I have flown and competed in three worlds. I am far from the best but do recognize the errors etc. I have been in pattern since 1979. Hey I was rock solid bottom and 99th in Portugal. Here is how I saw it:
1 See my last comment in the other worlds link.
2 QQ and Jason and Chad got somewhat robbed...deserved higher placing. Maybe Mayer also but he did have some small errors in the end.
3 The judging seems as follows, the back group gets overly severely hammered for mistakes, the middle group correctly, and the top 10-20 has some halo fliers. Halo lives on and will always be there.
4 I agree with the ausies that it is frustrating to spend all this money and effort and see unfair judging at a wc level.
5 We need more judges from the americas, and less from europe. The US team did very well and I comment them for being political and good sportsman, but they deserved better.
6 I do not like the new team placing rules. Makes no sense as it does not put all teams on the same playing field. We need to go back to the old format counting only the prelims.
7 I am glad though to see YS on top! A real airplane has an engine in it!