For those of you who are wondering how Patrick Chan fell three times in the free skate and still won the Japan Open, Jackie Wong at Examiner does a great job breaking down some of the biggest questions of the competition.
He points out that base values helped Patrick Chan. For example, a fall on a quad still gave Chan more points than a clean triple lutz would have. And obviously that's because the IJS needed to give skaters incentive for attempting quads. The happy medium between technical envelope-pushing and rewarding clean skating has not yet been met.
Per Wong:
"My guess is that skate would have put him no higher than third in the 6.0 system, but the adding up of technical value in the IJS helped him win (and will likely continue to help him in the future as long as he is quad-friendly)."
Wong also points out that, although Alissa Czisny's triple/triple attempt was downgraded, she did at least give it a shot, which she hasn't done recently.
He added about her program:
"Her free skate, however, was a bit barebones at points, particularly so during the lutz-salchow-loop-axel section in the middle. Lots of back-to-back jump-preparation skating going on. It’s certainly not the most interesting skating that she’s ever produced."
Wonder if there will be changes before the Grand Prix. She definitely misses out on a lot of program components that a skater as good as her should not be losing, but she needs to have more challenge in those programs.
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