Thanks for the explanation and news update, adelia! The cake is lovely. And count me in as a "Sasha for seniors" group member. It would be wonderful if Sasha gets 2 GP assignments. Let's hope for the best.
IMO if his health condition allows him to compete in seniors, it's better to do so than staying junior (regardless of how his quads are going), especially when qualifying for Olympics 2018 is likely to be the ultimate goal of the current Olympic cycle for him. Those young men who show instant success in the first senior season are always exceptions since it takes too many prerequisites (and some of them don't even depend on the skater or his team) to win all the judges' high evaluation so quickly. Two years in seniors would probably mean only one year left to actually build his PCS and reputation for the battle over Olympic tickets, which directly puts him in disadvantage against quite a few rivals much more established and experienced. So the low probability of his "making a splash" with senior debut is exactly the reason why he'd better move up a bit earlier, rather than counting on that senior "splash" in 2016-17 with improvement over one junior season. To be honest, his actual skating could improve faster with more senior experience, so even if his senior debut risks being considered "so-so"/"failed" results-wise by some people in FS community, it's still worth the risk and there's nothing to regret. (Frankly I think he'll adapt to senior programs a little bit better than Adyan since he's more of a well-rounded skater than 2013-14 Adyan. )
Besides, there's no guarantee that he'd have more brilliant results in juniors as things aren't that predictable. Junior gold is still JUNIOR gold, and even if your chances seem great pre-season, in the end you may get nothing superior to previous junior placements, which is worse than so-called senior "failure" IMO.
IMO if his health condition allows him to compete in seniors, it's better to do so than staying junior (regardless of how his quads are going), especially when qualifying for Olympics 2018 is likely to be the ultimate goal of the current Olympic cycle for him. Those young men who show instant success in the first senior season are always exceptions since it takes too many prerequisites (and some of them don't even depend on the skater or his team) to win all the judges' high evaluation so quickly. Two years in seniors would probably mean only one year left to actually build his PCS and reputation for the battle over Olympic tickets, which directly puts him in disadvantage against quite a few rivals much more established and experienced. So the low probability of his "making a splash" with senior debut is exactly the reason why he'd better move up a bit earlier, rather than counting on that senior "splash" in 2016-17 with improvement over one junior season. To be honest, his actual skating could improve faster with more senior experience, so even if his senior debut risks being considered "so-so"/"failed" results-wise by some people in FS community, it's still worth the risk and there's nothing to regret. (Frankly I think he'll adapt to senior programs a little bit better than Adyan since he's more of a well-rounded skater than 2013-14 Adyan. )
Besides, there's no guarantee that he'd have more brilliant results in juniors as things aren't that predictable. Junior gold is still JUNIOR gold, and even if your chances seem great pre-season, in the end you may get nothing superior to previous junior placements, which is worse than so-called senior "failure" IMO.
If anything, the rule in juniors helps him. If his quad goes well over the summer, by all means, I support him moving to seniors.
