2016 Team Challenge Cup - Gen Info/Pre-chat

[shyne]

Just looked up Stars on Ice the weekend before TCC
There are 4 shows scheduled between4/15-4/17 in Tokyo
http://figureskate-soi.com/#artist

Skaters participating：
Patrick CHAN
Javier FERNANDEZ
Kaitlyn WEAVER and Andrew POJE
Meagan DUHAMEL and Eric RADFORD
Mao ASADA
Satoko MIYAHARA
Kanako MURAKAMI
Shoma UNO
Takahito MURA
Daisuke MURAKAMI

Two shows scheduled between 4/15-4/17 in US

Skaters participating：
Gracie GOLD
Ashley WAGNER
Madison CHOCK / Evan BATES
Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI
Adam RIPPON

It may be hard for skaters who already gone into the "tour mode" to perform well in TCC. Especially for skaters scheduled to perform in Tokyo: they have to do 4 shows in 3 days, fly all the way across Pacific and skate in a 3-day competition and all that in 1 week? That sounds crazy.

I look forward to seeing skaters like Liza and Nam, who may use this last competition of the season as a chance to redeem themselves and spend time preparing and setting up for it.

 

[ice coverage]

Just looked up Stars on Ice the weekend before TCC
There are 4 shows scheduled between4/15-4/17 in Tokyo
http://figureskate-soi.com/#artist

Skaters participating：
Patrick CHAN
Javier FERNANDEZ
Kaitlyn WEAVER and Andrew POJE
Meagan DUHAMEL and Eric RADFORD
Mao ASADA
Satoko MIYAHARA
Kanako MURAKAMI
Shoma UNO ...

It may be hard for skaters who already gone into the "tour mode" to perform well in TCC. Especially for skaters scheduled to perform in Tokyo: they have to do 4 shows in 3 days, fly all the way across Pacific and skate in a 3-day competition and all that in 1 week? That sounds crazy.

I look forward to seeing skaters like Liza and Nam, who may use this last competition of the season as a chance to redeem themselves and spend time preparing and setting up for it.

Thx for the SOI Tokyo names and schedule. Thoughts on the bright side:

- Pairs and dancers will compete only their free skates and FDs at TCC. No Pairs SP and no SD.

So for the pairs and dancers willing to travel from Tokyo to Spokane (luckily on the west coast), they will have one day of competition on Saturday Apr 23 + the gala on Sunday.​

- TCC will be slightly more demanding for the men and ladies, but the financial incentive is greater for them as well.

Additional prize money is offered for the Friday singles SPs -- separate from the prize money for the Saturday team comp.​

My hope is that the US SOI shows will have no effect on whether US skaters accept TCC slots.

The entire US SOI tour is only six shows, so an interim weekend for TCC on the same continent doesn't strike me as a humongous deal.
Gracie is an official ambassador for TCC, so I expect her to be there for sure.​

But all of the above obviously is only my point of view ....

 

[4everchan]

Thx for the SOI Tokyo names and schedule. Thoughts on the bright side:

- Pairs and dancers will compete only their free skates and FDs at TCC. No Pairs SP and no SD.

So for the pairs and dancers willing to travel from Tokyo to Spokane (luckily on the west coast), they will have one day of competition on Saturday Apr 23 + the gala on Sunday.​

- TCC will be slightly more demanding for the men and ladies, but the financial incentive is greater for them as well.

Additional prize money is offered for the Friday singles SPs -- separate from the prize money for the Saturday team comp.​

My hope is that the US SOI shows will have no effect on whether US skaters accept TCC slots.

The entire US SOI tour is only six shows, so an interim weekend for TCC on the same continent doesn't strike me as a humongous deal.
Gracie is an official ambassador for TCC, so I expect her to be there for sure.​

But all of the above obviously is only my point of view ....

Mathman, once again, how is it even ? if Pairs/Dance teams don't perform as much and don't get paid as much ? sorry to be so outspoken about this but for me, a team event that will have some credibility will feature all 4 disciplines in an even manner. clearly, it isn't the case here...

Does that mean TCC is bad ? ...I am not saying this.... I am simply saying that IMHO it is geared towards single skaters.

 

[MaxSwagg]

Mathman, once again, how is it even ? if Pairs/Dance teams don't perform as much and don't get paid as much ? sorry to be so outspoken about this but for me, a team event that will have some credibility will feature all 4 disciplines in an even manner. clearly, it isn't the case here...

Does that mean TCC is bad ? ...I am not saying this.... I am simply saying that IMHO it is geared towards single skaters.

I agree. I was very excited about this event but there's no pairs SP or SD? What the... I'd consider going to this in the future but with this format, that's less likely and I'd rather use that money to go to another Worlds... I'll still watch but as for me attending...probably not.

 

[Tyranid]

I'm not sure there will be anything interesting to pull out of the fake fan vote. If just one of the NA ladies declines/WD, there will only be a maximum of 2 eligible skaters to choose from. Also, the team captains have the power to manipulate the nominees to influence the voting from the get-go.

Also, I would assume that some fans will choose a 'team' they will be cheering on to win -- it's a team competition, only natural.

For example: Fan X wants to see Team NA win. When they go to vote, they might say -- "I like Rippon the most out of the available options, but Patrick Chan would be the superior skater in this competition, so I will vote for Chan as he will most likely be the best chance for Team NA to win."

Then, when Fan X moves to the Team Europe vote: "Medvedeva would probably be the highest scoring skater for Team Europe, but her tano's are annoying and she's overscored in general. I prefer Radionova, and although she may not place as high as Medvedeva, I'm rooting for Team NA anyway. I'm voting for Radionova."

Ah! That tactical voting. I remember games where i was rooting for NHL teams I don't like just because it would give my team a better shot to make the playoffs.

Either way, if people are voting, it can't really be considered "fake". In the end, we will still end up with top level skaters.

Also, I hope that people don't withdraw from the event. It's a whole month past worlds. Enough time for rest and prep., unlike 4CC.

Edit: how do you think the captains can influence voting?

 

[sabinfire]

Either way, if people are voting, it can't really be considered "fake". In the end, we will still end up with top level skaters.

We will end up with skaters that made it to Worlds. I may not consider all skaters at Worlds "top level", nor would I consider skaters that failed to make it to Worlds to be less than top level -- YMMV.

Also, I hope that people don't withdraw from the event. It's a whole month past worlds. Enough time for rest and prep., unlike 4CC.

The time between Worlds and TCC is less than 3 weeks. Almost 2 and a half weeks. The Worlds gala is April 3rd, and the first day of competition at TCC is April 22nd. That's 18 days, not counting travel time and all that other stuff.

Edit: how do you think the captains can influence voting?

The team captains are responsible for nominating skaters eligible for voting. You can't vote for a skater if the team captain chose not to nominate them, right?

 

[Sugarpova]

I look forward to seeing skaters like Liza and Nam, who may use this last competition of the season as a chance to redeem themselves and spend time preparing and setting up for it.

thats one of my main attraction to this comp! MAybe for the actual people who attend it would really matter that top skaters of the season are present but the ones who have bad seasons imo can gain so much more confidence & positive vibes from this chill event that it may motivate them for the next one! So go Nam, Sergei, Liza & Jason! It would be incredible to see you all again!:luv17:

It would be a dream to see Yuzu, Denis and Han Yan together on the same team.
Fans may vote for Shoma over Han Yan though.

ugh these asian mennnn
Id vote for all of them!! I cant chose they're all so awesome! To chose 1 is a nihgtmare!!:sad4:


I do think that Lena's chances to be fanvoted are much higher than Zhenia even with tactical(?) voting.

 

[Tallorder]

Will be a big mistake by the organizers (US Figure Skating, ISU) if they don't figure out how to include the Shibs and their Fix You program into that weekend. In my opinion, a rare program for the home country skater that is an actual draw $$.

 

[Nathan13]

North America's skaters are officially:

Gabrielle Daleman
Gracie Gold
Nam Nguyen
Jason Brown
Weaver/Poje
Chock/Bates
Duhamel/Radford
Scimeca/Knierim

So no Shibs :disapp: but still a strong team !!! (52 Days)

 

[ice coverage]

North America's skaters are officially:

Gabrielle Daleman
Grace Gold
Nam Nguyen
Jason Brown
Weaver/Poje
Chock/Bates
Duhamel/Radford
Scimeca/Knierim

So no Shibs :disapp: but still a strong team !!! (52 Days)

Thx, Nathan.

So now we know that no one declined an invitation to be on Team North America.

And cast members of SOI Tokyo and US SOI did accept their invitations to be on Team North America.

Hope these patterns continue for Team Europe and Team Asia.

Will be a big mistake by the organizers (US Figure Skating, ISU) if they don't figure out how to include the Shibs and their Fix You program into that weekend. In my opinion, a rare program for the home country skater that is an actual draw $$.

I love the Shibutanis, and love their Fix You program.

But the TCC rules were announced in September -- before the Shibs even had debuted Fix You in October at Nepela.

IMO, it would reflect poorly on USFS to bend the rules in order to give special treatment to any of its skaters.

(If anyone is wondering about the gala, what the Announcement says:

Exhibition Gala - will feature 24 performances, with Skaters to be selected by the organizers based on their show program. ...
All Skaters/Couples will participate in the Gala, but not all Skaters/Couples will perform a full exhibition performance. The Organizers will select the Skaters/Couples who will perform a full exhibition performance based on their placement at the Team Challenge Cup and their show program.
http://www.isu.org/media/1038/2016-team-challenge-cup-announcement-final_16-02-19_revised.pdf )​

 

[jenaj]

North America's skaters are officially:

Gabrielle Daleman
Grace Gold
Nam Nguyen
Jason Brown
Weaver/Poje
Chock/Bates
Duhamel/Radford
Scimeca/Knierim

So no Shibs :disapp: but still a strong team !!! (52 Days)

It would be better with Patrick Chan for Canada. How was the team selected? I read something about a fan vote. Was that part of the selection process?

 

[Layback11]

It would be better with Patrick Chan for Canada. How was the team selected? I read something about a fan vote. Was that part of the selection process?

The team was selected by who was the highest in the world rankings as of January 1st (and they had to be from different countries). The fan vote will happen later.

 

[ice coverage]

Today's announcement also has news re the timeframe of the fan vote:

Fan voting will open on March 9 and continues through April 4 on www.TeamChallengeCup.com.

http://usfigureskating.org/story?id=89432&type=media​

So I guess the nominations for fan voting will be announced on Mar 9?

Which happens to be the same date that we have known for Team Japan's skaters (based on ISU World Standings) to be announced.

(Today's announcement says that Tokyo will have an event on that date to introduce Team Asia, including the team captain.)

---

It would be better with Patrick Chan for Canada. How was the team selected? I read something about a fan vote. Was that part of the selection process?

The team was selected by who was the highest in the world rankings as of January 1st (and they had to be from different countries). The fan vote will happen later.

The fan vote starting on Mar 9 will be for the third man and third lady on each team.

Skaters who compete at Worlds are eligible to be nominated for the fan vote.
So Patrick likely will be nominated.

The selections so far (unrelated to the fan vote) are based on ISU World Standings (as opposed to Season's World Rankings) as of Jan 1. With the requirement for different countries, as Layback said.

 

[Tyranid]

So now, lets see what Europe could be like:

Men - Fernandez(2), Voronov(4), then - Kovtun/Kolyada/Bychenko/Samohin/Righini/Petrov?/Brezina?... hard to say who'll win the vote.

Women - Tuktamysheva(2), Rodeghiero(18, jesus lol), then - Radionova/Medvedeva/Pogorilaya (95%)/Kuchvalska/Meite. Now THIS is very very interesting, I'll explain later.

Pairs - Stolbova/Klimov(2), Della Monica/Guarise(8, ITA)

Dance - Cappellini/Lannote(4), Papadakis/Cizeron(5)



Now about the ladies:

The team captains are responsible for nominating skaters eligible for voting. You can't vote for a skater if the team captain chose not to nominate them, right?

Dean will obviously want the strongest team. So what he can do is omit Radionova if he feels that Medvedeva is currently the strongest skater and is afraid of Radionova winning the fan vote. This is, of course, harsh and very tactical, and not guaranteed to happen, but it's certainly a possibility.

 

[shyne]

So now, lets see what Europe could be like:

Men - Fernandez(2), Voronov(4), then - Kovtun/Kolyada/Bychenko/Samohin/Righini/Petrov?/Brezina?... hard to say who'll win the vote.

Women - Tuktamysheva(2), Rodeghiero(18, jesus lol), then - Radionova/Medvedeva/Pogorilaya (95%)/Kuchvalska/Meite. Now THIS is very very interesting, I'll explain later.

Pairs - Stolbova/Klimov(2), Della Monica/Guarise(8, ITA), then - Volosozhar/Trankov, Tarasova/Morozov, Savchenko/Massot, James/Cipres... V/T or S/M should get the vote. (hope neither pull out...), K/S are out for the season.

Dance - Cappellini/Lannote(4), Papadakis/Cizeron(5)... not sure here but I think it'll be either Bobrova/Soloviev or Sinitsina/Katsalapov.



Now about the ladies:



Dean will obviously want the strongest team. So what he can do is omit Radionova if he feels that Medvedeva is currently the strongest skater and is afraid of Radionova winning the fan vote. This is, of course, harsh and very tactical, and not guaranteed to happen, but it's certainly a possibility.

There's no fan voting for pairs and ice dance, only men and ladies.

 

[Tyranid]

There's no fan voting for pairs and ice dance, only men and ladies.

Yeah.. I knew that. I knew I was gonna f-k up somewhere

 

[CoyoteChris]

Today's announcement also has news re the timeframe of the fan vote:

Fan voting will open on March 9 and continues through April 4 on www.TeamChallengeCup.com.

http://usfigureskating.org/story?id=89432&type=media​

So I guess the nominations for fan voting will be announced on Mar 9?

Which happens to be the same date that we have known for Team Japan's skaters (based on ISU World Standings) to be announced.

(Today's announcement says that Tokyo will have an event on that date to introduce Team Asia, including the team captain.)

---

The fan vote starting on Mar 9 will be for the third man and third lady on each team.

Skaters who compete at Worlds are eligible to be nominated for the fan vote.
So Patrick likely will be nominated.

The selections so far (unrelated to the fan vote) are based on ISU World Standings (as opposed to Season's World Rankings) as of Jan 1. With the requirement for different countries, as Layback said.

Thanks, G! Dont know if this was posted but I gotta run so if this link was posted, just ignore it.

Spokane TV
http://www.krem.com/sports/team-challenge-cup-announces-team-north-america/61442856

 

[Mathman]

So I guess the nominations for fan voting will be announced on Mar 9?

Which happens to be the same date that we have known for Team Japan's skaters (based on ISU World Standings) to be announced.

(Today's announcement says that Tokyo will have an event on that date to introduce Team Asia, including the team captain.)

It looks like Japan is enthusiastically embracing this competition. It sounds like the Japanese Federation will be naming the captain of team Asia. (Now we see why the team Asia captain was not announced at the same time as the North American and European captains -- Japan didn't yet have all its ducks in a row. I hope it is Shizuka Arikawa or Daisuke Takahashi.)

As per earlier report, the Japanese television crews came in a couple of weeks ago to inspect the facility, figure out the best placements for their cameras, etc.

I also see that the Event has a new naming sponsor (replacing the Spokane electric company). The event is now the Kose Team Challenge Cup, after the Japanese beauty product company of that name.

 

[silverfoxes]

So now, lets see what Europe could be like:

Men - Fernandez(2), Voronov(4), then - Kovtun/Kolyada/Bychenko/Samohin/Righini/Petrov?/Brezina?... hard to say who'll win the vote.

Women - Tuktamysheva(2), Rodeghiero(18, jesus lol), then - Radionova/Medvedeva/Pogorilaya (95%)/Kuchvalska/Meite. Now THIS is very very interesting, I'll explain later.

Pairs - Stolbova/Klimov(2), Della Monica/Guarise(8, ITA)

Dance - Cappellini/Lannote(4), Papadakis/Cizeron(5)



Now about the ladies:



Dean will obviously want the strongest team. So what he can do is omit Radionova if he feels that Medvedeva is currently the strongest skater and is afraid of Radionova winning the fan vote. This is, of course, harsh and very tactical, and not guaranteed to happen, but it's certainly a possibility.

Petrov and Samohin are not going to senior Worlds. And I really, really doubt he would leave Elena out of the fan vote. I personally prefer Evgenia, but it's not like Elena is significantly weaker. She would still be one of the strongest competitors for sure. I think omitting her would be a very good way to alienate and anger fans...not really in the spirit of the competition.

 

[4everchan]

Petrov and Samohin are not going to senior Worlds. And I really, really doubt he would leave Elena out of the fan vote. I personally prefer Evgenia, but it's not like Elena is significantly weaker. She would still be one of the strongest competitors for sure. I think omitting her would be a very good way to alienate and anger fans...not really in the spirit of the competition.

it really doesn't matter which one between elena or evgenia goes in terms of of the strength of the team.. aside from satoko, either russian girl will most likely place above the others ... so I don't see why Dean would leave either one out... he should just pick the top ones and let the fans decide, and that's what I think will happen.