Fall international events have existed for decades. In 1995, the International Skating Union brought five of the most popular senior events together into a series offering prize money in response to the then-success of professional skating. The events were Skate America, Skate Canada International, Trophée de France, Nations Cup (later known as Sparkassen Cup and Bofrost Cup), and the NHK Trophy. They comprised the Champions Series, since renamed the Grand Prix of Figure Skating, and took up the fall. They concluded with a Final held in the spring before the World Championships in which the top six skaters in each discipline compete against each other. In 2001, the Final was moved to December. This led to the confusion of having two Finals within one calendar year. In 1996, a sixth event was added: the Cup of Russia. The event in Germany was replaced in 2003 with the Cup of China.