What to know for figure skating's exclusive Grand Prix Final

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The biggest annual event in figure skating is the world championships. The second-biggest is the Grand Prix Final. It starts tomorrow in Beijing. Here's what to know:

It's quite exclusive.

The Grand Prix of Figure Skating's regular season consists of six events held all over the world in October and November. Skaters are allowed to compete at up to two of those stops. They earn points based on where they finish, and those points decide who gets to compete in the Final.

Only the top six in each discipline — men's, women's, pairs and ice dance — are invited.

The only other time we'll see this many of the world's best figure skaters gathered in one place this season is at the world championships in March in Montreal.

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Canada is well represented.

While no Canadian singles skaters qualified (the fourth straight time that's happened), the country has a total of five entries spread across the two tandem events — two in pairs, three in ice dance.

The top Canadian duo is Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier, who won the ice dance title at last year's Final in Italy before earning their second bronze in three years at the world championships. For the second straight season, Gilles and Poirier won both of their Grand Prix assignments — this time at Skate Canada International in Vancouver and the Cup of China — to finish atop the standings.

WATCH | CBC Sports' Asher Hill logs podium picks for Grand Prix Final:

The pairs team of Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps also went 2-for-2 to lead their event. Lia