I am shocked that Skate Canada chose Samson over Hawker, who was second in the FS at Canadian Nationals last year. Samson fell apart in the FS, and I wasn't much impressed by her.Samson hasn't had great international results as a junior, and Hawker was the feel-good story of Canadian Nationals.
It's otherwise a nice line-up for Ladies at Skate Canada, with Rochette, Pfaneuf, Korpi, Vahamaa, and Kostner, and I'm looking forward to seeing the highly-regarded Takeda.
In Dance, I'm thrilled they picked Crone/Poirier, Pechalat/Bourzat, Bobrova/Soloviev, and Davis/White, who won't be at SA. I'm looking forward to seeing Goshkova/Butikov.
In Pairs, I liked Dong/Wu very much at Worlds last year, and Dube/Davison are always a pleasure to see.
Wow for the Men: Buttle, Chan, and Lambiel, and Voronov who skated so well at Worlds last year. Too bad the TBA can't be Chipeur, who already has two.
Has ISU changed rules on placing GP assignments? This time, more close competitors from same countries are being put together in the same GP event.
The rules are the same as last year.
There may be an exception for host countries, but no one has taken it. Apart from that, restricted groups are based on last year's Worlds placements.
Each Fed chooses their up-to-three skaters. If they've chosen someone ranked 1-3, they skip the round. Otherwise, in the draw order, each Fed chooses someone from 1-3.
Same for 4-6, then any skater/team that had a PB last season higher than skaters/teams in the top six. 7-9, 10-12, then any skater/team that had a PB last season higher than skaters/teams placing 7-12. There are no other restrictions, except a max of two events per skater/team, and no more than three from one country in one event.
What may be confusing is that Miki Ando withdrew, so she could be chosen by any Fed without restriction. She would have been chosen after the top six, since her PB was fifth highest last season, higher than Nakano and Meier.
Same with Domnina/Shabalin, who had to withdraw from Worlds. They were chosen without restriction after the top six, since their PB for last season was third highest, higher than B/A, K/N, D/W, and F/S.
Caroline Zhang, Rachael Flatt, and Mirai Nagasu wer not age-eligible for Worlds, but they had the 7th, 8th, and 12th highest scores, were each guaranteed two spots, and [edited to add] the first two were selected after the 4-6 skaters, having had higher PB's than Worlds #6 Meier (9th PB) and the latter after the 10-12 skaters from last Worlds. Flatt's and Nagasu's scores were from Jr. Worlds, with one less jump element
Since none were seeded, no restrictions. Same issue with McLaughlin/Brubaker, who scored 8th highest, and were selected after 10-12.
Lysacek withdrew from Worlds as well, and was 4th highest on the PB list, higher than Weir, Joubert, and Van der Perren. He would have been chosen for two spots after 4-6. Preaubert, also a late withdrawal, had a PB higher than Abbott, Davydov, and Kozuka, and would have been selected after the 10-12 group.
Verner wasn't in the top 12 at Worlds, but his PB was fifth highest, and he would have been chosen after the 4-6 group.
Oda didn't compete last year, and was chosen by his Federation.
Those from the same country, placed 1-12, and were restricted, but placed in different selection groups are:
Pang/Tong (5th) and Zhang/Zhang (3rd)-only matchup CoC,
Murkhortova/Trankov (7th) and Kawaguchi/Smirnov (4th)-no matchup
Meissner (7th) and Liang (10th)-no matchup
Dube/Davison (3rd), Duhamel/Buntin (6th), and Langlois/Hay (8th)-D/D and L/H skate in SC and NHK. D/B don't meet any Canadian team in the GP six.
Buttle (1st) and Chan (9)-meet at SC.
Davis/White (6th) and Belbin/Agosto (4th) were in the same group. They don't compete against each other in this year's GP. The only odd one was that Abbott (11th) and Carriere (10th) should not be in the same group, since no one retired bumping up Carriere to the 7-9 group, yet they were both chosen for CoC. France has no men's skater in the 10-12 group, but they got two from the 7-9 group, Chan and Kozuka (??).
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