#scoring system

[dancingontheblades]

TES minimum shows the flaws in the system

This weekend, Valtter Virtanen missed the TES minimum for Worlds by 0.83 points. He had no falls, no negative GOEs and Level 4 in all spins and in the step sequence.

Josefin Taljegard, who won the Tallink Hotels Cup this weekend, still doesn't have her Worlds minimum, either. She also regularly gets Level 4s.

Both skaters are loved in the skating fandom because of their entertaining performances and solid skating skills among others. Both skaters regularly win the national championship in their respective home countries. The reason that they have such a hard time to get their Worlds ticket is as simple as it is unfair: They don't have the big jumps. (Valtter is currently working on the 4T, but can't land it consistently.)

Josefin and Valtter are not the only ones. Every season, skaters chase their Worlds minimum by traveling to competition after competition, risking injury and exhaustion to compete at the most illustrious event of the season. It begs the question of whether a technical minimum score is a reasonable requirement to be eligible for Worlds and if there should be other ways for skaters to qualify because it disadvantages skaters whose PCS are higher than their TES, artistic skaters, natural entertainers - skaters who have other qualities than jumps.

The discussion of whether spins and steps should have higher base values (or likewise: the base values of jumps should be lowered) and if a stronger decoupling of PCS from the technical content of a programme is needed, arises every season because the current judging system rewards jumps and thus puts skaters who achieve quality in other aspects of this multi-faceted sprort at a disadvantage. The TES minimum is only a symptom of this flaw in the system, at the cost of skaters with low technical content no matter their other qualities.

In a discussion on Bluesky @skateguardblog suggested that every skating federation should be allowed to send one skater per discipline to a competition that is called "World Championship", regardless of their technical content. In the literal sense, a world championship is a championship of championships. The best of each skating nation should deserve their big moment. Let them skate in a big arena once a year. In addition to that, one could give two spots to nations whose skaters finished in the top 10 of their category the season before. Entry lists would explode, but sitting through a day-long short programme to see all those small-fed skaters would be so worth it.

Whatever a solution to better criteria to send skaters to Worlds might look like, a TES minimum is just not it. As with the overall scoring system, something needs to change. A better balance in the evaluation of the different aspects of a sport is past due.

[figure-skating-confessions]

“Can Jason Brown become the president of the ISU? Skating would finally become fair!”

[yuzuruhanyuedits]

✩ Grade of Execution (”GOE”) in figure skating, ft. Yuzuru Hanyu ✩

There are now less than 24 hours to the 2018 World Championships in Milan, possibly the last competition in which a GOE scale of -3 to +3 will be used. From the 2018/2019 season onwards, it is likely that the GOE scale will be expanded to -5 to +5, allowing for GOE to make an even bigger impact on scores.

+1 GOE is awarded for every 2 of the following bullet points a skater fulfils:

unexpected / creative / difficult entry

clear recognizable (creative, interesting, original for jump preceded by steps/movements of the SP) steps/free skating movements immediately preceding element

varied position in the air OR delay in rotation

good height and distance

good extension on landing OR creative exit

good flow from entry to exit including jump combinations or sequences

effortless throughout

element matched to the musical structure

Being the King of GOE, Yuzuru Hanyu racked up the highest GOE score at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games, at 31.16 points. His training mate Javier Fernandez came a close second at 29.45 points while newcomer Boyang Jin was third at 16.41 points.

Sources: x x x x x x     

More from us: Part I (Jump Identification)  ||  Part II (Combination Jumps)  ||  Part III (Spin Identification) || Part IV (Steps Identification) || Summary of Scoring System

[figureskatingask]

Can you explain how the 6.0 judging system works? I'm so confused! Thanks!

Thanks for asking!

6.0 is, in itself, incredibly confusing, which is generally why I like IJS better. IJS has its problems, but 6.0 was insanely arbitrary and also gave a skater little to no feedback on what they had done wrong.

To start with, 6.0 was split into two marks - technical and presentation (rather like TES and PCS today). In the days of 6.0, there was no technical panel. Spins didn’t have levels and underrotations/downgrades weren’t clearly marked - they were up to each individual judge to determine.

6.0 used an ordinal system, which included a dreadful aspect that was called “allowing room”. This is where the concept of “early skate = bad” came from - because a skater who had the skate of their life, but skated early with contenders yet to come, was unlikely to get any 6.0s as the judges had to “leave room” for those other skaters.

The two marks, after a skate, were added together, and compared to the judge’s other marks. An “ordinal” was then assigned - so the skater with the highest total was the 1st place ordinal from that judge. All the judges’ ordinals are then placed together and the skater with the majority of 1st place ordinals was the winner.

There were no set deductions for certain errors and if any were introduced they were routinely ignored. It was completely arbitrary and open to severe manipulation. A lot of people look back on the 6.0 system with rose-coloured glasses, but I’d like to see it eliminated completely, including from lower-level events (which often still use the 6.0 system).

[figure-skating-confessions]

“The people that complain about Yuzuru being underscored have never seen Donovan Carrillo’s scores.”

[figure-skating-confessions]

“Why is figure skating so political? The problem isn’t the scoring system, it is the way it is being used. Give skaters proper marks, and they will fall into place!”

[figure-skating-confessions]

“I honestly hate the narrative that Trusova, Shcherbakova, and Kostornaia moving up to seniors have ‘opened up’ the juniors field. They are wonderfully talented skaters but no, the competition would’ve been a lot deeper and fairer if they were ever judged properly for bad jumps in the first place. But no, not once have they ever received a! or e! for flutzing, and excessively PRed jumps that were counted as quads. The system’s been rigged even before Alysa Liu entered the game.”

[yuzuruhanyuedits]

Hi! A bit of a newbie to figure skating xD so just wanted to ask generally, when is the competition season? Like from what month to what month? And I've heard that ISU plans to change the scoring system? When is that coming into effect? Is that happening at the Milano 2018 now?

Hello!! Welcome to the figure skating fandom! :D

1. The season lasts from July to June every year.

Small competitions such as Lake Placid (late July) and Asian Open (mid-August) open the season. Then, things get exciting with the start of the Junior Grand Prix series in late August. The Senior Grand Prix series starts much later in end October, but before then there are small competitions such as Autumn Classic (late September) that can be very thrilling as well. All this leads up to the first major competition of the season, the Grand Prix Final (both Junior and Senior) in mid-December. 

Then, after bunch of National Championships, we have the European Championships (mid-January) and the Four Continents Championships (late January). If it’s Olympic season the Olympics will be held mid-February.

Worlds in March is the last major competition, so things are a lot more relaxed after that even though the season technically ends in July. Normally after Worlds we would have fun, relaxing team competitions such as World Team Trophy or Team Challenge Cup (late April), but there won’t be any of these during Olympic season.

Not to worry though, there will be lots of ice shows during the summer! Even after that, there will be new program announcements to look out for. The end of Olympic season means no more recycling so there will be ~new programs~ for almost everyone!

2. The changes to the scoring system will likely take effect next season (the 2018/2019 season), starting in July this year

ISU has not confirmed what changes will be made or if any of the proposed changes will even be passed. Some of the most important proposed changes are as follows:

Lower base value for quads

Expanded GOE scale of -5 to +5 instead of -3 to +3

1 less jumping pass in the Free Program

Shorter program durations

3. The old rules are being used at Milan.

Since the changes will only take effect next season and haven’t even been finalized yet, the old rules are still currently in play. Things will definitely change next season onwards, but, in our opinion, not too drastically. Our prediction is that there will simply be a bigger emphasis on quality (less jumps/quads, larger GOE margins). The scoring system in general will remain intact.

We will be putting out tech talks to address any changes when the time comes! Thanks for asking. :)))