Women
Alysa Liu proves once again that she's able to bring it at major competitions. Amber Glenn is clearly the best in the women's field, and I love her Madonna sp. But, a little mistake keeps her down in third. Jia Shin is lovely, but she got too close to the boards. Haien Lee still struggles with URs. Rinka W was very good. Anastasia has a really good sp, but she seemed slightly tight from nerves. Maybe Anastasia can pull up for a podium spot. It would be nice to see Jia pull through as well. She's quite lovely when she shows a bit more presence and joy in her skating. Can Alysa maintain her first place, or will Amber skate with fire and control to deny her?
Dance
Sigh... Tim and Olivia looked good in their RD, but were a bit unsteady, with Olivia repeating a similar mistake that happened to Guillaume in the RD at Angers. I hope Olivia/ Tim come out with better fire and control in their FD. I personally do not take to Lopareva/ Brissaud. Yes, they are good, but what they do does not draw me in. It's like self-aware camp from them, but it leaves me unmoved. I much prefer the apparently third-ranked French team, Loicia D/ Theo LM, who performed very well, and probably should have been scored a bit higher. Of course, Zingas/ Kolesnik performed very well to Shpilband choreo, taking advantage of mistakes made by rival teams. Green/ Parsons have a good RD, but ice is slippery, especially when you are pushing the limit to be at your best. So, Michael takes an unexpected tumble on a twizzle sequence, which will not help improve judges' already less impressed views of them.
Lim/Quan have a very good RD to Men in Black. It was very enjoyable to watch, but they are not one of my favorite teams. As usual, Maddie & Evan are pros. They are so good at being prepared for battle. Plus, they know each other so well. Luckily, for them, Maddie's slight backward wobble later in the RD did not occur during an element. I like their costumes, and also Gr/Par had nice costumes, as well as Tim/ Olivia, and Lim/Quan. I thought Lo/Bri and Lim/Quan were slightly overscored, and Loicia/ Theo were slightly underscored.