2018 Rostelecom Cup: Thoughts, Analysis & Reviews

[gonewiththewind25]

Alina is really deteriorating according to me. Her scores in the Free are falling at every single competition but the problem isn't only limited to that. Her jumps are just starting to look so precarious and forced, they don't look as clean as they used to and coupling that with the issues she's having with some of the rotations, its becoming really worrisome. Last season her jumps were. to a certain degree, able to disguise the the Skating Skills. Her posture has gotten worse and neither of the programs do anything for me. It's very unfortunate because she is such a talented girl who deserves better programs and she deserves a coach who will try to fix these errors considering how hard working Alina is. The judging for Alina's programs is also suspect to me because her PCS is constantly inflated and some of the GOEs on some of the jumps is a bit extra. This is not me complaining about Alina, because she doesn't control the scores she gets. The ISU just really need to figure this out because its getting a bit crazy now.

 

[lichi]

Men: Another mess...
1. Yuzu: Breathtaking SP. The injury is devastating, and I hope he gets all the time he needs to recover. Even if GPF and Nats are out of the perspective. Considering everything, I still think his LP is incredible, and it demonstrates just how much of a fighter Yuzu is.
2. Morisi: Surprise medalist! I expected him to do well, but not this well. Very good skates that he should be proud of.
3. Kazuki: Beautiful gala, Nice FS
-
Misha: Uh...
Keegan: Hilarious gala

Ladies:
1. Alina: Nice skates, overscored, but still excellent
2. Samodurova: The sass in the SP, nice LP, but looked lost/forgot choreo?
3. Eunsoo: The LP was incredible, queen
-
Yuna: Lovely skater
Gracie: Not unexpected at all. I don't think many people predicted a successful comeback. Not ready, hope she does well in Nats.

Pairs:
1. Tarasova/Morozov: Both programs were :thumbsup:
2. Della Monica/Guarise: Good.
3. Pavliuchenko/Khodykin: Thoroughly enjoyed

Ice Dance:
1. Stepanova/Bukin: Wonderful FD, her dress is 10/10, the twizzles were ON POINT.
2. Hurtado/Khaliavin: Programs didn't exactly resonate
3. Carreira/Ponomarenko: Silver medalists in my heart

 

[TallyT]

I have said so much about Yuzuru already.... will talk about his SP and even the FS later, when the emotions settle.

But Kazuki-! He is talented and utterly adorable and I can see him becoming the next Japanese fan favourite if his skating keeps improving.

I am so sorry for Keegan, he's been doing so well...

 

[Ichatdelune]

Sigh... overall: https://tenor.com/view/awful-cantbelieveit-glee-gif-4813073


Stil, there were a few moments that saved the event a bit (for me at least), so let us go look at the whole thing. Oh, fangirl warning, although I will try to be impartial I doubt myself on it. Order is by timeline of events.


- Men. Highlight of the SP was of course Yuzuru, he set a new world record with 3 minutes of pure brilliance. For other bright spots, Kazuki landed all his jumps and managed to put himself in medal contention. Who were the other contenders? Morisi Kvitelashvili (I am never going to be sure whether I spelled his name right) with Eteri magic on his side, and surprise of the day Alexander Majorov. As evident all three Russian men bombed. Mikhail Kolyada and Andrei L made lots and lots of popcorn, and Artur Dmitriev managed to be messy with every jump he did, including the 3Lz+3F. Were the others better? Sadly no. So I would like to congratulate Paul Fentz and Alexei Krasnozhon on being clean, and just move on.

The FS. Quick rundown. First three: Disaster Grease, aptly named by Brendan Kerry's fellow countryperson, first sort-of redemption skate by Andrei Mr. Liza T, the opposite of a redemption skate by Julian Yee. Then the cursed 4A was attempted (bad call, Artur Dmitriev Jr, you halted the uncle renaissance), prompting the death of 3As (not that they were surviving that well...). Next skate by Keegan Messing was a tragedy in both close-up and long shot (minus one survived 3A), sort-of thankfully followed by the second sort-of redemption skate from Mikhail Kolyada. The second group started nicely with Kazuki being the first hope (as his name indicates) with his landing every jump (who cares about underrotations at this point) and Riverdancing his way onto the podium, and up to Paul Fentz aka the GoT guy with a cleanly done 3A it looked okay. Then one messy skate by Alexei Krasnozhon ensued, and Yuzuru (who had nearly snapped his precious ankle off in practice) fell on a 3A. Hanyu Worlds-Best-3A-Owner Yuzuru. He did perform the heck out of the program nonetheless, and got up the highest spot on the podium as deserved, but with crutches (heart breaks into a hundred pieces). One bad trip with Alexander Majorov and his magic tie and one Eteri magic induced silver medal later, it was all over. Thank goodness I didn't watch this live, I got stressed by just writing this.
Conclusion: I was delighted that Kazuki the charmer got a bronze, and good for Mr. K (I'm giving up) on getting the first GP medal for Georgia, but now GPF is most likely going to lose the Pooh shower and what a heartbreak event this was overall. The only reason this wasn't as bad as NHK was 100% Yuzuru's magical SP (and for me, plus Kazuki finally showing everyone what he can do).


Ice Dance: S/B was good (excellent twizzles, especially the set in the FD) as expected and got gold as expected. H/K was nice and despite a bobble in the (still lovely) FD got themselves a silver. C/P was also nice (Anthony Ponomarenko is definitely an eye-catcher, genes seldom prove you wrong) and with an intricate, lovely FD got themselves the bronze. For the others, just what comes to my mind: Poles still had, um... (desperately searches for an euphemism) that kind of costumes, the younger Russian team did not have a great competition, the bit older Russian team had an, um, unexpected RD, the Lithuanian man was easy on the eyes, the Hungarian lady had nice lines, and the Japanese pair is still a great couple.
Conclusion: for this know-nothing, the bad and the good cancel each other out and just leave an "Okay then" feeling.


Pairs: Evgenia Tarasova also fell on the ice and had to go to the hospital on an emergency visit. Nonetheless T/M got gold (as expected), so major props. I still don't agree with their SP (costumes are better though) and their FS was (of course, given the circumstances) bit stiff, but they are one of the current top teams for a reason. D-M/G do not have costumes that match my taste this season, but they are holding up the Italian no. 1 spot pretty well, and with fine performances got a silver plus final tickets. The bronze was taken by P/K, and despite them not really being to my taste I have to applaud their tech (SBS flips done that well are a rare thing), they had enough for the podium despite two falls in the FS. Z/K did okay in the short but had a rough start with their FS and ended off the podium, and E/K saddened me by still having problems landing them SBS jumps. The USA teams did not have a good competition, C/L missed a whole throw jump in the short and S-D/B had to withdraw due to her sickness (food poisoning, I heard). C/L had a somewhat redeeming FS though. A/W the Aussie team had a disastrous free, I do really hope she's okay and not injured.
Conclusion: Kinda went as expected (sans the emergency visit and the number of falls), but somehow managed to be the discipline with the least disasters (for the first day, at least). Still hard to tell whether it was better than NHK or not.


Ladies: Okay... (Deep breath, tries to stay calm) The SP. Opened with a cautious skate by Matsuda Yura, then a not-great comeback () by Gracie Gold, then a total surprise called Alexia Paganini came up, the audience (including myself) just didn't know she was going to be one. Some nice sass with Sofia Samodurova, Polina Tsurskaya with a program that was going pretty well until the damn pop, then the second group prompted my hyperventilation. The reason for that hyperventilation had a very bad skate, prompting me to clutch Fluffette (my plushy rabbit) and watch the rest without really processing it. Another very bad skate similar to the one prior happened with Yamashita Mako and her orange skin tights and bad version of Una Voce Poco Fa (and there went most of the peoples' predictions), the expected winner Alina Zagitova did her glass-shattering but technically strong program, Shiraiwa Yuna skated (I was close to tears at this point so I honestly don't remember anything, just that she didn't fall), and apparently Eteri magic had all went to the men, Elizabet Tursynbaeva did not have a good day. I mulled over my depression and crashed.
I dared not watch the FS live so I just followed the thread, and I almost wept with relief when I read that a certain darling of mine finally went clean. Then at 3 am I literally screamed out loud because that darling had WON HERSELF A MEDAL ON HER FIRST SENIOR YEAR
*Calms down*
Anyway. I watched that darling being clean on her jumps and putting on a flirty, sassy, marvelous performance, then I raised my glass to the most beautiful squirtle in the whole world. Caught up with the other ladies later, and unfortunately the event did not live up to NHK. The winner had problems with combination jumps and was tense and rushed during the performance, Yamashita Mako and Matsuda Yura had frowns on their faces after they were finished, and with the Eteri magic all used up by Mr. K Elizabet Tursynbaeva had struggled. And Polina T... She made me sad by popping those jumps and just giving up during the middle. Even her popped jumps have good height, it's just sad. And Gracie Gold withdrew, nobody wanted to see her comeback go like this But still, Alexia Paganini with the best La La Land dress so far pulled off a SB worthy skate (spins were a bit slow though), and Sofia Samodurova kept her sass and cool, went clean, and got her silver and the ticket to Vancouver.
Conclusion: I love that darling squirtle, but falls way short compared with NHK.

In short, what a sad mess. Yes, my darling Eunsoo and Kazuki got themselves a bronze. But with Yuzuru in crutches, the number of dead jumps a terror to think about, and even the gala having too many falls (Keegan Messing getting wrapped up in tape was the highlight of the gala though), if it weren't for the two above I'd liked to forget the whole thing. If France fails to be better I'm skipping IdF entirely.

 

[Figure 8's]

I feel bad for Gracie. Maybe she was not ready but I thought she did OK. Have to start back somewhere. Alina excels over everyone. She works very hard and it shows. She is a lovely skater, very fast over the ice and is always moving. Still early in the season and very time she skates her programs they improve. Why some feel they have to pick apart her skating is beyond me. She is still only 16 years old and has to deal with growing. I enjoy her skating immensely.

 

[satine]

That is an impression which closeup camera shot is giving because she is doing a lot of movements on the ice. If you are watching her from a different perspective (in the arena) you will see the flow

Interesting assessment. This begs the question- which is better: for a skater to captivate a live crowd of hundreds for a few minutes, or an audience of thousands that views via a screen for years to come?

 

[Colonel Green]

I liked when it was over.

And I mean, it's not even like it was all bad -- that was actually one of the better pairs events so far this year, all things considered, and the top half of the ladies field was solid to strong -- but hoo boy, were the lows plentiful and very low indeed.

Men
- Qualitatively this is probably not the worst men's event so far on the Grand Prix; that distinction is still owned by NHK, because the podium here was stronger.
- However, it was still dismal, particularly since it culminated in Hanyu injuring himself again and potentially imperiling the rest of his season.
- Morisi and Kazuki were the only ones who did well across both (Hanyu's free program was objectively solid, but knowing the cost, I can't really think of it as having done well).
- Sad for Keegan, who had a really hard couple of days here.
- And yikes, Mikhail. He technically finished higher than Keegan in the end, but that short program was godawful. The B.ESP guys were just depressed in the course of commentating it. The gap between Kolyada's potential and what he's been producing of late is sad, and it's all the worse because you can see it on his face.

Ladies
- The ladies' event was about as bifurcated as I've ever seen on a Grand Prix. The top was, as I said, generally pretty solid. The bottom was a garbage fire.
- Alina had a strong short on a technical level; artistically that program is a nightmare. Conversely, her Carmen is the stronger program, but she struggled again here, moreso than in Helsinki. Convincing for the win here, but this means there'll be question marks all the way to Vancouver.
- Sofia, I'm liking more and more. The performance angle is only intermittently there in the free, but when she's on she's a fun presence, and the tech is good.
- Eun-soo, yay! I still have problems with that free program design, but she's selling it pretty well now.
- Alexia was the most delightful surprise of the event. Especially, even though she didn't medal, doing so well in the free when skating last was really impressive.
- Among the disasters further down, Yura Matsuda did about what I expected from her, which just makes me wonder why she's competing right now as opposed to taking time off to recover fully; dismal performances like this cannot be helping her stay in competitive form.
- Conversely, sigh, Polina and Mako.
- I had very minimal expectations for Gracie, but her skate here did the one thing I was hoping it wouldn't do: it made me doubt whether her team is capable of acting in her best interests, because she was clearly not ready to compete here, and somebody should have told her this wasn't a good idea.

Pairs
- Respect to Tarasova for being tough as nails. The short program is tolerable, the free I'm starting to really like.
- Della Monica and Guarise earned a silver in Helsinki with a score that wouldn't have podiumed anywhere else on the Grand Prix this year, but they were terrific here. More of this, guys.
- Ziegler and Kiefer are, like Paganini, my small fed standouts for this event. Really like the improvement we're seeing now that Bruno is onboard.

Ice Dance
- Weak, weak field, due to the withdrawals and breakups. Worst dance event so far purely because of the lack of energy.

 

[gizmo]

Was a busy weekend and have to admit that I did not watch all the programmes, just a few thoughts:

Yuzuru Hanyu
That SP is phenomenal, the step sequence, MAJESTIC!!! I really have to say, with the two programmes he had, if he pull them out clean, he wins. Bugger that he got injured during practice and did the FS whatever…… there is a lot that he missed out in this FS, however, because of that, he did the most beautiful Ina Bauer ever! He won anyway, with every Yuzu fan now worrying about him.

Kazuki Tomono
Kudos!! Still not his best, he can do better, but he pulled together two very good programmes, remain quite solid and got a Bronze! I think he will get better as the season goes on!

Keegan Messing
Tough to see him making the mistakes here and not be in the GPF finals in Vancouver. I hope now being the leading men in Canada won’t be too much pressure to affect his performance.

Mikhail Kolyada
Arrrrh, he really had some good challenger competitions this year, I really hope he can pull together on home ground, but really does not look like himself. I do like his SP

Alina Zagitova
Still a winning technical programme, but I still think it is very packed, like the need to do every little bit of her moves whatsoever…but then artistically it’s not smooth and her jumps is more shaky this season. Now Rika does have a good chance….

Eunsoo Lim
She is continually improving and I am sure she will become one of the leading ladies giving some time

Gracie Gold
Getting back into competition is not easy, and I do think she should be supported if she decide a come back and it is a brave decision. However, I do not think she is ready for such a big competition as a start, I hope her team / USFS can make a better decision.

 

[zounger]

I feel Alina is becoming a Emperors new clothes type of situation. We are told she deserves to break the world record, that she is the best, the pinnacle of ladies figure skating, but if you take 5 seconds to really pay attention to her actual skating I don't know how her being able to score an 80 is able to be justified at all. There are skaters with better spins(Mariah Bell), skaters with faster speed around the rink(Satoko) and skaters with higher crisper jumps(Elizaveta). Alina is not a bad skater, but she is far from being a world record breaking type of skater. I know it's two different disciplines, but look at Yuzu sp in this very same event. You would be hard pressed to make any argument as to how that was not a world record breaking skate. It was divine-jumps with amazing height and crispness, absolute high quality spins, intricate footwork and step sequences that actually makes sense with the music that is being skated to, great speed and flow across the ice. Now I'm supposed to believe the sp Alina put out it is the ladies equivalent to that?? No way. Its sooo frustrating and really really detrimental to ladies figure skating.

I can get the complain about the score. But the complain about the record? If you exclude Alinas's SP scores the second highest is Liza's, if i'm not mistaken, and it is 76,17. So you think Alina should have scored less than that? I think Alina was over-scored, I would have give her 76.18.

This records are couple of months old. I think it's premature to complain who sets them since they will break in months/years to come. I hope you will see in the future records that are matching your criteria.

 

[Baron Vladimir]

Interesting assessment. This begs the question- which is better: for a skater to captivate a live crowd of hundreds for a few minutes, or an audience of thousands that views via a screen for years to come?

Both, if its possible. Because of that we have competitive programs (made for the judges) and Gala (Ice shows) routines

 

[chopinskate]

Interesting assessment. This begs the question- which is better: for a skater to captivate a live crowd of hundreds for a few minutes, or an audience of thousands that views via a screen for years to come?

...
... ...
... ... ...

*searches for a different avatar*

 

[satine]

...
... ...
... ... ...

*searches for a different avatar*

I guess we can share!!

 

[chopinskate]

I guess we can share!!

We don't have to worry about running out of great pictures with her

 

[livingonedges]

I feel Alina is becoming a Emperors new clothes type of situation. We are told she deserves to break the world record, that she is the best, the pinnacle of ladies figure skating, but if you take 5 seconds to really pay attention to her actual skating I don't know how her being able to score an 80 is able to be justified at all. There are skaters with better spins(Mariah Bell), skaters with faster speed around the rink(Satoko) and skaters with higher crisper jumps(Elizaveta). Alina is not a bad skater, but she is far from being a world record breaking type of skater. I know it's two different disciplines, but look at Yuzu sp in this very same event. You would be hard pressed to make any argument as to how that was not a world record breaking skate. It was divine-jumps with amazing height and crispness, absolute high quality spins, intricate footwork and step sequences that actually makes sense with the music that is being skated to, great speed and flow across the ice. Now I'm supposed to believe the sp Alina put out it is the ladies equivalent to that?? No way. Its sooo frustrating and really really detrimental to ladies figure skating.

Cannot agree more!

I respect her technical skills - but to the extent of being a world record breaker? Nope.

 

[Ichatdelune]

Interesting assessment. This begs the question- which is better: for a skater to captivate a live crowd of hundreds for a few minutes, or an audience of thousands that views via a screen for years to come?

Be the Queen and you can do both.

 

[RobinA]

Haven't watched the entire thing yet, but I do have some thoughts about the season to this point as reflected at Rostelecom. Seeing as how we are nearing the end of this season's GP series I am surprised at the overall lack of depth of good skating. There are obviously some few great skaters at the top, but after that the level of skating falls off steeply. I realize that it's a post Olympic year, but with the exception of many of the Asian skaters, the state of skating is not great. The Japanese ladies prove that it is possible to have interesting choreography in the current judging system, but do they have every decent choreographer in an exclusive contract? When the reigning OGM has one horrible program (not referring to her skating) and one eh program there is a problem.

At this point in the season some new-program kinks should have been worked out, so I'm increasingly dismayed at the US skaters. US figure skating needs to do some serious funding of development of new skaters or we are going to end up with one entry at Worlds and Olympics. If we aren't there already. Cause we ain't cutting it. I've been a fan since 1968 and there have been ebbs and flows, but the current situation not something I can remember seeing in those 50 years.

Gracie - let me just say that I agree with the person above who questioned whether her team really has a clue as to how to quide her at this point. Granted, she's an adult and may have taken their very reasonable guidance with a grain of salt, so who knows. But elite figure skating is not the place to try to regain mental health. I hope she is able to find what makes her happy and healthy, but I suspect it will not be competitive figure skating. She has nothing to prove.

 

[leoleo]

This was the worst GP event by far and Otonal was the highlight and the savior! Men's event was painful to watch. Mikhail please go see a sports psychologist, this has got to be a psychological issue at this point. He fought in the free but as usual after he made one mistake, many others followed. Very happy about Kazuki getting on the podium too. Moris getting silver was a surprise, good for him but nothing about his skating interests me.

Ladies event was just not exciting enough. There was little to no competition to begin with but the girls who had a chance at the podium crumbled too so it ended up just being a mess. Sofia Samodurova is the only one who managed to stay perfect in both programs and it is nice to see a girl so secure and consistent at her age already. Paganini was a great surprise, i hope she will keep delivering like that. I love seeing small feds skaters rise.

 

[Colonel Green]

Gracie - let me just say that I agree with the person above who questioned whether her team really has a clue as to how to quide her at this point. Granted, she's an adult and may have taken their very reasonable guidance with a grain of salt, so who knows.

That would be even worse, for me, if she was getting the right advice and wasn’t heeding it.

 

[lusk8]

Well that was intense, will talk about the highlights first:

- Alina, I adore her, she is super charismatic and an extremely skilled skater. Her programs are coming together nicely and she is showing something new this season, that she can cope well when things don’t go according to plan. If she misses a mark she keeps it together and rides the rest to perfection. Her programs are super complex and packed with details, her jumps have high difficulty entries and exits and she manages all that beautifully. Her SP was the highlight for me because she was able to execute that vision to perfection, and yes, I also don’t like the music cuts, but she does it all with so much heart that it just doesn’t bother me anymore. You can see all the hard work she puts into skating and how it pays off when you see her perform like she did POTO at this competition. Her FS was not performed perfectly but I never noticed anything being sloppy, she sold it all the way through and after the 3F (which is a jump she’s getting high GOE on) mistake she kept it together and finished strong. Best spinner out there too. I’m happy she was happy. Love her Survivor EX too, shows as a different, fun side to Alina and allows her to interact with the audience. She’s so talented I can’t wait to see her develop her skills further.

- Eunsoo, she is a great performer and skates with beautiful lines, I’m glad everything came together for her at the FS, she’s one to watch for sure.

- Sofia, wish she would drop the tanos because they detract from her performance, and she sold both programs like a pro. Great skates and she had fun with it.

I’m placing Yuzuru in a category of his one, Skating Highlight MVP:

- Yuzuru, his attention to detail, performance abilities and technical skills creat a package that you can’t help but be in awe of. When he skates time stops, all the noise is gone and all you can see is that amazing performance. His injury broke my heart big time, this would have been the skate of his life, then his FS turned into the skate of his life for different reasons, the way he pulled through with things done on the fly is unbelievable. I wish him a speedy and through recovery, I hope he can skate at the GPFinal because he elevated every event he is in.

Other high points:

- The crowd at the venue was great.

- The Ice looked ready and nice, after Helsinki that was a relief.

The low points:

- Missed seeing the Press Conferences streamed live, that was so cool in Helsinki.

- A few camera angles missed the skaters, nothing major but could’ve been better. I remember at some point they were filming Yuzuru’s shadow on the ice instead of him.

- The Men’s event didn’t have a deep field but seeing Kolyada implode was not a pretty sight, wish it could’ve been better for the guys.

 

[Scrufflet]

Of course, Yuzu was the highlight!

Re Women:
I must say I really enjoyed Alexia Pagannini. First time I've seen her. She has wonderful arms (Carol Lane voiced this right as I was thinking it!). I could watch her again and again!
Zag: Energizer Bunny wears me out. I can only watch her once, good as she is. I feel like she could be skating to Hockey Night in Canada or Candyman(shudder) if I were to mute the sound. If only they would give her gorgeous programs with ebb and flow, I would be her fan for life! She deserves better.
Samo was a fun breath of fresh air in spite of the pit-sniffer tanos. I am liking Mishin's "woman" skaters this year.
On to the next!