The competition exists out of two separate rounds. The first round allows the competitors to perform a routine of a maximum 2:50 minutes, after which the athletes with the twenty-four best scores perform another routine of around 4:30 minutes. The competitor with the best score after two rounds is the winner.
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Thirty athletes qualified for the event and the Japanese skaters were very strong. Yuzuru Hanyu and Tatsuki Machida took two of the top 4 positions at the most recent Grand Prix finals, while Daisuke Takahashi was the defending bronze medalist. World champion Patrick Chan was the only one to finish between the Japanese slight favorites at the Grand Prix finals, while Yan Han finished sixth in that competition. Less than a year prior, Hanyu was the only one to finish in the top 5 of the world championships, behind Chan, Denis Ten, and Javier Fernandez. Some of the other medal contenders included the former Olympic champion Evgeny Plyushchenko, Kevin Reynolds, and Jeremy Abbott.
