Ok, my cable and Internet are finally in place so a thorough analysis of the competition will be coming within days as I get caught up. But, here are the notable results from days one and two of competition.
Men
Czech Republic's Michal Brezina played it safe in the short program by not attempting a quad and instead landing all of his jumps securely, which got him out to a lead that made up for his third place showing in the free skate.
Kevin Van Der Perren of Belgium won the free skate, moving up from fourth to snag the silver medal. Japan's Takahiko Kozuka placed second in both portions and was able to hold on for the bronze.
Though none of the American men medaled (and poor Armin Mahbanoozadeh came in dead last), the bright side is that national silver medalist Richard Dornbush landed his second quad in competition, although he received very low grade of execution scores for it. Dornbush placed fourth overall.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was last season's Grand Prix darling, Florent Amodio, coming in ninth - second to last.
More after the jump...
Full men standings:
| Pl | Name | Nation | Points | SP | FS |
| 1 | Michal BREZINA | CZE | 216.00 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | Kevin VAN DER PERREN | BEL | 212.48 | 4 | 1 |
| 3 | Takahiko KOZUKA | JPN | 212.09 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Richard DORNBUSH | USA | 202.27 | 5 | 6 |
| 5 | Denis TEN | KAZ | 197.98 | 6 | 7 |
| 6 | Daisuke MURAKAMI | JPN | 193.32 | 3 | 9 |
| 7 | Douglas RAZZANO | USA | 192.95 | 9 | 5 |
| 8 | Samuel CONTESTI | ITA | 190.20 | 10 | 4 |
| 9 | Florent AMODIO | FRA | 187.60 | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | Armin MAHBANOOZADEH | USA | 179.07 | 7 | 10 |
Ice Dancing
The top two slots in ice dancing were very predictable, although i did not expect America's Davis and White to win by quite that much over France's Pechalat and Bourzat. Coming in third place was Lithuania's Isabella Tobias and Deividas Stagniunas. But only about a point and half separated slots three through six, which is where USA's Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue landed.
Full standings:
| Pl | Name | Nation | Points | SD | FD |
| 1 | Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE | USA | 178.07 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT | FRA | 156.29 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Isabella TOBIAS / Deividas STAGNIUNAS | LTU | 132.58 | 5 | 4 |
| 4 | Nelli ZHIGANSHINA / Alexander GAZSI | GER | 131.61 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | Kharis RALPH / Asher HILL | CAN | 131.29 | 4 | 5 |
| 6 | Madison HUBBELL / Zachary DONOHUE | USA | 131.04 | 6 | 3 |
| 7 | Isabella CANNUSCIO / Ian LORELLO | USA | 115.22 | 7 | 8 |
| 8 | Alexandra PAUL / Mitchell ISLAM | CAN | 111.70 | 8 | 7 |
Ladies
America's Alissa Czisny has a substantial lead over Italy's Carolina Kostner after the short program. Almost as big news is America's third place Caroline Zhang is in third place - medal position for Zhang after several disappointing seasons. Let's see if she can hold on. Full results.
Pairs
China's Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang are back after a year off the Grand Prix, leading Skate America after the short program. America's Caydee Denney and John Coughlin are in second place following a clean program and falls by some of the other top contenders. This is a very close competition so anything can happen in the free skate. Full results here.