VM first (yawn). PC or Shibs second; CB third or fourth. I wish VM would just get lives and move on.
VM first (yawn). PC or Shibs second; CB third or fourth. I wish VM would just get lives and move on.
The fight for pewter (IMO) is between CB, CL and WP... and that should round out the top 6.
I don't think C/B are necessarily off the podium--I think they could definitely surprise and place high on the podium, because they are going to peak at the perfect time. I also think that 4-9/10 is going to be the more exciting part of the competition. Bobrova/Soloviev, Gilles/Poirier, and Hubbel/Donohue are all capable of coming out ahead of that group.
I'm not super accustomed with the new rules for the draws, but are Virtue/Moir out of the top two groups for the SD? (they are 15th in world standing, 12th only taking into account the couples who should be in Helsinki)
Yeah the last two group would be the top 10 couples. They should be in a later part of their warm-up group since they'll likely still be in the "draw last" grou. I don't think it will matter too much for them though.
Tried to figure out the groups for the SD:
1st group: Tran/Ambrulevicius, Smart/Diaz, Ogloblina/Zhirnov, Kozmava/Shumski
2nd group: Alessandrini/Souquet, Jakushina/Nevskiy, Fear/Gibson, Mysliveckova/Csolley
3rd group: Lorenz/Polizoakis, Kavaliova/Bieliaiev, Törn/Partnanen, Garabedian/Proulx-Senecal, Kuzmichova/Sinicyn
4th group: Wang/Liu, Agafonova/Ucar, Muramoto/Reed, Lauriault/Le Gac, Min/Gamelin
5th group: Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen, Tobias/Tkachenko, Virtue/Moir, Nazarova/Nikitin, Kaliszek/Spodyriev
6th group: Capellini/Lanotte, Bobrova/Soloviev, Guinard/Fabbri, Gilles/Poirier, Stepanova/Bukin
7th group: Chock/Bates, Shibutanis, Hubbell/Donohue, Papadakis/Cizeron, Weaver/Poje
Aren't first 3 groups completely random? Like not based on World Ranking? You can't really know if someone who is in lower half of Ranking will be skating 1st or 15th... World Ranking applies to later groups in my understanding unless something has changed from last year. (I mean, Mikhail Kolyada was skating second last season in Men singles SP, because he wasn't in higher half of Ranking, and lower groups were random order and he picked number 2.)
Basically the 4th and 5th group will be random also, but they will draw later than the folks that would draw groups 1-3.
So the first 16 (through Muramoto/Reed) (or 17 folks, through Lauriat/Le Gac) would draw for all of groups 1-3 and some of group four (either the first 3 or 4 spots)
The second half, who are not ranked high enough for the last two groups would draw for the last spot (or two) in group 4 and group 5:
Lauriault/Le Gac (who might be in the draw earlier group)
Min/Gamelin
Fournier Beaudry/Sorensen
Tobias/Tkachenko
Virtue/Moir
Nazarova/Nikitin
Kaliszek/Spodyriev
Then the 6-10 highest ranked teams would draw for group 6
Then the top five ranked teams would draw for group 7
I also think that 4-9/10 is going to be the more exciting part of the competition.
This is the competition that I'm going to be the most nervous about. After the "excitement" at Europeans, I'm going be on pins and needles. :gaah: