2021 NHK Trophy: Men's Free Skate

[el henry]

Unlike your replies, there is nothing subjective in my posts. The whole point of having two scores is for them to have more/less equal weight in a competition as a whole, as it always was, from the beginning of the figure skating. And when the new system was made they started with the same idea, that's why there was different factoring for PCS. But after the last Olympics when they made men free programmes shorter by taking out one jumping pass (the problem was in duration of the men free programmes and the whole competition), by limiting repetition of the quads in the Zayak rule and by forbidding backloading bonuses, that is not the case anymore, as i've demonstrated above.

We will need to agree to disagree on whether you and I are both subjective.

In any event, it will be interesting to see whether the ISU decides to change it again, and how they decide.

 

[lariko]

I don't agree that Yuma's scores are undeserved though.. he is amazing in his ability to be on the beat even with fast-paced music that most skaters wouldn't successfully skate to, not to mention his incredible skating skills, and very well done transitions--- so even though his SP is not to my taste, I do think his high PCS is, in general, deserv

Not in performance or interpretation of music. 9.25 for Kagiyama’s short when Aliev gets 6.25? Kagiyama is a nearly perfect technical skater, a quintessential one if you wish, as you have very eloquently described him (and to add to that, his jumps are a marvel to behold). But as a performer or music interpretation skater (whatever portions of artistic and choreographic choices are allocated to each), he is yet to discover himself, imo. It is not surprising that his music choices are so non-descriptively bland and out of touch with sincere emotions. It takes an exceptional artistic skater to bring a dead-born 50s tune to hit hard. That’s not what Kagiyama is capable of doing. The music is there to show that he has fantastic SS, not an artist’s soul or strong, distinctive personality/presence/vibe. The music is the most boring part of his packaging.

And the key issue is that it’s not speaking in general. It is in particular, as in saying bluntly, that the judges boosted Kagiyama’s scores to the max in the short based on his past performances, expectation that he would recover in the free and the overall feel that they want this guy in the final. On the other hand, Aliev was barred from threatening, I dunno, 8th place? And Hiwatashi… like why not score him higher, which he so richly deserves particularly when the rest of the field is this bland and where he is outstanding? I am pretty sure he and Ignatov went neck in neck for performance and music there…

 

[lariko]

All in all, it's pretty funny that when fans want to highlight Russian women's achievements, they want to get their PCS up to men's level, but when it comes to Russian male quadsters, they want to drop men's PCS down to women's level...

The value of an individual’s opinion is that it’s not amalgamated. I personally was a strong supporter of equalized scoring system for both men and women, independently of nationality, with reduction in subjective part of the score and/or adding metrics to three of five PCSs from the moment I was able to understand the scoring system. Yes, even if in certain competitions it would work against my favourite skaters, present and future.

While individual views do change with improved understanding or just experience, I personally never was inconsistent like that. I would never want to fudge the system to favour anyone in particular, because in the end of the day, the skaters change, but skating stays.

I simply want each and every one of them get what they skated for, each and every time, and that this mark didn’t have a flashing neon wtf sign attached.