Surprisingly consistent judging?

[feraina]

My initial reactions to the scoring in both the SP and LP of the ladies GPF events were: WTF?! For the SP, I thought Yu-na's combo goof would've placed her 4th or 5th, and I thought Mao's near-fall on the combo, plus omitting the triple out of footwork altogther, should've pushed her score farther down. In the LP, I thought such an ambitious program from Mao, as well as a stellar skate, ought to have beaten Yu-na with a fall.

Upon further reflection, however, I come to see that the judging was extremely consistent across competitions, with very different judging panels, for at least some of the skaters -- well, I can say the most about Caroline because I pay the closest attention to what she gets for each element.

Based on Caroline's SA and CoC events, I had expected her to score 62 with a clean SP, and 118 with a clean LP. She actually scored 61.88 in the SP, and 114.66 in the LP with a fall on the lutz (which would've put her total just over 120, about 2 points higher than my estimate, but that mainly gets explained by the 2 extra points she got in the PCS compared to SA, and I do think she skated faster and more confidently in this LP and deserved those extra 2 points). The levels she got on all the spirals, spins, and step sequences were exactly as I expected, and the GOE's she had on all the elements were quite consistent with previous competitions. :yes:

On the whole, I would say that the judging was surprisingly self-consistent, at least in the case of one skater. There was a lot of controversy and debate over the judging in this GPF, especially in ladies' event. But in fact, the point totals were remarkably close to what previous events would've suggested, within a margin of a point or less -- given that it's one point out of a total of 180 points, I'd say that's truly remarkable.

I don't pay close enough attention to other skaters to know whether their GPF scores were in correspondence with expectations based on previous events. But doubtlessly, some of you do lavish this kind of attention to your favorite skaters. I'd be very interested to hear how consistently your faves were scored over this GP season.

There's a lot of talk about scandals, collusions, using the PCS as a placeholder. I'm interested in collecting some hard statistics to find out whether score manipulation is or isn't going on. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Mathman]

To me, when the judging is too consistent, that is just as bad as when it is all over the place.

The idea that Yu-na Kim is going to get the same score whether she falls or not, and the fact that you can guess what PCSs the judges will give, regardless of the performance -- that is not a cause for congratulating the New Judging System.

 

[Bennett]

Mao's PCSs for her LP performances seem to have fluctuated. Further, I was questioning how these scores really reflected the variability in her artistry and flow across performances. I thought that SC was the most seamless in which she breathed all the choreos with the music so elegantly and gracefully. But it had the lowest PCSs. I didn't get it.

 

[feraina]

To me, when the judging is too consistent, that is just as bad as when it is all over the place.

The idea that Yu-na Kim is going to get the same score whether she falls or not, and the fact that you can guess what PCSs the judges will give, regardless of the performance -- that is not a cause for congratulating the New Judging System.

In Caroline's case, I thought the falls rightly deducted the correct amount of points. And the PCS also varied according to how she performed -- her SP was worse than SA and better than CoC, the PCS reflected that; her LP was better than both, and the PCS reflected that too.

You don't feel it was the same with Yu-na?

 

[Bennett]

To me, when the judging is too consistent, that is just as bad as when it is all over the place.

The idea that Yu-na Kim is going to get the same score whether she falls or not, and the fact that you can guess what PCSs the judges will give, regardless of the performance -- that is not a cause for congratulating the New Judging System.

I agree. I was really surprised by Miki's PCSs in both SP and LP at NHK, where she was really lacking the energy. It's better to get good PCSs when you are shiny and bad PCSs when you are down. Otherwise, there is no use working on it. I don't understand what PCSs are rewarding for.

 

[feraina]

I was really surprised by Miki's PCSs in both SP and LP at NHK, where she was really lacking the energy.

There's no joy in Miki's skating this year... Don't forget that people also thought her SA skates slow and sluggish. Her PCS in the NHK LP is significantly lower than at SA. Her PCS in the NHK SP is somewhat higher than at SA, but remember she fell on the footwork sequence in SA, and her step sequence looked labored and slow to me even before she fell. Your think her SA SP PCS ought to have been higher than at NHK?

Miki's NHK LP PCS was (slightly) lower than Caroline's LP at GPF, meaning mid 6's, and in general Miki is a lot faster than Caroline, and has much more complex transitions (though worse posture). This has got to be her lowest PCS since the Olympic season.

 

[Bennett]

There's no joy in Miki's skating this year... Don't forget that people also thought her SA skates slow and sluggish. Her PCS in the NHK LP is significantly lower than at SA. Her PCS in the NHK SP is somewhat higher than at SA, but remember she fell on the footwork sequence in SA, and her step sequence looked labored and slow to me even before she fell. Your think her SA SP PCS ought to have been higher than at NHK?

Miki's NHK LP PCS was (slightly) lower than Caroline's LP at GPF, meaning mid 6's, and in general Miki is a lot faster than Caroline, and has much more complex transitions (though worse posture). This has got to be her lowest PCS since the Olympic season.

I don't think that we have seen Miki "on" this season yet. So I can't tell if her PCS for SA SP should have been higher than that for NHK SP. Last season, she was much shinier in her SP.
Although Miki's NHK LP PCS was relatively low for her, it was still relatively high among senior skaters. There were many other skaters who did well in the presentation department in that event. I didn't feel that they were adequately rewarded when I saw Miki's PCS given to that performance.
But it would be really great if we could see her shine again in the next two events to come:agree: