And I predict the ISU is going to either outright revamp part of the COP, or seriously redirect judges on how to score PCS in reaction to the controversial results of men's at the recent Worlds.
I am sorry, what controversial results are you referring to re: Men's competition at Worlds?
You made it sound as though it's a generally accepted statement of fact similar to SLC 2002 when it's clearly not. To qualify as a controversy in the eyes of the ISU, there should be - at the very least - a protest filed by a member organization re: the results, partially or as a whole, regardless whether the claim is eventually accepted or not. It didn't need to be ground shocking type of protest. In 2008, when Joubert received a non-fall deduction in his SP at Worlds, the FFSG immediately filed a protest before the competition even ends. As far as I know, JSF never made such a request which they were certainly entitled to do. Public statements from Takahashi and his coach after the competition made no mention of any disagreement or even questioning of the results. The same cannot be said about other skaters such as Jeremy Abbott who openly complained about his TR mark for being too low, among other things. However, given his poor showing, they came across as excuses, which in my view, really doesn't do himself any favor. Therefore, I must conclude the so called "controversial results" you are alluding to are the perceptions of some fans attempting to tea-leaf reading the apparent displeasure of some spectators present at the event. Even that, a few Europe based members here who actually attended the event live told us that the audience was not in fact booing at Patrick Chan. It's entirely possible and plausible that a broadcast could give a different perception to the viewers than those who were there live. So what exactly was controversial then and why would the ISU would feel any urge to take such knee-jerk reaction given the absence of any credible anomaly in the results?
Besides, the last time the ISU gave in to such knee-jerk reaction in Singles skating was when it decided to allow women the option of doing 3A in the SP barely 2 years ago. Not only the rule change was shocking at the time and for one, I personally strongly disagreed with - fast forward 2 years, we know how that rule change turned out - a complete phantom rule. No Russian wonder girls trying it and the only skater it was supposedly going to help ended up plunging that skater into a "recession". What good is a rule change of this nature when there is actually no one who can actually use it? This is a prime example of decision made based on knee-jerk reaction, can't say the unfortunate outcome today hasn't been warned 2 years ago.
I say for those who wish for rule changes just because the results didn't suit them - beware what you ask for, you never know whom it will hit instead and the unintended consequences. For example, those who propose exponential deductions for more than one fall in a given program - just know that their first victim could have very well being Takahashi himself, who fell 3 times at his Japanese National FS and may well be left off the national podium if such proposal was in effect. Should the JSF then bump somebody to send him to Worlds regardless? Even if they did that, how would that make Takahashi feel? In Japanese mentality, I think he would feel deeply ashamed if that were the case.
As long as Daisuke skates at his current level or better, he will probably do much better against Patrick.
For this statement to be true, you have to assume Patrick Chan is a static target and that he won't improve from this point forward. The reality is for anyone to catch up, not only they have to improve but they must do so at a faster rate than Patrick Chan is upping his own game - easier said than done. Given Patrick's age vs. that of Takahashi, and state of their health, Takahashi may have the will but his body may not let him to do it. Chan has stated that adding a 2nd type of Quad is part of his plan. Let that be a Flip or a Salchow, remains to be seen. Suffice to say, Chan has also demonstrated a greater range of presentation style from his various roles: Take 5, Phantom of Opera and Concierto de Aranjuez, to his latest exhibition number compared to Takahashi's somewhat limited repertoire of style and music choices.
Someone asked earlier, how come Joubert's well skated Matrix at Worlds didn't receive any higher PCS. Little did they know, Joubert has been unable to grow out of Matrix, his signature piece, since 2004 because his later experimentation with other styles weren't well received but most importantly, he himself was unable to get comfortable with other styles for him to be fully effective in his programs. Takahashi, to a lesser extent, is suffering from the same fatigue. To me, if you turn off the sound, Takahashi's competitive programs come across as being fairly similar to each other because the range of emotions, gesture and expression are almost the same for the last few years. He has stated he is a passionate person and if he could, he would be a dancer. If shows in his skating, the passion, but after while, however positive that might be, it becomes repetitive. I feel for Takahashi to reach the next level, he would to explore a style outside of his comfort zone - to show he can be versatile.
Chan's personality is naturally outgoing and extrovert - Take 5 would be more naturally aligned with his personality but his LP and especially his Exhibition piece are anything but outgoing. For him to be able to express the subtle yet strong emotions underlined in those pieces is challenging. It's the same when someone who is introvert yet mistaken for being less emotive whereas in reality an introvert may in fact be a very emotional person, one just needs to see beyond the surface. Takahashi's style is more "in your face", you don't need to focus on him very hard in order to see what he is presenting because he brings it to you. That's nice but that's certainly not the only way to express a music which many here seem to think it's the only way based on their comments on wanting to bring experts in arts and dance to judge instead.
Takahashi was over-rated in musicality in this particular World LP performance.
