Base value of executed elements in figure skating?

First of all, I am not questioning the result. Had Plyushchenko skated cleaner, he would have won.





My question is about the base value of executed elements. I would expect the base value to be the same.





Both Plyushchenko and Lysacek executed 13 elements. Five were different, eight were the same. Four of eight had identical base values. However, four had different base values: 3A+2T,3Lo,3Lz,3S. Lysacek received a base value total of 27.05 for these four elements while Plyushchenko received only 25.45. Had these elements been graded identically, Plyushchenko would have won thanks to his .5 point advantage after short skate.





Could you please explain why base values for the same elements were lower for Plyushchenko than for Lysacek?|||How Lysacek Defeated Plushenko


By ARCHIE TSE





Evan Lysacek beat Yevgeny Plushenko basically by doing a modern program that took advantage of the new judging system.





They had identical “artistic” scores of 82.8.





So the difference came down to the executed elements scores (i.e. the “technical” score).





Plushenko performed an old-school program, more typical of those designed before the new judging system was implemented in 2004. In such an old-school program, skaters load their jumps in the first half of the program.





Under the new scoring system, jumps in the second half receive a 10 percent bonus.


Plushenko did five jumping passes in the first half of his program and only three in the second half.





Lysacek had three jumping passes in the first half and five in the second half.





Lysceck picked up 37.77 points from his jumps in the second half, about 3.5 points of which were the 10 percent bonus.





Plushenko earned only 18.63 points from jumps in the second half, of which about 1.7 was from the 10 percent bonus.





The difference: 3.5 – 1.7 = 1.8 points. That is almost equal to the difference in their total long-program scores, 1.86 points.





http://vancouver2010.blogs.nytimes.com/2…





What the article doesn't say is the reason they're giving jumps higher scores in the second half of a skater's program is because the skater is more tired in the second half, so the jumps are harder then. Makes sense. Anyway, it's not Canada -- this is the way it has been scored since 2004. Plushenko should have known that and planned his program accordingly.





##|||I'm guessing, though I'm not a judge, that when you do them plays into it. The 2nd half of your program gives you a 10% differential. If you only compare the 2nd half of each's programs, I'm thinking you might understand.





Edit: I like the everything you say, Iris. I so agree but get tired of saying it for the 18th time here today. The only thing that I maintain that is different than you say is that Plushenko couldn't have back loaded his program or he would have. He's not stupid. He knows the rules. He just wasn't in shape to do those moves during the end so resorted to badmouthing people for not having a quad...sucks to be him.