Starting Order is up!
I wish the Shibs had drawn a little later in the final group, after at least one of the other favorites.
It's the structure of the seeding system that necessarily disadvantages new pairs and/or pairs who come back from injury. There's no way around that. But I feel that the judges are aware of that and IMO this season it was never a big deal. Like Tobias/Tkachenko and Sinitsina/Katsalapov (or Bobrova/Soloviev in the Grand Prix) skating earlier didn't seem to make a difference, or if it lowered their scores, then not by much. Which I do think is an achievement of the new judging system to some degree. Had to laugh about the ISU account congratulating P/O on skating first and how it's lucky or something, though. LOL, let's not exaggerate.I know it's all purely based on World ranking, but every year, there are at least a few couples/people where I sit there astounded that they are in the group they're in when I see who is above/below them.
Best of luck to all!
There are strong skaters in all Warm-Up Groups!
PARADIS/OUELLETTE and TOBIAS/TKACHENKO in the 1st group, SINITSINA/KATSALAPOV in the 2nd, MURAMOTO/REED and LORENZ/POLIZOAKIS in the 3rd (Just realized GARABEDIAN/PROULX-SENECAL got their Worlds tech score after all!), TESTA/CSOLLEY & NAZAROVA/NIKITIN & FOURNIER-BEAUDRY/SORENSEN in group 4.
Last 2 groups are obviously great. A bit disapointed for Hubbell/Donohue, I wished they skated a bit later in the group. The order of the last group is perfect for me!
Can't wait for tomorrow!
That last group is chock full of goodness.<p>
Incredibly strong group, pretty equally matched. All sorts of possibilities. Normally, skating later is best, but if Shibs come out with all L4, it is going to put incredible pressure on the rest.
Last year even though P/C skated last they still only ended 4th (deserved better IMO). I think for the SD it does not matter as much as for the FD.
It's the structure of the seeding system that necessarily disadvantages new pairs and/or pairs who come back from injury. There's no way around that. But I feel that the judges are aware of that and IMO this season it was never a big deal. Like Tobias/Tkachenko and Sinitsina/Katsalapov (or Bobrova/Soloviev in the Grand Prix) skating earlier didn't seem to make a difference, or if it lowered their scores, then not by much. Which I do think is an achievement of the new judging system to some degree. Had to laugh about the ISU account congratulating P/O on skating first and how it's lucky or something, though. LOL, let's not exaggerate.
Far as I understand it, those are just the quirks of the seeding system. Only the first half (? I think that's how it works?) of the field, so the first 15 couples in the world standings here, get slotted into the later three groups. Everyone who falls out of those first 15 just draws at random for the first three groups. So A/U, P/O and S/K just had the misfortune of barely missing the cut-off for the seeded later groups and had to take their chances. SinKats fared comparatively well with their late start in the second group , look at P/O (ranked 27) skating first and A/U also in the first group. It's a bit inconsistent IMO, since if you introduce seeding, why not do it consistently for all competing pairs? But it is what it is.I'm actually legitimately confused about this seeded draw- I thought it looked really funny, and I've looked at it in more detail and I just don't get it. It is supposed to be based off of THIS list, isn't it???? http://www.isuresults.com/ws/ws/wsdance.htm
If so something isn't right. For example, how are Tina GARABEDIAN / Simon PROULX-SENECAL (ranked 71) 2 groups ahead of Agafonova and Ucar (ranked 28). Similarly Sinitsina and Katsalopov are ranked 25 now but are in the second group. Everyone in warm up groups 3 are worse on the list than Agafonova/Ucar and Sinitsina/Katsalopov (and in fact some teams in the 90's are in that group, 2 groups later than Agafonova and Ucar). So why are these two couples stuck in earlier groups than they should be? I hope someone complains about this and it's remedied.
It's the structure of the seeding system that necessarily disadvantages new pairs and/or pairs who come back from injury. There's no way around that. But I feel that the judges are aware of that and IMO this season it was never a big deal. Like Tobias/Tkachenko and Sinitsina/Katsalapov (or Bobrova/Soloviev in the Grand Prix) skating earlier didn't seem to make a difference, or if it lowered their scores, then not by much. Which I do think is an achievement of the new judging system to some degree. Had to laugh about the ISU account congratulating P/O on skating first and how it's lucky or something, though. LOL, let's not exaggerate.
Far as I understand it, those are just the quirks of the seeding system. Only the first half (? I think that's how it works?) of the field, so the first 15 couples in the world standings here, get slotted into the later three groups. Everyone who falls out of those first 15 just draws at random for the first three groups. So A/U, P/O and S/K just had the misfortune of barely missing the cut-off for the seeded later groups and had to take their chances. SinKats fared comparatively well with their late start in the second group , look at P/O (ranked 27) skating first and A/U also in the first group. It's a bit inconsistent IMO, since if you introduce seeding, why not do it consistently for all competing pairs? But it is what it is.