Saitama put an end to my fluffy fanyu phase. What ISU and JSF did at that competition was despicable. No other federation would ever treat their athletes much less the GOAT of figure skating like that. They sold everyone at that competition but especially Yuzu. Even the former French Fed head was shocked JSF let Yuzu get robbed at GPF Torino and did nothing, just like they did nothing at Saitama.

I guess I can say it all started when Yuzuru destroyed the scoring system around this time, 5 years ago (https://youtu.be/PwcqmkqcPRw?t=316). ISU never liked that a non-American/non-Russian skater was the absolute champion, that only lost when he made a mistake and ISU boosted other skaters' scores.

So when Yuzu with and after SEIMEI kept improving, ISU started to put up the plan to change the scoring system from +/- 3 GOE to +/- 5 GOE, and spread the narrative that it would be better for all skaters, especially the artistic and consistent ones like Yuzu. That scoring system would go live after PyeongChang. The possibility of an 11-point range gave the judges more room for subjectivity, as they went from fair (+1), good (+2), great (+3) to... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... And just what is the difference between a 2 and 3? It's the "playing with that difference" that decides who wins and loses.

After Yuzu got injured in Rostelecom 2018, he spent 4 months away from any competition (https://youtu.be/68jLyIqQCqY?t=2237). Meanwhile, his rivals were landing two-footed, under rotated, transition-less jumps and earning huge GOEs for that.... AND were having gasp their PCS scores going just as high, as if there were a connection between difficult jumps and high PCS.

With that kind of "safety net", his rivals had little to worry about, they knew that they just needed to not fall on the ice to get positive and high GOE.

Fast Forward to Saitama, March 2019.

The Arena, especially on the Short Program day, was unusually warm (https://youtu.be/68jLyIqQCqY?t=2362), too warm for figure skating, which was confirmed by many fans and athletes (like Mikhail Kolyada who commented it was so hot he was sweating). That plus the way the ice was layered, made a huge difference for edge jumps (https://youtu.be/68jLyIqQCqY?t=2392) Yuzu's specialty AND his first quad on his Otonal SP.

When it was Yuzu’s SP time, his first competition after 4 months away recovering from an injury as serious as the one before PC 2018, he popped his opening Quad Sal. By doing that, he received a score of ZERO, when he would normally have some 13 points for his Sal. After the SP he placed 3rd, and with some 13 points behind Chen. He lost the championship with that mistake, but also with the huge score Chen got. I won’t get into that, but for anyone with a little knowledge of figure skating there was no way such gap could happen without the heavy hand of biased judging.

Then, the only thing Yuzu could do was come blasting in the Free Skate. That was what he did, becoming again the first man to break the 200/300 barrier, like he did when the +3 GOE system was on.

Even with Yuzu's monster Free Skate, the judges had already chosen Chen—who also favors toe jumps, perfect for the ice condition in the SP and FS. The judges gave ridiculous GOE to Chen’s poor landings and flow, his no transitions and flawed spin technique (hello 90 degrees sit spin?).

After Chen’s win in Saitama, things were never the same: ISU had their chosen one who could do whatever he wanted and would still receive monster scoring. It’s easy to skate and win with such a safety net…

How do you crown a new king? You kill the current king. The rest, as they say, is history.

p.s.: for reference, this comment is still true (turn CC on): https://youtu.be/gxj7a3zDH4A?t=451