But, she was finally okay with 160+ in Austria and you can tell that experience has given her more confidence. She could knock out Gabby for 4CC. Gabby better watch out. Fiona was solid too. As the Junior silver medalist in last year Nat Juniors behind Justine… the Junior girls from last year are really stepping it up. I expect Amanda to take over the bronze medal though. Amanda is just too solid in the free skate (winning ONT sectionals). But, it should be a close competition for the bronze medal between these two. Sara-Maude (GenX Junior winner), Lia (Pairs gold medalist) and Julianne Lussier (winner of QUE Sectionals) are the three I expect to make a move up the standings from the second group. But, the lady I loved the most was Grace Johnson from AB. AB has my two favourite ladies from CAN now. After missing Nationals last year by 0.04 with a score of 128.00, Grace was exceptional at AB sectionals placing 2nd behind Kaiya, this year. She only has 2A, 3T, 3S in her jumping repertoire. But, her skating skills and speed across the ice is just
. She only went for three triples, but landed them cleanly at Sectionals in the free skate, but has a 2A eu 2F and a double-2Lo combo to max her doubles scoring potential. I hope she stays with the same technical layout of three triples in the free skate. I enjoy clean jump programs, despite easier jumps. I was dissatisfied with her low PCS score after the SP. But, this SP result was a breakthrough for her. I hope she gets a higher PCS score in the free skate, relative to her competitors, when the judges see how fast she skates relative to her peers. Although being sandwiched between Lia and Sara might be intimidating to her and the judges might be unimpressed with her lack of technical difficulty compared to these two. I just hopes she skates as cleanly as she did in Sectionals to hang on to qualify for Nationals this year. I have a feeling the bar will be much higher than 128.04 of last year. I think the top 16 advance to join Maddie and Gabby. But, not sure about Alison. So, top 15 is needed to guarantee qualifying for Nationals and so many ladies are within a few points of one another at the 46-54 range.I’m looking forward to watching the free skates live tmrw. Aiming to focus on Senior Ladies, then Angelina Grant, then Senior Ladies, then Megan Woodley, then Senior Ladies till Kaiya….followed by the final skaters left in the Junior Girls competition. Good luck to all the skaters tomorrow.
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and of course, it had to start with memory... one skater watched, one warhorse 
. She leads the Junior competition by 11 points. But, i doubt it will be enough to qualify for Nationals. Ok. Time to grab something to eat for bfast. Will be back to watch the Senior Women… Group 3 is next…
in this upcoming group… Hoping they give her 50+ in PCS. Lia and Sara-Maude are the ones to watch in this penultimate group. They have international experience and I expect 100+ free skates from these two. Natalie and Katherine Karon are unknown to me.
