The Reasoning Behind Underscoring
First off, this post was ¾ deleted by a power surge right when I was about to Copy+Paste it to a doc and save the draft here, so I’m recreating it. And the wording probably isn’t as polished as before, but I’m trying my best through these salty tears.
I was summoned on the IRC chat to help people understand what was up with Yuuri’s low scores, and now I’m taking that and expanding it into a full-fledged post.
It seems most people have understood that his low scores were due in part to his lack of channeling Eros fully, and you’re not wrong, but PCS (Program Component Score)is a little complicated, so here’s an explanation to clarify what happened. This also includes a little about the jump changes.
PCS has 5 components to it.
(stuff in parenthesis are definitions in my own words to help you understand what this looks like, because the textbook definitions can be hard to visualize):
Skating Skills (fancy footwork, skating one one foot, using edges to gain speed with minimum movement, “floating across the ice”),
Transitions (these are the little steps or movements that lead into jumps or spins, they make the program look less disjointed),
Performance (how well can you sell the program? Are the emotions expressed well? This is facial expressions, arm movements, personality, etc.)
Composition (this is choreography. It’s how all the pieces make a story or image. It tends to blend with Interpretation),
Interpretation (normally called “music interpretation” - interpreting the rhythm of the song, placing jumps and spins and movements with the beat)
So with this Eros performance there was A LOT different.
1. Victor and Yuuri changed the jump layout a bit.
They move the solo jump to the end and bring the combo earlier.
This means little things, like timing it to the music, change.
Although, since the quad is the same (4S), the transitions and timing leading into the take-off of the new 4S+3T should be the same. It’s just the transitions and timing OUT of the jump that will look different.
2. The jumps are different
He went from a 4T+3T to a 4S+3T
Remember that Yuuri was having difficulty with the 4S earlier in the season.
For the 4T+3T he probably consistently gets +2 or +3 GOE
For the 4S+3T he has a chance of getting lower GOE since his 4S isn’t as steady as his 4T.
It’s a bit of a risk, but if he lands it well, it would be worth it.
Plus, the rhythm won’t be too thrown-off since he was already doing a 4S. (Rhythm of a jump is also something judges look for, for GOE and PCS-Skating Skills)
Next, he switched the solo jump from a 4S to a 4F.
The 4S is an edge jump while the 4F is a toe jump. All you need to know here is that this would change the entry into the jump – which changes the look of the program a tiny bit.
Yuuri’s success rate was apparently pretty low in practice,
there are probably more times he lands it with a shaky edge, than there are times he lands it with +3GOE quality.
but the difference is about 2 points just in base value (4S= 10.5 points 4F=12.3 points), then add the 10% bonus because it’s in the second half of the program. If he lands well, it would be a HUGE score.
as Yuuri said to Victor at Ice Castle, if he could land a +3GOE worthy jump, the impact would also be great ( “don’t you want to see it?”)
( “Hey, Judge! Look at this 4F!” = Performance)
He DOESN’T land well this time: the jump automatically has -1GOE for the hand down (which is -1.2 points), but it looked messy and I’m sure there were some -2GOEs given by the judges. The triplets said it looked round, so we don’t have to worry about underrotation, but it almost looks double-footed.
At any rate, that’s about 5 points he left on the table there. He was counting on the potential 16.53 points (+3GOE). If the judges were generous and only gave -1GOE, he got 12.33 points. If they were harsh, he may have gotten anywhere from 11.53 points(-2GOE) to just 8.3 points(-3GOE).
A messed-up jump also affects the way that the judges view the program.
Because it affects the presentation aspect
So even more points are lost on PCS.
(points aren’t really “lost” in PCS, so much as you don’t gain the points you would usually receive)
The PCS tends to follow a “point corridor.”
If one component falls, judges tend to detract from ALL the other components. You don’t really see high (8.0~10.0) Skating Skills points and low (5.0~6.0)Presentation points, or high Music Interpretation points and low Transitions points. The points across all 5 components will be more-or-less in the same range. It’s sometimes silly, but it’s a thing that happens in most cases.
Additionally, if a skater is consistent over the years, judges are more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s because they KNOW this skater. The judges know what this skater’s skills are, and won’t bring the scores down as much as they would for an inexperienced or inconsistent skater.
You could call this the “human sympathy” factor - when a performance was so striking or courageous that even if the skater makes some mistakes, you reward them by not penalizing them TOO much.
(In the worst of cases, this becomes favoritism. You’ll see the slang term “Chanflation” used in some places, but it’s not… the most diplomatic term, since it references a certain skater’s last name.)
This kind of help only really happens if the skater valiantly skates. What helps salvage PCS is if a skater really SELLS a program.
In which case, the presentation score would stay up, even if the skating skills or transitions or choreography goes down.
But well, we saw that Yuuri wasn’t fully into the Eros mindset.
Gamble with the jumps could net higher points, but the gamble fails.
Change in the layout affects choreo, transitions, and music interpretation
- if he can sell it, then it can all work out
He didn’t manage to channel Eros to its fullest extent.
I only briefly mentioned Transitions up there, but they’re pretty important.
Having transitions also increases what GOE you’ll get for an element. It’s not just about doing a jump (take off, rotate, land) – it’s about doing a jump and being beautiful (good position, nice posture) while making it difficult to enter and exit the jump (transitions). Anything that would make a jump more difficult to execute than normal will help the skater get +GOE. Transitions are like the glue that connects all the jumps, spins, and the step sequence smoothly together. When jumps are switched, the footwork will also slightly change to help the skater do the jump.
So in a way, GOE and PCS are linked - if you have a lot of difficult transitions, you can increase PCS and check off a few of the boxes that judges look for when awarding +2 and +3GOE.
It’s not like changing a program layout is ridiculous. It’s just that, if the layout is changed, it’s usually done at one of the two assigned GPSeries competitions and not the GPFinal itself. This is so the skater and coach have a chance to see how the program will work in competition. Then they can make any necessary adjustments.
For the record, I do feel that Yuuri should have gotten a couple more points, but the 97.83 isn’t outrageously low. It just means the judges were a little strict in PCS, and he might have missed some levels on spins/step sequence. From a figure skating fan’s perspective, I would be super excited to see Yuuri take this new SP layout and skate a clean program at Worlds.
Too bad the anime is only one season and we won’t get to see that. (Come on OVA/Movie/Season 2, I NEED you.)
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