Marbula One Season 2 / Pre-Marble League 2021 Offseason Moments – Part 3

This is Part 3 of Nordique Whaler’s Offseason Moments series.
For Part 1, click here.
For Part 2, click here.
For Part 4, click here.

Om

Team Momo was given an opportunity to showcase their amazing dumplings when they hosted Momotorway this season. In the time since then, Momo’s Dumplings grew to an international favorite across Marblearth with locations all over the place. None more recognizable than the original location in Om. Along the city lights stood a large restaurant with a giant dumpling being sliced open by a neon fidget spinner. That would be where it all started.

There was a mini-concert being planned there that night featuring the Shining Swarm and Time Check to celebrate Team Momo’s success on and off the track, and I was somehow able to get a seat at the bar. Mimo greeted me as they knew what I usually liked there. The staple Chicken & Dumplings that made the restaurant famous. “Momomomo knows what most of the recognizable customers order here. All I say is ‘the usual’ and I just write the name, they know what to do.” Alongside me was a very famous marble in Om, none other than Time Check’s Stynth! Even though it was busy, you could tell who Stynth was with the blue and white stripes. We both laughed about our times during the season and told some stories about the teams like how Team Momo originally met at Temple of Om, another famous Dumpling restaurant, and how the Swarm had their second career as singers. We also noticed that the restaurant was renovated a bit and inside it now was a giant picture of Mimo standing atop the podium at O’raceway. The gold medal was encased right next to it.

Mimo told me about how that race changed their lives, “That was a huge moment for me and the team in general. We had not won anything in a few years so getting that gold was getting the load off our backs. It was a fun night.” I could only imagine what that night would’ve been. Momomomo came out and brought our dumplings. Stynth got their usual Vegetable Dumpling order. Momomomo then told us “Momo and Mimo came up with the idea of bringing our stand to the Momotorway. The publicity we got from the fans allowed us to grow. We already have 30 locations worldwide and we plan on adding more. Our sales went through the roof, and while this is still our highest volume location, our Stormholm location is right up there as well.” I remembered since Shock from the Thunderbolts loved the dumplings.

I told Stynth about my “Around the World” trip and how I was inspired after they did the same thing after Marble League 2020. “It was one of my favorite adventures,” Stynth told me. “It allows you to get to know these amazing marbles and get a sense of what it’s like for them in competition.” Not long afterwards, it was time for the concert. Time Check opened for the Swarm by singing some of their most popular hits, including “Lift Me Up”, “My Heart’s Song”, and a new song that Stynth composed for the group, “Keep On”. They have a great fan base in Om, mostly due to Stynth. Then it was time for the Shining Swarm to appear and the crowd on the stage outside the restaurant started to celebrate and sing along to the Swarm’s recognizable songs from the MarBeats days including the famous “Here Comes the Swarm” that we all sang on. Even Stynth and Time Check invited me to sing alongside all of us on stage for their biggest hit. I decided to bring out the guitar for a few songs that I covered myself like “Counting Blue Spheres” and “Roll As You Are”. We all had an amazing time. The finale even had Team Momo come out as the kitchen was closed for the night to sing “Roll Over and Roll Out” alongside the Swarm, Time Check, and myself, then we launched the fireworks to wrap up the celebration. As we put everything away and headed out, I thanked Stynth and Time Check for allowing me to perform alongside the Shining Swarm and told Momo and the Swarm I’d see them in the Marble League. There was one thing left to say after this night; “Hmm, Hmm, Wow!” The two teams have a big opportunity awaiting them that also includes their off-the-field hobbies that could give them a boost.

???

Even after visiting Misty Mountain earlier this season I still do not know where the heck it is. For the longest time, the location of the Hazers was one of the biggest secrets. That includes a bus and now a train line going through the town and having one of the biggest events over there and yet we still have not a clue on where exactly do the Hazers come from. Another mystery I have is about the Hazers is what exactly do they have to do to win a title? 6th, 3rd, 2nd, 6th, 3rd, and now 4th have been their tournament finishes. Only the Savage Speeders have had more medals and a higher average rank, but they also have 3 titles to the Hazers none. Hazy improved this season by getting two come-from-behind wins, including one right here. Smoggy got a bronze and a pole but they had a setback from the 3rd place they got in the individual standings last season. All that was only good enough for fourth, as the Speeders pipped them at the end to steal a podium spot.

The new train that opened up went underground and with weird turns to confuse everyone regarding the location of the Hazers town. On the train from Om, I saw Spex returning home from a business trip. We reminisced about the chaotic race that happened here weeks ago. “I’ve worked with JMR for 20 of these races now, and none of them were as insane as this,” said Spex as we headed down into a tunnel at high speed. “There was so much that happened in this race alone, from Clutter going in the safety marble lane, to Bumble getting stuck with Clutter joining them, and the late red flag.” I added in “Somehow in this mess we had the only winner representing the home team with Hazy, although the restart did help.”

As we arrived, Spex and I went our own ways and I made the three-level stair climb to the surface. I was still confused about where I was, my phone also had no signal out here—until I saw Smoggy across the way. “There you are, guessing you got lost again,” I remember the race having to be moved back after most of the teams could not find their way around the area. At the Hazers facility, we met up with the rest of the team. There was still a slight sense of anger mostly from Hazy. “We still need to get over that hump, mainly the Speeders. That’s the second time now in M1 that they snuck past at the end to steal something whether it’s a championship or a podium.” This was a bit of a different vibe I picked up compared to when I visited the other teams. It’s hard being close so many times and having no trophies to show for. Foggy said, “We really need to shed the “bridesmaid” label everyone has been slapping on us now for 3 years.”

To do that, they needed to push themselves beyond their limit. One of their biggest weaknesses was going to be tested. Coach Smokey built a replica of the thing the Hazers dreaded, block pushing. The block was a little lighter than the one used for Marble League but the hill was not as steep so the Hazers would have to use strength for this one. The first run was just meh, the second run was a little better. Smokey said they would keep on doing it until they hit at least 77 two consecutive times. It took quite a few attempts to get there but it happened. After that, the Hazers were worn out but felt like the time would eventually come where one day they would be on the top step of the podium.

After the visit, I decided to go explore the area. Even after seeing the entire city from up above, I still don’t know where exactly it is on a map. I thought about using the glider the Green Ducks provided earlier but with all the clouds surrounding the area, it would be too hard.

Hunluen

I took an overnight train out of…uh…Hazer Town I guess. I went from one quiet area to a really chaotic city as I was about to visit the Balls of Chaos. True to their name the past season was a very up and down season. One race they DNQ the next they get a medal. They take a pole, then they finish last. I wonder if they read my Balls of Inconsistency story a while back and decided to live up to the name.

The Balls of Chaos facility, just past the Tumult Turnpike, is a very easy one to find with a neon version of their logo on it. When I got there I saw more than just the Balls of Chaos team members, it looked like the Pinkies were also here. Tumult then noticed me and said, “Hey everyone, Nordique has arrived!” The two teams then went straight toward me in a chaotic way. “We are so glad you could arrive for our monthly get-together!” Pinky Toe told me as I saw. “Every month we get together to do something away from the competition.” Clutter said as we were getting a game set up. I noticed Mesp and Ocho were also here joining the party. I noticed the Pinkies had changed their looks back after having a different look in the MLWS. Pinky Rosa told me “Oh those jerseys? Yeah… we didn’t like them. They looked too much like a flamingo version of Crazy Cat’s Eyes. Plus we only got 13th in them. So we decided to go back to our roots and return to our old jerseys.”

The first game we played was Skrollble. In Skrollble we were given a prompt on what to draw and we all had to guess. The sooner you guess the more points you earn. It was all going great until we realized Tumult had rigged the prompts so that half the prompts were them! As soon as we saw it was six blanks, we pretty much figured it out. We ended up moving on.

We then loaded up some Jackball that I had downloaded on my computer so we could get a variety of different games. We started with Liebage where we had to put a fake answer to a ridiculous question then find the real answer amongst all the other fake answers. This brought a lot of chaos to our game night. A lot of us could not believe some of these questions. Pinky Winky won the round. “That was one of the funniest games I have ever done,” they told me after the round. We then did some Quipdash where we had to put a joke response to a prompt like “Something that you could smell from 10 miles away.” then the two responses could be “Limers” and “Cinnamon Bun factory” (that last one sounded more like a safety quip). The remaining members would vote on which sounds better and the players get points. There were a lot of JMR jokes in it, including my “Balls of Inconsistency” joke. Clutter knew exactly what I was talking about, “Yeah, I suppose that is our M1 track record. One race we did well, like my silver at Momotorway. The next race I did at Misty Mountain I found myself stuck twice!” The Quipmaster ended up being Anarchy who dominated the round.

“I sure hope we can both make it to the Marble League this time. We didn’t get to meet up last year since we did not make it.” Pinky Toe said. “I heard CCE is planning something very big for the Marble League this year.” Clutter said “They had posted a picture of the interior of the stadium the other day. The first event there is actually going to be their M1S2 victory ceremony.” Well, that explains why they haven’t had it yet. Usually, winning teams celebrate days after the season ends. “Imagine the sight here when we go from 15th to 1st in the span of one year,” Mesp said to the Balls of Chaos. Pinky Toe then said “Imagine Pinkies pulling a Minty Maniacs from last year.” to which Ocho responded with “Hell Yeah Go Pinkies!”

I had to get going as I had a flight that day. Snarl then came up to me and said “Feel free to join us next time we have another get-together. It might be down in Felynia!” It would be a good time to see both of them make it.

Dunduei

After a very busy stretch, I thought this would be a good spot to spend some time relaxing for a bit down in Dunduei. The Oceanics reside here and they have a very good spot down by the Aquamaring. Speaking of their M1 season, there really was not much to speak about with the Oceanics. Ocean had a pole at their home track but fell down in the order, but at Savage Speedway, Ocean got the only medal for the Oceanics all season. Sea did get the fastest lap at Momotorway, but that was it. The MLWS however was a huge success with the Oceanics taking home 3 medals in 5 events to win their first-ever title. It came a year and a half after they had one of the worst performances ever for a team while hosting.

A couple of miles southeast of Aquamaring was the spot the Oceanics wanted to meet. It was a private coast where Ocean lives. All of the Oceanics would be there. It just so happened to be an off day for the team so it was a perfect time to hang out. I entered the keycode that Ocean sent me the night before to the gate and saw Sea as soon as the gate swung open.

“You made it!” Sea rejoiced. “Ocean and the team are out back.” We went around the house and right to the beach where all the team was. A perfect day for weather, water was just as perfect. “Feels like victory out here,” Ocean said, referring to the conditions. “Though I find it funny, we have done better in the cold. I mean those two winter tournaments ended up being our best.”

“Remember the time we beat the O’rangers in the Aquathlon?” Aqua said to us. “That changed us all!” We all were all relaxing when we heard a strange noise from the front. It looked like two marbles were trying to say something, “We’re going to make it this time!” said one marble. “You’ll be Shell Shocked,” said the other. I asked Ocean who those marbles were. “Oh, that’s just Frank from the Turtle Sliders. They teamed up with Ghostly and Bobert who has been marketing the team ever since the qualifiers were announced.” Shore then added “Those two come by every now and then saying the same thing. They got to show it first because from what we’ve seen they’ve been on par with the Limers.”

After a few hours of relaxing and swimming with the Oceanics, I wished them the best of luck in the qualifiers and went back to my hotel. I spent another day down in Dunduei to enjoy the area before I went from one extreme to the other the next day.

Snoronto

Talk about going from one extreme to another. I went from the sunny beaches of Dunduei to the bitter cold of Snoronto on one really long flight. After all, this is the land of the Snowballs. Things have not gone the Snowballs’ way lately. In the most recent Winter Special, they ironically finished in dead last. Marbula One was very forgettable for them and they fell from 4th to 12th in one season. Outside of hosting a track, I personally forgot the Snowballs were even competing during M1.

All wrapped in layers, I saw the Snowballs in their facility. It was strangely much warmer here. Snowy greeted me and poured a cup of Cocoa. “You are probably wondering why it’s warmer than normal. We turned the heater up as we got closer to Marble League 2021 so we can prepare for Felynia’s very hot temperatures.” Originally the Snowballs were going to have no part of Marble League 2021 because of their poor performance in the Showdown. “As soon as we found out that we were going to be in the qualifiers, we implemented this plan. Hopefully, we can take advantage of the opportunity provided.”

“The past year hasn’t been so great,” Snowstorm said as they joined us. “We came so close to making it last year. Then the Showdown happened and it was a gut punch. Even the Turtle Sliders beat us.” Snowflake, still feeling a bit guilty over the events last year, said this “Nearly everyone wants to write us off, but we still have some potential left to show the world. We are not the Limers, we are the Snowballs!” Before I left, I mentioned to them that the Gliding Glaciers were returning. Snowflake remembered them: “Oh yeah, Glide told us the Glaciers were invited to take the spot of Jawbreakers. They turned in a nice showing at Herbotamia so we would love to compete with our rivals again.”

Click here to keep reading about Nordique Whaler’s trip around the world!

Credits

• Writer: NordiqueWhaler
• Editor: Stynth
• Release: 30/06/2021