Okay. I will sum up what Zueva thinks:
- twizzles were very good executed and should be level 4;
- all lifts were rock-solid, spread-eagle lift Nikita did was especially good, he never done anything like this before this season;
- there were no visible mistakes in step seqs, so they should have higher levels for them;
- they can't recieve level 1 for step seqs, because Nikita and Vika have skated at the Olympics, and only teams who don't know how to skate should be getting level 1 for their step seqs.
And finally, she still have hope S/K will go to Euros
It is true that when somebody is watching skaters in Step Sequence and try to fix “whole body“ – all steps may look well. But from my own experience I know that while you concentrate on edge work only, it can be a real shock that while upper body looks OK, edge and turns are done poorly (which you would never say especially looking at big Hollywood smiles some skaters are using during the program). So it is almost impossible to say how good edges and how much clean turns were executed if you watch whole skater’s body and upper body movements.
Vika and Nikita really showed better FD than at Grand Prix in Moscow – but only from first point of view. In moment when you start to make detail analysis of Technical elements, it becomes worse and worse (but technically still a little bit better than at Cup of Russia).
Marina Zueva complained about Levels in Step Sequence and Twizzles. So take a look at both Step Sequences and watch how many light edges or no edges those two executed, how many times it happened that they spread ice during an arcs in turns, that they made a turn through the heel of the skate (in Vika’s case through the toe-pick…almost a little hoop in some place) etc.
As to Twizzles – quite generous to give Level 3, I think. Technical panel may choose what to put down….1) in first Set Vika once again didn’t catch her free leg during first half of rotation…2) in the second Set both Nikita and Vika looked to have problem to clasped their hands during the first half of rotation, I think they were late…3) in second Set - Nikita’s clasped hands and straight arm position – is it fixed? – this is BIG question – some people may say that it is not fixed and some people may swear that arms are fixed but Nikita is so shaky in Twizzle that he is leaning his body to all directions -
.
Putting Level 3 for those Twizzles means that some of those imperfections were counted and one of them not (I would say that it could be late catching the blade.) With Technical panel which would really look for every mistake – they would get counted only third Set of Twizzles and crossing Pattern like Features – so they would get Level 2.
Marina Zueva didn’t notice low Levels in spin, so I expect that the couple got Level 4. Once again the Technical panel didn’t want to be too harsh probably. During the season many couples got lower Spin Level for not executing three rotations (in combo spin) and two rotations (in spin) in fixed positions, for example I&Z and M&K at their Grand Prix competitions. If you look at Vika and Nikita – Nikita was not able to fix both sit positions for three turns and Vika didn’t fix her position in layback for full three rotations – so the couple executed only two camel positions which could be counted – this is Level 1. Did they really got Level 1 spin?
How about performing confident lifts? Nikita was shaky in One Leg Position. His crouching position – during their skate it looks not bad from that camera angle, but you can notice that camera angle changed in slow motion and trajectory of blades is very very poor and shaky.
Uhh noticed here that Nikita’s blades have straight trajectory in crouching position – so this lift could be easily taken like Straight Line Lift and next lift (which is really planned like Straight Line Lift) would not be counted and they would get deduction for invalid element.
As to Nikita never doing crouching position -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_9iYCB4KA4E#t=193
(he executed crouching position better in 2011, although it was not really good).
So in reality Technical panel was very mild to Vika and Nikita and they really didn’t want to devastate reputation of both coach and new couple putting them lower score then they got at international competitions.
But if Technical panel would be really detailed and strict (like many panels were towards other Russian couples this season), Vika & Nikita’s score could look like…
…I expect spin level 4, but it was executed on Level 1 - minus 3 points from base value…
…no points for last lift - minus 4.5 points and one point deduction for invalid element…
…Twizzles Level 2 instead of Level 3 - minus 1 point…
Vika & Nikita got Element Score (Base value plus GOE) 45.16….but Technical panel had an opportunity to give them well deserved 35.66 points.
I would expect that Marina Zueva would be thankfully for such mild behaviour from Technical panel (looking at other Russian couples score, I don’t expect that they would be such mild to them also, or we would be getting 60 points Element Score results from them). Instead of it Zueva is immediatelly complaining in such way. Why?
There's no need to twist them, really. They are controversial without any twisting.
:shocked:
for tenacity. 
