A Pro does not fall neither should a competitor.
Pros and competitors do fall. And this fact will not change.
Just as a skater should not fall, skiers and short trackers should not crash; hockey, soccer and various game athletes should not miss goals, and their goalies should not let in any goal; high jumpers and pole vaulters should not touch the bars............ Athletes challenge themselves and records. They have to take risk and raise their levels to the limits all the time. In attempting to achieve all the "shoulds", they commit the "should nots". Wayne Gretsky says you miss all the goals you don't shoot. In the end it's the total goals you do get in that count.
Skaters fall a lot in pratice. They fall enough to get a jump consistent enough to put in competitions, but doing it in a competition is entirely different again and requires its own real time practice. So they tend to fall in competition the first time(s) they attemp their most difficult jump, especially a quad which affects the entire program, by all accounts from all skaters who do them. Falls are undesirable and are penalized but sometimes there is no way around it as the process to reach the next level. In Patrick's case, he put in so many new quads, as well as more challenging 3As, that he fell in each one once (plus others as an effect) before he went clean in the GPF. I suspect he's got over the major hurdle in doing multiple quads in one competition, amazingly fast in fact, squeezing them all in two competitions. No one can qarantee no falls in any high level competitive program, but I'm sure it's something they all strive for while reaching for and maintaining the winning level.
A minus 3 for the actual fall would include poor skating skill; disrupting a program; and a Time Delay.
You're assuming the same effects a fall would have on the program from all skaters just as many Joubert fans assumed Patrick had taken out transitions in doing quads. Patrick is very quick in getting up and continuing with the program without missing any step or element, an extremely difficult feat in a jam packed program like his in which flow and momentum are continuous, almost critical and required for the next element to be executed. Contrast that with Oda, who tends to take time to get up and then miss so many steps that he does disrupt the program and lose the next element.
Patrick probably does not FALL as much as he did at SC, and I will be looking for NO FALLS at Worlds.
I suspect he's not likely to repeat all those falls in one program again, unless he's attempting new stuff like quad/quad combo or a quint.
No quarantee any of the competitors will not fall but I wish more people focusing on the skaters' falls will also notice all the amazing displays of skills and successful and beautifully executed elements as well. And remember that's how IJS scores and ranks them - by what they do accomplish despite the falls and other imperfections.
eta. As for Patrick's kicks, I just love how he literally kick starts his step sequence instead of standing in place and taking a deep breath before beginning the announced and telegraphed element. As a matter of fact, I also love the way Patrick's jumps just happen as part of the choreography. He's not big in telegraphing.
I still await the results.
