competition order

[falen]

How do thay determine the skater order in basic skills competition?  Not alpha that is for sure!!!

[kssk8fan]

For Basic Skills, the skaters are grouped by age and are starting order is chosen randomly.

[blue111moon]

Starting order for general competitions is random (there's a button in the computer programs that does it with one click). 

When you get into qualifying competitions that have so many skaters that they have to have qualifying rounds,  then a whole different set of rules apply.  The USFS Rulebook contains all the rules for seeding for qualifying rounds and open vs. closed draws.