2025 Cup of China

[gsk8]

The 2025 Cup of China is on!

This is the place to dive deeper and continue conversations from the fast-paced competition threads!

Who impressed you the most? Any standout programs or surprises? How did your favorites do? Want to analyze scores? Share your thoughts!

Please remember to keep things friendly and respectful.

Have fun!

Chock and Bates 'paint it gold' at Cup of China

2025 Cup of China: Ice Dance USA's Madison Chock and Evan Bates took their eighth individual Grand Prix gold medal on Saturday after their "Paint it

www.goldenskate.com

USA's Glenn edges out teammate Liu for Cup of China gold

2025 Cup of China: Women USA's Amber Glenn edged out teammate Alysa Liu for the gold medal in the Women's event on Sunday in Chongqing at the 2025 Cup of

www.goldenskate.com

Japan's Shun Sato wins second consecutive Cup of China title

2025 Cup of China: Men Japan's Shun Sato won his second consecutive Cup of China title in Chongqing in the Men's event on Sunday. Daniel Grassl of Italy

www.goldenskate.com

Metelkina and Berulava prevail at 2025 Cup of China

2025 Cup of China: Pairs Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava prevailed at Cup of China, taking the Pairs' gold despite a fall in the free

www.goldenskate.com

 

[lariko]

Well, my picks are already down the drain in both women and dance, and i can't watch any competitons until Mom arrives on Sunday. Not exactly the best start to the weekend.

 

[4everchan]

I no longer worry about GP picks this season (well.. not as much as before I failed at GP France) but the real let down for me was the time difference. I had to make a choice : I slept. I may watch the CBC archives for the SP.... or I may even dare to stay up tonight (I doubt it)... but yeah... It's tough to be a skating fan.

 

[DancingCactus]

Based on the programs I've seen so far, this season is going to be dire.

 

[ManyCairns]

For ID, I don't like the too-general RD theme this season, but despite that, there were several performances I liked today: Z/K, L/B, and Gr/Pa (despite Michael's fall with ghastly consequences). And I enjoyed the women in the SP, overall. I'm quite enjoying this event, and I have a super-busy afternoon, so waking up and seeing results first helped me strategize my time for watching. Will catch the bulk of the pairs later, and maybe the men.

Great idea creating the Replay Lounge, GS!

 

[Marius]

Last place in the Women'S SP had 61.47 points. Great level overall!
And also I'm happy to see Sui/Han back, finally

 

[Karoltyna]

Opening pose of Georgians SP makes Nastia's arms bleed - literally, there are photos of her showing it. Please, ditch it...

 

[Arriba627]

Just finished watching the replay for the women's short. . Highlights for me were the incredible skating skills of Rino Matsuike -- and the fact that she went clean. Enjoyed Alysa Liu and her 3Lz-3Lo combo, altho it hurt my hip just thinking about it. Beautiful costume for Amber. Her 3A was stellar. Like her program. It has a good energy. SO close to clean.

Wow -- top 3 so close. Should be exciting in the FS!!!

 

[noskates]

Men's SP was interesting. I loved Boyang Jin's program - especially Brian May on the guitar in his music!! Don't know what's up with Cha but I'm thinking he should have stayed in Toronto. He seems unfocussed and not too invested. JMO, of course. Thought Shaiderov did a great job and was surprised he was only in 3rd. He has beautiful rotations on his spins.

 

[Mathematician]

WAs the loop clean though? It's hard to get good flow. Interesting going back to last year's programs in both sp and fs. I wonder if she will keep the same costumes?

I mean it wasn't a perfect landing there wasn't any follow-through at all she lost some control and it seems her blade slipped but it was one of the best -3Lo combos you'll see in this era and definitely fully rotated. I'd give it a +1. Definitely positive GOE so I'd call that clean.

 

[Arigato]

Score boxes on the screen would have been nice for the men.

 

[Lamente Ariane]

Ice dance RD: I've (mostly) caught up and it pains me to say that I am not sold on Chock/Bates's RD at the moment. In fact, I'm kind of surprised it made it out of Champs Camp... I know it's the beginning of the season but I was really hoping they'd come out of the gate with strong concepts like they did in 2021-22, but oof, right now I don't like it.

To be honest, most of the programs here didn't work for me. Smart/Dieck also missed the mark (what do those two songs have to do with each other again?) really, the only RD I really enjoyed was Green/Parsons and unfortunately Michael's twizzle fall has probably knocked them out of contention here. I hope they come back big in the free and skate their RD clean at their next event.

 

[Mathematician]

Probably a q to be honest. Looked like a UR live, but in slo mo more like a q. Caller was very lenient on most of the girls.

4:18 for slow motion replay if the timestamp doesn't work:

This is absolutely perfect rotation. It was not even close to being close to being a q. At all. Most jumps are way messier than this. Almost every clean, textbook jump you see has the pick landing on the quarter and the blade finishing with the full rotation, which is not a UR. Alyssa, however, even beat this in that her pick barely made contact before the blade, still within the quarter. Kaori's jumps, among others, finish with the full blade on the quarter and don't even get called. Alyssa's issue was the follow through, which was unfortunately non-existent, however the rotation could barely be more perfect and clear.

 

[Lamente Ariane]

Pairs: watching Metelkina and Berulava get into that opening pose had me going "no NO NO oh oy vey no" out loud and then BolerNO, ugh. They were the cleanest on tech I guess but...

Honestly forgot that Sui/Han were skating here and didn't really believe they'd be back until I saw them! Some rust to shake off yet for sure, but the beginning of their program was stunningly choreographed. The real test will be the free skate, though...

I really like Conti/Macii's SP this year, they skated it with good attack as well. Ghilardi/Ambrosini also have a good program, though it was a bit messy. Always happy to see McBeath/Parkman skate clean, too bad about the missed levels on the final death spiral.

 

[ramurphy2005]

Always happy to see McBeath/Parkman skate clean, too bad about the missed levels on the final death spiral.

Still an improvement on last week, since both got base level.

 

[Joekaz]

4:18 for slow motion replay if the timestamp doesn't work:

This is absolutely perfect rotation. It was not even close to being close to being a q. At all. Most jumps are way messier than this. Almost every clean, textbook jump you see has the pick landing on the quarter and the blade finishing with the full rotation, which is not a UR. Alyssa, however, even beat this in that her pick barely made contact before the blade, still within the quarter. Kaori's jumps, among others, finish with the full blade on the quarter and don't even get called. Alyssa's issue was the follow through, which was unfortunately non-existent, however the rotation could barely be more perfect and clear.

Your stills are of her already on the ice, proving nothing. I grant you that the available angle is poor, so im not really going to argue about it. As a matter of fact, part of my point was that it wasnt as bad as it looked in real time. I agree 100 percent about Sakamoto, btw. I think they both massively prerotate and often get away with rotation and edge issus, along with inflated PCS. One difference is that Alysa actually exceeds the allowed 180(ridiculously lenient standard, btw) on lutz and flip takeoffs, while Kaori goes to the limit. On PCS inflation, Kaori still holds that crown. Although, that usually shrinks dramatically against Americans around the Olympic season. Lol

 

[Mathematician]

Your stills are of her already on the ice, proving nothing.

Well... thats when you judge rotation. When she initiates the jump and when she finishes it. I posted the video so people can fact-check my stills. Its just a visual aid for quick scrutiny.

ridiculously lenient standard, btw

Honestly I don't think 180 is that ridiculous if we're just talking about the toe-pick. By that point all of the skater's weight is already off the ice and the jump has truly commenced. It is such a delicate and physically variable issue that its best the rules allow the most leniency to the athlete as reasonably possible. The thing is judges are inconsistent and lowkey clueless about when to call it a true PR. If the blade is still down past 180 its clearly egregious. I've seen Glenn go 3/4s with full blade on a PR in her loops without even being marked for replay.

I agree 100 percent about Sakamoto, btw. I think they both massively prerotate and often get away with rotation and edge issus, along with inflated PCS.

The PCS in general is all over the place these days its hard to really know whats going on... there isn't even a standard I can compare to anymore, to call anything over or under scored. The situation is really dire. As for edge calls they might as well just get rid of it as a rule entirely the judges clearly don't care. Rotation judging will never be fixed until it is more strictly standardized, at this point nobody can even agree what landing on a quarter even means...

 

[Joekaz]

Well... thats when you judge rotation. When she initiates the jump and when she finishes it. I posted the video so people can fact-check my stills. Its just a visual aid for quick scrutiny.


Honestly I don't think 180 is that ridiculous if we're just talking about the toe-pick. By that point all of the skater's weight is already off the ice and the jump has truly commenced. It is such a delicate and physically variable issue that its best the rules allow the most leniency to the athlete as reasonably possible. The thing is judges are inconsistent and lowkey clueless about when to call it a true PR. If the blade is still down past 180 its clearly egregious. I've seen Glenn go 3/4s with full blade on a PR in her loops without even being marked for replay.


The PCS in general is all over the place these days its hard to really know whats going on... there isn't even a standard I can compare to anymore, to call anything over or under scored. The situation is really dire. As for edge calls they might as well just get rid of it as a rule entirely the judges clearly don't care. Rotation judging will never be fixed until it is more strictly standardized, at this point nobody can even agree what landing on a quarter even means...

I agree with you my friend. Might as well bring back the 6.0. If it looks good in real time and the skater is smooth, than its good. Right now it reminds me of American football referees. Part time 60 year olds with coke bottle glasses running up to a pile of players from 20 yards away, putting their foot down and saying, here. Then its measured with a chain and if its an inch short, you lose. Lol

 

[el henry]

After reading the comments in the comp thread, I was expecting Madi and Evan to be crawling on the ice, and once I watched, no, they were not

I also love love love love that it is not Madonna, Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin or Deee-Lite. Not even my favorite music but thank the skating gods for some creativity five point bonus from me.

Do I think other teams were faster and more polished? Yes. Do I have every confidence that Madi and Evan will get up to speed (hahahaha). Yes (look how much dancing through the years improved last year).

Not a huge flamenco fan, so not looking forward to the FD as much.

 

[Zora]

I actually enjoyed that there was no score box for the men. I find the box so distracting and without it much easier to focus on the performance. It also proved to me how unimportant quads are for a program, because quite often I asked myself if it was a quad or a triple. Whereas you might feel more excitement when you see it was a 4Lz afterwards.

The ladies' music choices this season are so sooo safe. Yoshida is not my favorite skater, but at least she tried to bring something different to the table.