- Joined
- Jan 25, 2013
I actually think Nathan's scoring is fine (maybe a bit less on PCS, definitely above 90). PCS is something that's incredibly subjective and I don't think his PCS was egregious as, say, Uno or Kolyada's PCS given their multiple falls (IMO). Some might call Nathan's program a jump fest (newsflash, he does the same number of jumping passes as the other guys, with choreo/other elements in between), but I think Nathan still has solid (although not top-notch) program content and interpretation in between the elements. And when you cap it off with 5 - pretty much 6 - quads, to do all of that is much harder.
Also, I think posters can have valid opinions without having to invest the time to make a painstakingly detailed argument and/or analysis dissecting Nathan's program in every GOE and PCS aspect -- which, let's be honest, would inevitably be biased in favour of Nathan if someone took that much time to actually do it. Yes, he got some benefits from the judges, but other skaters have done much less difficulty with errors and scored higher PCS and GOE compared to what Nathan has put out there. Yes, Nathan has built up a reputation, but the other reputable guys from Hanyu to Chan to Takahashi to Fernandez have been scored high - even with poor skates... and that's where the "reputation argument" falls flat, IMO, because Nathan actually skated well - with incredible difficulty at that. At WTT 2017, Chan and Hanyu had poor skates with two major errors and got 45+ PCS - marks that were very obviously thanks to their reputation -- and this was even higher PCS than clean SPs from Nathan/Mikhail at WC2018. Nathan isn't exactly the first to benefit from reputation, nor is his Worlds scoring the most egregious example of overscoring (which was marginal, IMO).
Someone like Vasilljevs for example, I would give points for performance, but I don't think his SS are as great as you opine them to be, and there is a distinct lack of maturity and finesse in his skating. If a skater goes out and doubles every single jumping pass and does everything else the same as when they do the same program with all quads, for example, they don't deserve the same PCS for the two skates; it takes a better grasp of skating skills (speed and control) when executing a program that incorporates quads and it's much easier to interpret and execute choreo when your difficulty is easier, IMO (with rare exceptions, like Brown's intricate choreography to make up for the technical deficiency). 83.20 PCS with zero quad attempts is actually pretty good -- other skaters have gotten higher PCS than that with 3, 4, and even 5 falls in their freeskate.
It's easy for any one of us to spew a blanket statement like, "Somebody with eyes, logic and respect for figure skating will see that [insert one's own opinion here]", but that's merely subjectivity - not to mention, bias too. It's no news to the rest of us that certain posters have an axe to grind against Chen, so to hear statements like the above are completely unsurprising.
Not to be mean... but I think it's pretty rude to suggest that people can only show "some respect for figure skating" if they agree with your opinion that Chen's scoring is unjustified, and if they disagree with you, then they have neither "eyes" nor "logic".
