The Final Battle for the GPF

[Joesitz (RIP)]

A very weak field for the Ladies. Czisny should breeze into 1st place and be part of the Final.

Not so breezy for Phaneuf, Korpi and Nagasu but possible for one with an overall win. So many Ladies are still in contention of the Finals from other GPs.

For the Men: Kozuka will battle Mroz for the no.1 spot with Amodio looking to upset that battle. Reynolds and Joubert are still alive if the others make room for them.

 

[burntBREAD]

A very weak field for the Ladies. Czisny should breeze into 1st place and be part of the Final.

Not so breezy for Phaneuf, Korpi and Nagasu but possible for one with an overall win. So many Ladies are still in contention of the Finals from other GPs.

For the Men: Kozuka will battle Mroz for the no.1 spot with Amodio looking to upset that battle. Reynolds and Joubert are still alive if the others make room for them.

Umm, I wouldn't expect Czisny to "breeze" into any place, unfortunately...
I'm not betting on it, but I think we'll see a more rejuvenated Mao here, and Mirai will certainly (I hope) be better than at COC. I mean, it's not a VERY weak field, I would consider it definitely stronger than SC (which doesn't say very much) and about even with SA/NHK. I mean, consider the fact that Phaneuf and Korpi can score very, very high with even decent performances with their good PCS, and newcomers like Imai and Hecken (if she's recovered) can put up nice performances (Imai's scores at SC were quite decent and I thought she deserved 3rd)-- there's a lot more than what meets the eye in this field. It has its fair share of "weak" skaters, but not very many. Most of the skaters here are decent, but not flashy.

In the Men's, I'm expecting Kozuka, Amodio, Joubert, Reynolds, and Mroz to be the ones out front, there aren't too many others that I think can challenge... I think Kozuka should win (but I'm biased since he's one of my favorite skaters) with his good PCS and good TES, but who knows? If Joubert really hits his programs and Amodio shows off some more of his mad dance skillz; Reynolds hits all of his quads and so does Mroz, we could be in for an exciting competition.

Pairs. S/S 1st fo sho. B/L 2nd. These two pairs should be (in particular, S/S) ahead of the rest.

Dance
Pechalat/Bourzat in a strong 1st, and I would say Chock/Zuerlin for 2nd. The rest? Who knows?

 

[R.D.]

Sorry, but Czisny is not going to win. I just don't see it happening. She'll find a way to slip out of it even if the other mess up.

 

[Bluebonnet]

I thought the new changes in the scoring this season would help Joubert. It was disastrous result in CoC. Don't know what is waiting for him this time? If it's still not up much, I would conclude that the judges are giving up on him. Right now, I have to wait and see.

This event will be Kozuka's to lose. Mroz is not the one who could challenge him. I would think that Joubert, Amodio and Mroz are battling for the second. What else does Reynolds have besides quad?

I so very much hope that Czisny could win, but the sectional's performance has put even more shadow on my thought.

 

[Layfan]

A very weak field for the Ladies. Czisny should breeze into 1st place and be part of the Final.

Not so breezy for Phaneuf, Korpi and Nagasu but possible for one with an overall win. So many Ladies are still in contention of the Finals from other GPs.

For the Men: Kozuka will battle Mroz for the no.1 spot with Amodio looking to upset that battle. Reynolds and Joubert are still alive if the others make room for them.

Not that I'm not rooting for Alissa but ...

If the "real" Mao and Mirai show up it's hardly a weak field. Phaneuf most certainly can't be counted out.

Anyway. It'd be brilliant so see Alissa win back-to-back golds. But you just never know what you're going to get with that girl. She obviously can win but she has such potential to bomb hard. She's not the type of skater who can "breeze" into victory with a few mistakes. She's the type of skater who is hard to beat when she's clean but also the type of skater who can bomb her way to the bottom.

Really rooting for Mirai and Mao to come back and for Alissa to shine. It's pretty hard to me to root for one over the others with these three skaters

Might be my favorite ladies field of the GS series yet

 

[Mathman]

I will be surprised if Mao Asada does not win this. Yes, she is re-working some things and she was awful at NHK.

Still, this skater is capable of putting up a 200 point competition . There is no one else remotely in this class.

 

[Layfan]

I will be surprised if Mao Asada does not win this. Yes, she is re-working some things and she was awful at NHK.

Still, this skater is capable of putting up a 200 point competition . There is no one else remotely in this class.

Absolutely. The "real" Mao Asada is in a class in her own in this field. I mean, it goes without saying. She's the world champion. Actually she is the only in this competition who is a world medalist at all, aside from Fumie, who is not the Fumie who won the world silver way back when. Not to mention the Olympic silver medalist.

May the "real" Mao Asada come forth.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

The reason I did not mention Mao (I do know how well she competes) because it was one of those oddball days at NHK and she got only 3 points. Even with a win at TEB, her total will only be 18. However, her win or podium placement can affect other skaters looking for a win or podium place to qualify for the GPF,

As for the boys, I would favor Brian but gut feeling says he wont make the final. Not so with Amodio and Reynolds. These two will get a GPF if the top boys melt. Although there is a lot of reputation with the top boys.

 

[blue_idealist]

This might be unrealistic, but I'm hoping for a Reynolds win. I'm not even a huge fan of him, but it'll make things interesting.

 

[Jammers]

I will be surprised if Mao Asada does not win this. Yes, she is re-working some things and she was awful at NHK.

Still, this skater is capable of putting up a 200 point competition . There is no one else remotely in this class.

Funny but i rememeber Mirai beating Mao in the SP at Worlds. A clean Mirai could have beat Mao. Mao is not the skater she was two,three years ago. She is beatable.

 

[FlattFan]

Funny but i rememeber Mirai beating Mao in the SP at Worlds. A clean Mirai could have beat Mao. Mao is not the skater she was two,three years ago. She is beatable.

Because Mao's 3A was downgraded. With the new rule, Mirai would not be able to beat Mao.

 

[Nadine]

Another interesting topic.

Well I'll be blunt & honest and say that I think the Japanese ladies currently skating are overrated. This does not include Mao Asada, whom is on another planet when she's on, but right now she's re-working technique, which will take at least a year to redo, but more likely two years. So I give her a bye.

Other than that (& of course Yuna Kim), I see the field as WIDE OPEN & plump for the pickings. It's just a matter of whom wants it more. And the same goes for the Men without Evgeni Plushenko competing this year (he's the only one whom has a consistent quad, 3A, consistency, and verve/command/aura like no other man!).

But for this particular TEB competition, I see Kevin Reynolds leaving everybody in the dust if he hits all his quads & also more importantly his 3Axels as well. And ditto for the Ladies, if Mirai Nagasu is *on* nobody else has a chance. It's totally up to them both individually, do they really want it? We shall see...

Finally, I have to be honest, this is one competition I am looking forward to as much as I was Skate America!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!

 

[kalle]

I would love to see Mirai hold it "together" in the LP and do a decent skate, I think she would be so happy to finally get a medal and it would certainly help her confidence leading up to Nationals. I think she will be fine, she seemed to be in a good place at COR (despite the errors) and mabye she finds motivation coming from behind..

Go Mirai arty:

 

[dorispulaski]

This event will be Kozuka's to lose. Mroz is not the one who could challenge him. I would think that Joubert, Amodio and Mroz are battling for the second. What else does Reynolds have besides quad? .

2 Quads? Per program?

But also he has some interesting and pleasant to watch programs this year. This is not the old Kevin who had jumps only.

In dance, this is home turf for Carron/Jones as well as Pechalat/Bourzat. C/J were fairly close to C/Z in Canada, and ahead of them in the SD. C/J could take second, which would keep H/Z in the GPF. Or Riazanova/Tkachenko could finish 2nd. All 3 of these teams have fairly close scores from their last event. Huang/Zheng also finished 5th at CoC (as R/T did at Skate America and C/J did in Canada, but they are quite far back)

C/Z Skate Canada 139.05
C/J Skate Canada 136.03
R/T Skate America 137.14
Huang/Zheng Cup of China 124.60

?Mirai was not at CoR. That was Ashley. Mirai was at CoC, won the SP, but slipped back in the LP.?

 

[burntBREAD]

Because Mao's 3A was downgraded. With the new rule, Mirai would not be able to beat Mao.

Well, you have to remember that Mirai's 3Lz-3T was downgraded too, but I think Mao might still have won because of 3A's new base value.

 

[miki88]

Well, you have to remember that Mirai's 3Lz-3T was downgraded too, but I think Mao might still have won because of 3A's new base value.

She would have because the 3A rule also opens another opening for a jump. The reason why Mirai was able to edge Mao last season was due to the fact that with a downgraded 3A, Mao essentially had only one triple in her SP, while Mirai with a downgraded 3-3, still had two triples.

 

[Blades of Passion]

I wouldn't be surprised if Mao's Triple Axel never gets ratified ever again. She spent her entire Olympic season focusing on the Triple Axel and even after that, with all of the emotion of the Olympics pushing her on, her Triple Axels were still not as good as they were 3-4 years ago. Her body is getting more worn out and her focus is also on things other than the Triple Axel these days. That's my predication for now - her 3Axel is always going to be downgraded from now on. If she can still land it cleanly the jump will be worth keeping in her repertoire, but if she continually has problems with the landing we will see her drop it from her programs a couple seasons from now.

 

[demarinis5]

I would like to see Kevin Reynolds win. I have criticized his skating in the past but he has made a lot of improvements this season, and his quads are fantastic. We know he can put up a huge score in the SP, he just needs to keep it together in the long.

 

[burntBREAD]

I wouldn't be surprised if Mao's Triple Axel never gets ratified ever again. She spent her entire Olympic season focusing on the Triple Axel and even after that, with all of the emotion of the Olympics pushing her on, her Triple Axels were still not as good as they were 3-4 years ago. Her body is getting more worn out and her focus is also on things other than the Triple Axel these days. That's my predication for now - her 3Axel is always going to be downgraded from now on. If she can still land it cleanly the jump will be worth keeping in her repertoire, but if she continually has problems with the landing we will see her drop it from her programs a couple seasons from now.

I think she should drop it for now and just focus on fixing her other jumps.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

TEB may just produce the largest TIE in Figure Skating history expecially in the Ladies Division. The Finalists from that TIE will be based on one of the highest scores from the 5 other contests. Problem is the scores from the 5 other contests are arrived at unequally. Not really a good TIE breaker. Skaters who tie, should have another contest to break the tie.