since when do you care about smoothness?
your hero was the smoothest Mr. O. since Larry Scott:

maybe, maybe not.
but, he was the dryest and hardest mr. o EVER.
the term "grainy" did not exist before yates.
i've asked this since the beginning of this thread - would one rather be smooth, but yet incredbily hard and dry or soft with more details, striations, etc.
the fact that yates was so dominant should tell what the judges and judging criteria say who should win.
i've provided a list of past winners who were harder and dryer than the 2nd place guy, yet the 2nd and lower placings had more details, etc.
-mike francois
-nasser el sonbaty
-gunter (when he beat ronnie)
-markus ruhl (when he beat dexter jackson at the toronto show. sure, he was much bigger than dexter, but that is the same thing as yates being bigger than shawn)
-branch warren