With Finlandia this weekend (and Shanghai Trophy before it) the synchro season has officially kicked off!
The first ever synchro challenger series kicks off with the California Classic in November! I'm super excited (and I'll be going!). Still confused as to why they chose Anaheim (because even though it's now irvine it's always Anaheim to us west coast synchroers) instead of Porter, which is cloer to teams in Europe and a bigger, more well organized competition than little tiny Anaheim. Still, I'm super excited!
After Finlandia I think this season will be really interesting for a number of reasons:
1. Russia's on top of Finlandia, but virtually tied by the Rockettes.
2. Marigold IceUnity appears to be having a very, very off year thus far, finishing third of the Finnish teams by 10 points. That puts them at risk of missing the Finnish world team, especially as 10 points indicates much more serious issues than are usually fixed in a season. Maybe they had high turnover and a lot of fresh faces? They looked sloppy, and the spiral sequence looked rather basic until the end.
3. Russia's not doing literally anything new for them. More classical music with flowy dresses, even if it is a tango rather than soft flowy music. Their choreography is also not innovative at all. Their NHE was all a 4x4 box, and although it pivots, that was the innovation 3-4 years ago, now it's all about irregular NHE shapes; their circle is a circle-within-a-circle with a double weave - something literally required for a level 4 6 seasons ago but that's since fallen out of style; their spiral sequence reminds me exactly of one done by another team at worlds a while ago (maybe Surprise?); their syncopated 3-turns into the block was popular with intermediate and novice teams 10+ years ago when I competed those levels. I think all of that leaves them really, really vulerable when the synchro council is all focused on creativity. Sure they're clean, but that won't save them when the Rockettes, MIU, Team Unique, NEXXICE, Nova, Hayden, Tartarstan, Les Supremes, etc. get their more innovative programs clean.
4. A lot more intensity, a lot less soft and classical a la Team Paradise. That means a lot more intensity and excitement in choreography.
5. More dudes - including the first men on Finnish teams I can remember.
Idk I'm just really stoked for this season.
The first ever synchro challenger series kicks off with the California Classic in November! I'm super excited (and I'll be going!). Still confused as to why they chose Anaheim (because even though it's now irvine it's always Anaheim to us west coast synchroers) instead of Porter, which is cloer to teams in Europe and a bigger, more well organized competition than little tiny Anaheim. Still, I'm super excited!
After Finlandia I think this season will be really interesting for a number of reasons:
1. Russia's on top of Finlandia, but virtually tied by the Rockettes.
2. Marigold IceUnity appears to be having a very, very off year thus far, finishing third of the Finnish teams by 10 points. That puts them at risk of missing the Finnish world team, especially as 10 points indicates much more serious issues than are usually fixed in a season. Maybe they had high turnover and a lot of fresh faces? They looked sloppy, and the spiral sequence looked rather basic until the end.
3. Russia's not doing literally anything new for them. More classical music with flowy dresses, even if it is a tango rather than soft flowy music. Their choreography is also not innovative at all. Their NHE was all a 4x4 box, and although it pivots, that was the innovation 3-4 years ago, now it's all about irregular NHE shapes; their circle is a circle-within-a-circle with a double weave - something literally required for a level 4 6 seasons ago but that's since fallen out of style; their spiral sequence reminds me exactly of one done by another team at worlds a while ago (maybe Surprise?); their syncopated 3-turns into the block was popular with intermediate and novice teams 10+ years ago when I competed those levels. I think all of that leaves them really, really vulerable when the synchro council is all focused on creativity. Sure they're clean, but that won't save them when the Rockettes, MIU, Team Unique, NEXXICE, Nova, Hayden, Tartarstan, Les Supremes, etc. get their more innovative programs clean.
4. A lot more intensity, a lot less soft and classical a la Team Paradise. That means a lot more intensity and excitement in choreography.
5. More dudes - including the first men on Finnish teams I can remember.
Idk I'm just really stoked for this season.
