Chen/Brown are guaranteed 2 because they finished in the top 12 at worlds, but Rippon/Aaron/Zhou/Hochstein are only guaranteed one. From the 2016/2017 announcement: "Skaters/Couples with an ISU World Standing placement of 1 – 24 (after season 2015/16) and Skaters/Couples with seasons best scores in the top 24 (for season 2015/16) who do not hold an ISU World Standing placement of 1 – 24 will be guaranteed one (1) event."
Seeding is only based on 1-6 placement at Worlds. There is no seeding based on WS or SB.
Misha Ge has not announced his retirement; in his Ice Network interview, he said he was still deciding, although he didn't sound too optimistic. However, even if he does retire, no one moves up the WS list until the skater is removed from the list, and historically, that has happened rarely. We think it only happens if the Federation tells the ISU to do so.
. (And I thought I spot-checked it...)
As is Virtue and Moir ranked 9th.
But that's true of non-seeded teams as well: in singles, 7-9 and 10-12 can't meet*, and in Dance and Pairs, 7-10 can't meet*.
. Of course, you're right.
. (I can't remember if they got to use the best 2/3 results or if one was already designated as the "extra" non-counting event up front for determining who went to GPF.)There used to be an advantage to being seeded, which is that there was an optional third event and the opportunity for
