Well I am back and ready to post with uploaded videos.
The videos show the full round for each skater.
Jason Brown first round/final round
Jason Brown second round/champion round
Max Aaron first round/final round
Max Aaron second round/champion round
Max Aaron bonus round/final round
Nathan Chen Bonus round
Alexei Krasnozhon Bonus round
Caleigh Newberry backflip
So we got down there with just enough time to head over to the event, it was better attended than the rest of the open. It was fun but it needs some ironing. Most of the reports that have come back are accurate but a few other things of note.
The scoring was not explained and was weird. They made some comment about sale of one to ten, and Michael Buckley did make a note of when 10s were handed out, but it was weirder. As best I can tell the jumps still had a base value like in COP, but then five judges (yes two more than the celebrities) rated them 1-10. The scores then showed up like a normal score sheet with BV and and GOE, but rather than +/-3 for GOE it was a scale of 10. And then it was factored somehow into a final score. I have no idea where the final scores came from, it seemed like they may have been trying to aim for a perfect score of three jumps being a 30 point score but who knows. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. Also, as you can see in the videos, they don't announce the scores, more just indicated to look at the jumbotron.
It was not explained where the skaters came from or who qualified for what and how. I actually did not notice Polina missing from the first round because I noticed Tyler Pierce missing first, and figured something happened the night before. Then i noticed both Jason and Max missing and started to wonder. Buckley did make a point of saying the skaters who qualified by winning the day before, but that is about it. We had a semi final round where five survive. Then a final round with two more skaters and again 5 survive. Then a Champion round where three survive. Then a bonus round that the skaters don't have to do, but gave no indication of what possible advantage not going would be. The naming of rounds was bad. They should have likely skipped the semi final round and just done one round of elimination down to five then on to 3 and call it good.
Mariah Bell was the only skater in a skater dress at the start. No idea how much of that was choice or lack of communication. She changed into work out stuff the first chance she got. I do think she was a bit shell shocked that she was getting the most cheers, though it can be hard to tell the difference between Mirai and Mariah in an arena. She got more in the zone as the evening went on. However, something was wrong with her first jump. But we don't really know what. She jumped (I think it was a 2A+3T) then everyone seemed confused, then she was told to talk to the judges, she looked confused and concerned then said something to Kori about "wrong element" talked to her for a bit and then things just went on with no explanation. I think she may not have been supposed to do a combination or a 2 jump (rather than 3) combo, or an axel in combo, but have no idea. I also think that this counted as her redo, but again, was not really clear.
Others have commented on the "arm position does not help" renouncement for Courtney, but that is not really telling the full story. Courtney was not the first to do an arm variation. In fact I was starting to expect it to be a celebration of arm positions it was getting so common so fast. I think the announcement was more of a nip it in the bud thing then an attack on Courtney. That being said, Tom Z and the judges table still likely have not been in so much communication. He flat out walked over more than once, but there were also nonverbal hand signs. I caught Tom Z doing a "ok" hand sign to the judges with an emphatic expression of that was good after one skater, then on the next skater someone at the judges table was holding 6 or 7 fingers up trying to get Tom Z's attention/confirmation of it. I was less than impressed with that aspect.
Another aspect of odd planning was when Buckley started announcing "a pop is a One and a fall is a three" but not with much more explanation to it. I think it was more of the judges than the audience, but just served to confuse more. Later he had a chance to win a free lesson each with Mirai, and Jason and the way to win "ummm I don't know come talk to me and I'll figure something out" which to me is a bit lazy. At least make the kids mug for the audience and let them vote if it is just going to be a game of favorites. It would not have been hard to figure something out first.
Overall I did enjoy Michael Buckley though. He very much did seem like he viewed himself there to work, and there to help further the event/sport and wanted to be useful. He did give off a treat me as a celebrity vibe, in fact he was the one removing and replacing the cones at times.
A few random thoughts in general.
Polina, I think just sorta phoned it in and did not take it very serious. She only skated the one round and did not say much. I don't think she wanted to be there at that point. She is however transforming into a very beautiful young lady on us.
Max got thrown something and made a point of coming back to hug the thrower. This led to the row of little ones in front of us to keep trying to get high fives from the skaters as they came off the ice. Nathan, Courtney and Max are the only ones i can remember complying - it started to seem odd how they would skate right by them and ignore them. Richard Dornbush did end up giving a much older audience (read legal to flirt with) member his shirt so he did some fan services. Jason... well have you ever seen a dog used to wearing a shock collar being coaxed to cross the line when the power is off? That was pretty much Jason as soon as he saw the fans wanted attention. I think he was so focused earlier that he did not notice till it was to a point he felt like he was stepping on the other skaters territory.
Vivian Le does something strange with her arms when she jumps. She would always look like she was going for a tano, but then changed her mind. The pink gloves made it more noticeable, but it is something to look for.
Someone was doing the Arsenio Hall whooping dog barking cheer whenever team Koro would skate, i wonder if it was Arsenio himself or just someone being cute and funny.
They did show slow mo replays on the jumbotron during the judging, but it still felt a bit slow. They did not announce the scores which would have been nice.
Mirai wants the 3A. She had a lot of fire in her eyes and I don't think she is being pushed by Tom Z to go for it. It very much looked like it was something she wanted. Buckley called one of her jumps a good attempt (he called all of them good attempts it seemed) and she had a look that would have killed him if she were facing him. Good attempt was clearly not good enough for her.
I really wish they would have filled the time a bit more with content while the judges were scoring people. It would not be that hard to have the skater say what their next jump was going to be for instance. That way people would know what they were looking for. It was all a bit chaotic. Had I know Mariah Bell was going for the 3A for instance I likely would have filmed it but it was not clear if all were doing 3As or just Mirai. They had a good emcee, they should have used him to keep the pace going and give more information.
The backflip part was fun, but poorly entered. I was surprised to see only one lady, Caleigh Newberry, in the event. I actually thought there would be quite a few young ladies with a gymnastics background that entered. Or put another way, I thought some gymnasts and cheerleaders with a little bit of a skating background would have shown up, but alas it was not meant to be. I figured i would at least do my part and film Caleigh to at least push the idea that yes ladies can do the backflip too!
Courtney Hicks and Amber Glenn were the two random skaters that stood out to my better half's untrained eye. Courtney has stood out in the past and it did not take him long for him to recognize her again.
I think that is most of my thoughts that have been floating around.
and her tano variation is also very interesting, pulling her arm down as she starts going down instead of keeping it up all the way through, juniors will be excitiing next year, wont it
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