I gotta be honest, I thought Nationals were 'streamlined' down to just junior and senior divisions.
There would still need to be qualifying competitions so people could earn their scores to qualify for Prelims.
What are "Prelims"? This qualifying round at Nationals that FSUers have invented in this thread?
We're still trying to figure out what's really happening this year, so also trying to figure out how a completely different newly invented system might work could get confusing, especially if people don't specify when they're speculating about the real plan vs. making stuff up on the fly.
(I started a post earlier about how the made-up system could work, but I decided not to post it, for that reason.)
So the Novice skaters would compete there and then however they want to determine the 'top' Novice skaters, invite them to compete at Juniors.
Yes, if they're going to use a similar system as last year to qualify top novices from the November competition to compete junior at Nationals.
What's still not clear for this season, real life, is what is going to happen with the juveniles and intermediates, and novices in general. A few years ago they had qualified through regionals to sectionals and from there to Nationals at their respective levels. As of last year their season ended at sectionals (except those top two novices in each section), but they had to qualify
to sectionals from their respective regionals, or through the NQS.
Since there are no regionals or NQS this season, will juvenile and intermediate skaters be competing at one or two of the championship series as this year's participation in the qualifying season, even though they will not be qualifying to anything beyond that?
And of course there would need to be novice events if they're going to take top novices to Nationals.
If this series is only for juniors and seniors, that will need to be stated explicitly, in a way that lets skaters who have the possibility to skate either novice or junior, or senior, given the relaxed test requirements, figure out what their best options would be this year and also whether skating up this year would affect what level they'd be allowed to compete in 2021-22 if that goes back to something more like the 2019-20 season structure.
OTOH, Regionals is a lot of work (and expense) for host clubs and no guarantee they'll make a profit (usually depends on how much practice ice they have available and can sell) and maybe a condensed qual season is more sensible economically. But then you wonder how many kids will get discouraged once they get to the higher levels and quit the sport.
I think that's the point of the Excel Series—to keep those skaters engaged without having to burn out on the elite track.
That's true, for some skaters . . . Although the Excel Series was also canceled this season. And it is much more recreational in design: no short programs, strict limits on jump content.
However, there are a significant number of what we might call "competitive" skaters -- neither recreational nor elite -- who do want to attempt double axels in their programs, who do want to train and compete short programs, who may want try a triple or two. As a point of personal pride, even if they don't expect to get beyond regionals. And in some cases with the possibility that if everything does fall into place for them at the right moment, they might advance after all.
At Juvenile and Intermediate levels, it's often too soon for these kids to know whether they will be able to step up their game at higher levels or will need to back off (for physical reasons or financial reasons or family priorities or whatever). Many are still eager and hopeful at those levels. And those are the levels that really swell the numbers at regionals.
So would there still be a place for skaters at those skill levels in a "condensed" qualifying season?
