Four Continents 2012

The 2012 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships happened.

It did indeed.

Ten Worst Things About 4CC 2012: 
10) Patrick Chan's apparent not-fall in the short program. That was definitely a fall, tech panel. Mr. Chan was clearly supporting his weight on his hands as opposed to his blades.
9) The entire penultimate group in the ladies event. Eight falls in total, a lot of pops, and some truly unfortunate performances.
8) Tessa Virtue's SD dress.
7) Whoever was announcing the skaters' names in the arena. So many egregious mispronunciations of perfectly commonplace names and words, so little time.
6) Whatever happened to poor Nan Song. Get well soon!
5) The entire pairs event in general, in terms of both the quality of skating and the quality of judging. For pairs, look not to North America or Asia for salvation.
4) Jeremy Ten's TES. Ouch.
3) The technical panel at the ladies event apparently forgetting what flutzes are. Apparently Ashley Wagner, Mao Asada and Caroline Zhang all have lutzes on picture-perfect outside edges. Who knew?
2) Actually, the tech panels were crap across all disciplines, except perhaps for ice dance. So many under-rotations clearly visible even in real-time, yet so few under-rotation calls. The utter inconsistency and apparent arbitrariness of under-rotation calls both within and across competitions is ridiculous, especially since under-rotation calls can profoundly affect the outcome of an event. And then there were all those blatant two-foots ignored, but that's the judges' fault....
1) The second half of Denney/Coughlin's Turandot long program. Obnoxious electric guitar rendition of Nessun Dorma + Caydee Denney's utter lack of line, stretch or aesthetic awareness in her lift positions = an assault on all the senses, including common.

Ten Best Things About 4CC 2012:
10) Caroline Zhang proving that her comeback at US Nationals wasn't a fluke.
9) Sui/Han's two-quad LP. Yes, they were overscored, but credit must be given for their guts to actually pull that off in such a less-than-optimal high altitude location.
8) Mao Asada's LP dress.
7) Both Skate Canada and USFS ending up with a proverbial egg on their faces after their 4CC shenanigans backfired spectacularly.
6) Christopher Caluza's LP.
5) Weaver/Poje. I used to think that they were tacky and overblown, but I am definitely feeling them more and more this season... right before they probably will get screwed over by Skate Canada in favor of Gilles/Poirier next season, or perhaps in return for more politicks in the other disciplines. Alas.
4) Misha Ge's step sequences in his LP. They were loud, brash and practically crazed, but at the same time, a welcome departure from all the soporific skating beforehand.
3) Kanako Murakami's SP. Miss Murakami's arm choreography this season cracks me up at times, but to me, she had the SP of the night in the ladies event.
2) The short programs of the Japanese men's skaters not named Daisuke.
1) Patrick Chan's and Ashley Wagner's LPs. Two excellent performances worthy of gold.