Theoretically, yes, but that would require the JSF having a 3rd team they thought would be GP ready by NHK. Seeing as they already gave up one of their 3 host spots in the initial assignments, I think it's safe to assume they won't hold onto this for another team.
In all fairness to Josephine, she is the only senior age-eligible US woman* who was in the SB Top 75 apart from the 6, who all got 2 GPs, so I don't think it's unreasonable to award her one of the 2 host TBD spots - and I wouldn't have thought it unreasonable had they done so right from the off when the initial assignments came out. And she's not even the lowest-ranked host skater to get a GP assignment - she's SB69 while Yi Zhu is SB71.
Hopefully she will be competitive. I like her. I know it has been years but was hoping for Ava.
Well, it's not as if there weren't 2 TBD spots - giving the other one to Starr this early is the more surprising choice, but one has to think the USFS has a better idea of where Ava is in her recovery than we do.
You are right. I didn't remember that Starr had a bit of rough year last year. Feels like she has been a fixture on the GP for a while so her invite didn't stick out.
USFS could have chosen all three of its host picks before the seeded skaters were assigned. It could have chosen Isabeau Levito and Amber Glenn, the fourth and fifth place finishers at Worlds, in addition to World Champion Alysa Liu, so clearly Starr Andrews and Josephine Lee are not the best that USFS could find.
Not correct. A host federation can choose any three of its eligible skaters. It has happened that two medalists from the previous World Championship have faced each other at their home Grand Prix.
Actually, no, you're incorrect. A host federation can have two of its own skaters from the same seeded sub-group (1-3 or 4-6), but it can only have two seeded skaters in total.
Is that possible? I thought 1-3 and 4-6 had to be a different events? edit nvm the newer posts weren't showing up for me.
It turns out that the situation is murkier than I thought. I can’t find any ISU document clarifying whether host or seeded spots are assigned first, so there may not be any hard and fast rule after all. It may all depend on 
and 
.
I'm fairly certain this is a holdover, though not codified in the language of the GP Announcement currently used, from the early years of the Grand Prix Series where it was factually known that the seeded skaters got to choose their events, but who knows?
