Hello and welcome to another RetRollSpective, where we reflect on the history of marble sports teams that have appeared in the tournaments of Jelle’s Marble Runs. This time, we’re going to focus on the Balls of Chaos, hosts of Marble ManiaX. Read on to find out how this team has raged against the competition!

The Balls of Chaos are one of the oldest teams in marble sports history, dating back to the beginning of the millennium. They hail from Hunluen, the most populated city in the world, as well as the largest. The city was established in the third century when part of the Om civilization migrated in search of riches and found a flat plain in the center of several tributaries. The city eventually spread past the boundaries of its rivers and extended towards the bay. This expansion became a hub for innovation in the nineteenth century, but it also attracted the attention of other civilizations. After much negotiation, the Hunluenians opened their city to these civilizations.

The city is known for its oriental architecture, which evolved from Om architecture to become far more stylized, reaching out in all directions. This style is adapted from the Arms of Chaos, a universal symbol that the Hunluenians have lived by. The symbol is representative of infinite possibilities by any means necessary, a principle that defined the marbles’ foundations in the city and the opportunities that lay within. It is, similarly, the principle that the Balls of Chaos have lived by for almost twenty years. When Anarchy, Clutter, Tumult, and Snarl started competing in marble sports tournaments as younger marbles, it seemed extremely unlikely that the team would ever make it to international competition. The team was competing in youth leagues and placing consistently in the bottom half of the final standings. Why did they go on?

“We love what we do, plain and simple,” said Tumult. “No matter how good or bad we do, we keep playing. We keep competing because we know we can always do better. We’ve failed so much that it doesn’t hurt us anymore. Failing will never make us quit.”

The team kept training together throughout their formal schooling and were accepted to university on account of their marble rallying performance record, which, by the end of their senior year, was remark-marble. During their college years, the four began competing in regional marble tournaments alongside the Pinkies. They were the only team that was still in university that participated in the MFC Championship League and came very close to victory in 2014 with a fourth-place finish.

In 2015, the Marble League was announced as an international marble sports tournament. Three spots for the inaugural season were allotted to the MFC Championship League, and it originally seemed as if the Balls of Chaos would not get an invitation. The top three finishers, however, declined the invitation to stay in the MFC, and the Balls of Chaos were offered a spot, which they accepted. The Pinkies accepted their invitation after the fifth-place finisher declined, and, afterward, the third spot was ceded to a different competitor due to the MFC’s general lack of interest in the Marble League.

The Balls of Chaos entered the 2016 Marble League as badly as they possibly could have, with two finishes in dead last, one of those being a disqualification. The team finally reached positive points in the standings in the fifth event, Long Jump, where Clutter earned one point in seventh place. The team, notably, is the only team so far to have had less than zero points in the standings at the end of not only one event, but two. This was also their last event of the season in last place, although they were now tied with the Oceanics for fifteenth place.

The team had already started to turn the team’s fortune around in Collision and with Snarl’s performance in the Sand Rally, but they now continued in full force, earning at least one point per event until Quartet Diving, where they earned their third last place of the season. The Balls of Chaos notably earned their first bronze medal with Clutter’s run in the 10 Meter Sprint and their first silver medal in Team Pursuit. These two finishes ensured that the Balls of Chaos were out of the basement regardless of how the final few events went. The team placed fourth in Precision Slalom before going scoreless for the last two events and finished the 2016 Marble League in an impressive eighth place. In fact, the team was tied with the Jawbreakers in points but were just behind in medal count. Despite a rough start to the season, the Balls of Chaos, as promised, did better.

However, the 2017 Marble League Qualifiers were not as kind to the team. After staying in the clear for the first half, a fourteenth-place finish in Block Pushing and a ninth place in Funnel Spinning doomed the Balls of Chaos to the bottom four teams in the standings. The Balls of Chaos failed to qualify for the 2017 Marble League.

After making a brief cameo in the 2017 Marble League’s closing ceremony, the Balls of Chaos returned in the 2018 Marble League Draw along with the Rojo Rollers and the Kobalts, two of the three other teams that missed qualification in 2017. The Snowballs were the fourth team, but since they were chosen as hosts, they did not need to qualify. The Balls of Chaos placed into Group C for Qualifiers and soared, finishing third in Curling and second in the Snow Race and 5 Meter Ice Dash. 

By the end of the third event, they were already qualified for the 2018 Marble League and finished in their group with 25 points. This was the highest finish in points out of every team that participated in Qualifiers. The tournament was not without controversy, however, as Team Primary got into a fight with the Balls of Chaos during the Halfpipe event. Team Primary was not penalized for instigating the fight, but the team had already failed to qualify for their third Marble League. The Balls of Chaos, on the other hand, were just getting started.

Tumult started the 2018 season off well, with a fifth-place finish in the 5 Meter Ice Dash. Anarchy took that energy and, well, dashed off with it, earning a gold medal and setting a Marble League record in the Ski Jump. The team collectively earned a gold medal in Halfpipe, in fact improving on their appearance in Qualifiers, and rising into first place overall. Despite finishing in fifteenth in the Bobsled event, the Balls of Chaos remained in the top spot.

Team Primary’s return to the Marble League, in the form of Team Momary, admittedly threw the Balls of Chaos for a loop. “That’s something we would have never seen coming,” Anarchy admitted. “We may surprise our fans here and there, but that is something we would never think of doing—especially after picking a fight with another team.”

Fans wondered if the rivalry between Team Primary and the Balls of Chaos would resurface as a result of this, but it never did. However, the difference in the latter’s performance was readily apparent. The Balls of Chaos fell behind, placing mostly in the bottom half of the standings for the rest of the season. Anarchy rejuvenated the team with a silver medal in the eighth event, Snowboard Cross, and a return to second place overall. However, the team continued to lag in team events, touching down in seventh place before earning a bronze medal in the final event, the Sand Mogul Race. This boosted the team back to fifth place overall, the very same place where they started the 2018 Marble League and would end it in.

“It was a great first season to be a part of. We really put ourselves out there,” Disarray, the new reserve member, stated with pride.

Expectations for the Balls of Chaos were understandably high for the 2019 Marble League Qualifiers, with the team having finished in the top ten of the 100 meter Water Race. The Balls of Chaos finished second in Funnel Spinning and third in the Relay Race, which, with a few subpar finishes, was enough for the team to qualify for their third Marble League in seventh place. The Balls of Chaos, notably, were the only team from 2016 that missed qualifications in 2017 but qualified for 2018 and 2019. The Snowballs, unfortunately, missed the cut for the 2019 Marble League in eighteenth place.

The Balls of Chaos’ 2019 season played out similarly to their 2016 season—that is, it was underwhelming until the end. The team placed in the lower middle of the standings for nine out of sixteen events, earning between two and six points. Their most notable finishes prior to the penultimate event were a fourth-place finish by Anarchy in Funnel Spinning and a seventh-place finish by Anarchy in the Summer Biathlon. By the end of the fourteenth event, Surfing, the Balls of Chaos were in fifteenth place, ahead of the Oceanics with a comfortable margin of 22 points, but far out of reach from any place near recognition.

The phrase “it’s not over until it’s over” could be used to describe the outcomes of the next two events. The Balls of Chaos scraped by in the initial heats of Collision to move on to the quarter-finals, where they bested the Raspberry Racers by one point. They repeated this success in the semi-finals against the Chocolatiers, making it to the finals against the O’rangers. The latter team edged ahead of the Balls of Chaos to earn their first gold medal since the 2017 Marble League, but the Balls of Chaos earned their first medal of the season and catapulted into twelfth place, safely out of the basement.

The final event, the Sand Rally, saw many of the teams put in their captains, but the Balls of Chaos elected Tumult to run the final race. It turned out to be a worthy investment for the team, to say the least.

“This was the longest Marble League yet, at sixteen events. You might think that it would have taken a lot of endurance out of us,” stated Tumult. “but I felt a second wind, and I didn’t question it. I rolled with it.”

Tumult’s gold medal, the first in their career, jettisoned the Balls of Chaos into ninth place in the overall standings, just three points away from being in the top eight teams.

“Our team is anything but traditional; we’re wildly unpredictable in everything we do except for the fact that we stick together,” Coach Harmony declared. “Our 2019 season overall wasn’t what we wanted, but we promised ourselves that no matter what, we’d enjoy the ride and that at the right time, we’d give it all we had. And I fully believe we did that.”

As they prepared for the upcoming Qualifiers, the Balls of Chaos received an official letter from the JMRC inviting them to compete in the first season of Marbula One. The team accepted the invitation and was represented by Anarchy, “The Revolutionary”, and Clutter, “Red Hot Mess”, during the tournament.

Addendum

an addendum by Phoenix

The Marbula One season, beginning at the Savage Speedway Grand Prix in February 2020, was a rocky start for the two Balls of Chaos athletes, with Clutter qualifying in fifteenth and ending the race in eleventh. Anarchy didn’t fare much better on the O’raceway, netting the Balls of Chaos a single point after finishing the race in tenth. At this point, the team was standing in thirteenth position in the standings, but Clutter and Anarchy refused to give up hope so early on, hoping to pick themselves up.

This ended up turning out to be for the better, as on 26 February 2020, Clutter competed at the Momotorway Grand Prix qualifiers, and with a time of 21.05 seconds, qualified in second. The determination didn’t stop here; the Momotorway Race began with Clutter jumping ahead of rival Prim to take pole position, where they remained for much of the race. The race ended dramatically, with Prim and Clutter neck and neck before Clutter made a final push towards the finish line, earning their first podium and first Marbula One gold medal. With this win, they rose to sixth in the standings.

“Never stop believing,” Clutter said, after returning from the changing rooms well after the race ended. “You just never know when things are going to go well.” “I think Prim’s success had something to do with it,” coach Harmony revealed during a later interview. “You saw that drive hit the Balls of Chaos during the qualifying incident in 2018, they really just don’t like being shown up by similar-looking teams.”

This momentum, however, was even more short-lived than it was in 2018. Mediocre was the word to define the next several races, and the Razzway looked to be no different, with Anarchy starting fifteenth on the grid. However, in a truly chaotic fashion, Anarchy rose through the ranks after a track defect forced a race restart, ultimately finishing in a solid fifth. “Nobody knew what was going on, what with the track issues and the fan invasion. I wanted to give them an autograph, but the security marbles got to them first!” Anarchy joked in a press conference after the race. “However, it’s that confusion that helped me pull ahead. Nobody knew what to expect. I never knew what to expect, the fools were in my element now.” Clutter followed up with a final fifth-place finish at the Midnight Bay Grand Prix to cap off the season, allowing for the famous too-late-to-matter final surge the Balls of Chaos had become known for.

Their overall standing was ultimately ninth, which Clutter reflected wasn’t too bad but wasn’t desirable either.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but I feel like I could have given a bit more,” Anarchy admitted, after coming twenty-sixth in the individual marble standings. Clutter, comparatively, came ninth but remained beside their racing partner.

“We both could have, but you live and learn. And there isn’t enough time to reminisce, with Marble League 2020 around the corner.”

And the Marble League was indeed around the corner. Clutter and Anarchy headed back to Hunluen where they joined the rest of their team in training. The Qualifiers were set for June 18, 2020, and the team knew they would have to work hard in order to avoid the difficult start to the League that they had seen last year. The team reportedly trained daily in their training center, The Pandemonium, and while they weren’t necessarily strict about marbles not watching, the outside was such a hubbub of noise and marbles hurrying around, it was rare that anyone would bother going to spectate. During one training session, the team was reportedly challenging each other to races in the chaos just outside the stadium.

“There is no one way to train. As a team, we have found that the most effective way to improve is to mix it up and try a variety of things together. Even if they are sometimes a little strange to others,” Coach Harmony reasoned with one curious reporter.

At last, the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers arrived, with a fairly average performance from the Balls of Chaos. The first team event of Balancing was received with a tenth position. However, Anarchy stepped up to the challenge and with a time of 2:21.01, came in second in Funnel Endurance. A Block Pushing position of eighteenth and a tenth in the 5 Meter Sprint meant that the Balls of Chaos had qualified for the 2020 Marble League, with an overall standing position of seventh.

“We’re in it. That’s good,” Anarchy, the captain, told a reporter when the team was approached after the Qualifiers.

“Now we just have to actually do well,” Tumult piped up. The team laughed and rolled away, proud that they had qualified and ready for the League ahead.

The Marble League began decently for the Balls of Chaos, as the team picked up a fourth in the first event of Balancing. This start did not continue through the second event, where the team collectively finished Halfpipe in thirteenth. However, Clutter made amends with a fifth place in Funnel Endurance. Newton’s Cradle was a similar story to Halfpipe, and the team’s two chosen athletes, Anarchy and Tumult, ended up in thirteenth, bringing Balls of Chaos to an overall position of ninth in the standings.

Anarchy was set to compete in the next event, and although having already competed in the event prior, was confident that they could do well. And true to spirit, Anarchy performed admirably and picked up the Balls of Chaos’ first medal of the League, a silver. Anarchy’s best jump of 82.60 cm helped the team move up to fifth in the overall standings, about a third of the way through the League.

Despite this result, the performances immediately started going downhill from here. Snarl placed fifteenth in the 5 Meter Hurdles, and then the whole team only managed a thirteenth in Block Pushing. This was consistent through the next event, where Disarray placed thirteenth in Triathlon but was worsened by Snarl in the Sand Mogul Race with another fifteenth place. Following this, Clutter competed in the 5 Meter Sprint, and failing to recall the speed that allowed a podium during the first season of Marbula One, placed thirteenth. They had now fallen to eleventh in the overall standings, with only six events left.

“We’re not doing so well,” Snarl admitted to a group of reporters, disappearing suddenly before there was a chance for any further questions.

The terrible performances only continued, with a fourteenth place in the Black Hole Funnel, where Anarchy and Clutter competed. A short break for an average event performance came next, where the team managed to earn a ninth in the Relay, and then Snarl jumped 38.5 cm to reach eighth in the High Jump, but they just fell even further in the next two events. The Balls of Chaos came fifteenth in Team Aquathlon, and in the penultimate event of Collision, came twelfth. With one event left to go, they were standing in fifteenth place in the overall standings, only eight points above Mellow Yellow, the last-place team. 

A lot of pressure was riding on Tumult in the Marble Marathon, to try to regain some places. And Tumult didn’t do too badly, achieving sixth place at the end of the race. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough, and the Balls of Chaos remained in fifteenth place at the end of Marble League 2020. This was their worst final standings for a Marble League they qualified for.

“Yeah. Not our best go. I hoped for better. I expected better,” Anarchy told reporters, looking slightly downcast. They sighed and perked up, an edge of confidence and determination in their voice.

“We just have to pick ourselves up and try again. We’ll get there.”

The Balls of Chaos had done badly, but they didn’t let it dampen their spirits. They headed back to Hunluen, as cheerfully as if they had done well, though not so cheerfully as if they had won. But their cheerfulness was not an indicator of apathy, as they resumed a medium level of training soon after arrival, determined to do better the next chance they had.

Although their training was as rigorous as ever, the Balls of Chaos continued to adopt their unique style of inconsistent training, ensuring room for fun to keep them going. They met up with the Pinkies and had a dance-off, the blossoming of a new tradition and a somewhat friendship-rivalry mix between the two teams.

            “Oh…you don’t know what we’re talking about, do you? It’s a funny story. We saw comments on the Marblebase that were joking about a dance competition between us and the Balls of Chaos, so we decided to try it out. Come in—you can be the judge of the grand finale!”

While most of the team started a slow and steady preparation for competitions in the distant future, after receiving an invitation to Marbula One Season 2, Coach Harmony selected both Tumult, “The Tempest”, and Clutter to compete in the coming races.

On 7 November 2020, twenty teams gathered at the first qualifiers of Season 2, at Minty Mania. The Qualifiers carried new stakes with them; the athlete’s results reflecting both their beginning position as well as whether or not they got into the race itself. Though Clutter had competed in the previous season of Marbula One, this qualification process was new.

“I’m not worried,” Tumult told reporters, after watching Clutter leave to prepare for the first race’s qualifiers. “I know Clutter has done it before, and I haven’t, but I’m sure we’ll still do great.”

These words did not hold up for long, as in the Minty Mania Qualifiers, Clutter qualified seventeenth out of twenty and failed to qualify for the first race, a tragic start to the season. Despite this devastating start, Tumult failed to lose hope going into the return of the O’raceway on 14 November 2020, and qualified for the race in sixth. The day after, Tumult managed to pull back from sixth position, and in the second race of the season, the Balls of Chaos earned a bronze, just ahead of Rima from Team Primary. With this extra boost of confidence, Clutter qualified for the Honeydome in eighth and raced an average race with a final position of twelfth.

Tumult then performed similarly at the Aquamaring, with a qualification of eleventh, and then a final result of eighth, which dropped the Balls of Chaos only one position down in the standings to tenth. The team’s middle position would not last for long though, as in the next race at the team’s home track, Tumult Turnpike, Tumult devastatingly didn’t even qualify for the race, ending the qualifiers in seventeenth. 

“I started off fairly well,” Tumult recollected at the end. “I had some good speed. I reckon if I’d have kept that up I’d have finished high up, but I took quite a hard hit at turn 6. Completely slowed me down and there was no catching up at that point. It’s not a mistake I’ve made often, I believe I got distracted or something.”

As it was, Tumult was 0.451 seconds off the final qualification spot, which was taken by Speedy from the Savage Speeders. This low qualification place was consistent into the next race, where Clutter only just achieved qualification in the sixteenth place at Arctic Circuit, catching up a few spots during the race to finish the race. The ending of this race concluded the first half of Marbula One Season 2, and Tumult and Clutter swiftly returned to the rest of the team to resume team training.

As winter was passing, the team was thrilled to receive an invitation from the JMRC to compete in the Marble League Winter Special, a small and wintery version of the League during the off-season. While this was only a fraction of the size of the full league they were due to compete in later in the year, as a professional marble sports team they considered it important to keep a good reputation through any sort of competition that they did.

The Marble League Winter Special was set to have five events, and the Balls of Chaos would be competing against fifteen other teams who had all been invited over from the Marble League. The first event, the Ice Dash, was held on 3 January and featured a long straight ice track, reminiscent of the Sprint but without lanes. Anarchy was the first representative of the Balls of Chaos to compete in this tournament, and set the bar low for the team, falling back at the beginning of the race and then taking a wide-angle that finished them in the last position in their heat. Their time of 4.869 was only sufficient enough for fourteenth-place in the total standings, a disappointing beginning to the Winter League.

Tumult proceeded to then replicate this result in the next event of Snowboard Cross, where they were placed in Group A. With a track reminiscent to that of the Elimination Race, an event that the Balls of Chaos had only competed in once and ranked bottom of the standings, Tumult began the Snowboard Cross by very quickly falling to the back of the group, right behind Razzy from the Raspberry Racers. A small tussle mid-way through the race where Tumult momentarily went ahead of Razzy lasted only shortly and Tumult stayed in last, with a hard hit right near the end that forced them a whole 1.49 seconds behind Astron from Team Galactic, who had won the race. The Balls of Chaos achieved yet another fourteenth place result and fell to last place in the overall standings.

Snarl was up next, with Speed Skating, an event which placed the Balls of Chaos against the Snowballs, who had Snow racing for them. This event had the rest of the teams on the edge of their seats, watching Snarl a short distance behind the Snowballs during most of the race. Fortunately, Snarl pulled forward right at the end to finish just in front, but only achieved a standings result of thirteenth.

The whole team came together in the Bobsled, an event where they had previously attained a fifteenth place position back in Marble League 2018. With only two events left and sitting in last place in the standings, it was crucial that the team achieved a high result in order to try to pull themselves forwards. The Balls of Chaos were due to race first, and the team got into the bobsled at the top of the track filled with excitement and nervousness. Their performance was decent, with a fast start but slowing down at the beginning. It wasn’t the best they could have done, but they ended up in seventh for that event, bringing them up to fourteenth in the overall standings.

“I’m glad. It could have gone much worse but it didn’t,” Anarchy admitted after the event. Their teammate, Clutter, spoke up. “We’re still near the end of the standings, with only one event left, but near the end is better than the end, so let’s keep that up.”

True to their word, the next team event of Ice Hockey gave them a roughly mid-range standing of ninth, which kept them in fourteenth position overall. While they didn’t even get past the first round against the Hazers, they were fortunate to not place so low that they fell back in the standings. It was a disappointing finish, gaining only 23 points to end in fourteenth out of sixteen, but for Clutter and Tumult, who had only a short period of time before a return to the Marbula One Season 2 second half, there was little time to reflect.

Perhaps still affected by the knock of confidence from failing to qualify at the race they hosted, or distracted by the long gap over winter, Tumult’s return to Marbula One in February started with a flop as they also failed to qualify in the Raceforest, attaining a seventeenth place qualifier position. After the qualifiers were concluded, Tumult could be seen deep in conversation with Clutter and Coach Harmony, before Harmony and Tumult left together. Clutter was asked afterward whether or not Tumult was upset with how things were going.

“Upset? Well, not in the way you are thinking. They are certainly disappointed with themself. But Tumult is determined, I’m quite confident that we won’t see this happen again in their next race.”

In response to the less than favorable results the Balls of Chaos had recently achieved, Clutter put everything into the next race at the Momotorway, the track that during the first season they had claimed a victory at. True to consistency with this, Clutter successfully qualified in fourth and finished the race the next day in second, a boost to team morale that brought them up to tenth in the overall standings.

The next week, at Palette Park, Tumult entered the stadium with a determined expression that reflected the confidence given by Clutter’s last result, as well as two weeks of hard training and pep talks from their coach and teammate. Almost as if responding to Tumult’s anguish at having failed at the Balls of Chaos’ track, when on their rival team, Team Primary’s track, Tumult regained their impressive speed and at the Qualifiers, finished the solo run in 12.70, second place for Q1. 

“Wow, that was appropriately a chaotic run with loads of speed. It’s showing some of these other runners that you can take some chances and it may pay off.” (Greg Woods Commentary)

 Tumult fell behind in Q2, with both Yellup and Smoggy only just ahead, but regained this position at the very beginning of the third qualifying race, allowing them to begin the next day’s race in provisional second. The main race went similarly well, with Tumult only finishing the race two positions back from where they started, earning a fourth-place and yet again moving Balls of Chaos up to eighth in the final standings. It wasn’t a win, but Tumult looked incredibly pleased when they met up with Coach Harmony after the race, having made up for the lack of success prior.

However, it seemed like Clutter and Tumult’s luck ran out at this point. In the Misty Mountain Grand Prix, Clutter managed to achieve a pole position, after a set of very quick races. Despite this, tragedy struck on Lap 7 of the race, when Clutter narrowly missed the wall of the track when coming off the belt, and ended up forced down the Safety Marble lane by their momentum. The race was unsalvageable, but took an interesting turn in Lap 9, when Bumble of the Bumblebees took a very hard hit at Turn 6, causing them to stall in the middle of the track, deploying a yellow flag. The safety marble was released, and Clutter benefited from it, as they were able to return back to the track. The two approached the turn in which Bumble remained, before a collision from the safety marble at the turn caused Clutter to bounce back and get stuck beside Bumble. In the momentum of the race, the safety marble was unable to dislodge either of them and a red flag was called, stopping the race, and Clutter ended the race in sixteenth position, after being determined as a DNF. This disappointing last-place finish continued into the next qualifiers at the Savage Speedway, where Tumult returned from their previous decent finish and failed to qualify, ending the qualifier in twentieth.

There was one race to go, and the Balls of Chaos were in tenth position in the overall standings, a position in the middle of all competitors, and a mix of mostly very good and very bad results. In an attempt to better the position in the final race at Midnight Bay, Clutter eventually ended the qualifiers with a provisional position of second. Things were looking up, but the tragic twist in Clutter’s last race seemed to weigh on them greatly. It was perhaps due to this that the race went less than desirable for Clutter, and they fell back to finish that race in eleventh position.

The end of Marbula One Season 2 had arrived and the Balls of Chaos had come in eleventh position in the overall standings. This was only two positions lower than the previous season but was still not the top podium spot that every marble team hoped for.

“I’m surprised I did as well as I did, to be honest, as it felt like I performed quite badly,” Tumult told interviewers after. They had managed to place seventeenth overall in the individual marble standings, staying above the twentieth position through the entire season. Clutter attained a similar result, ending in twenty-fourth place in the individual standings.

“I could have done better. You always can, even if you come first. And we will if there’s a next time. I’m sure of it,” added Clutter, after a pause.

With the disaster of the Marble League Winter Special still hanging on to the team, they began training with passion. The team could be found daily in and around The Pandemonium, training hard for the upcoming league. For such a chaotic team, it was strange to know that they were dedicated to reaching the goal of the Marble League half a year away, so it was both a surprise and not a surprise to find out they had entered a new competition in the meanwhile.

“Cranthym Challenges,” Coach Harmony informed reporters after one long training session. “It’s not just marble sports, but also a lot of puzzles and that kind of thing.”

Cranthym Challenges was indeed a new competition, set to first be held in late March. A competition that required much more than physical skill from a marble, and the last thing anyone expected the Balls of Chaos to participate in.

“Aren’t you worried that this competition may take away your training time for the Marble League?” a reporter asked the coach while being jostled by the crowds outside the stadium.

“No, I think it’s exactly what we need. Clutter heard of it first and mentioned it. And I think the skills in it might turn out really useful for the Marble League, so we let a few other teams know and they seemed interested. Of course, it isn’t all we are focusing on, doing well in the Marble League is also important to us.” And with that, Harmony had vanished.

True to their word, the Balls of Chaos rolled into the new tournament of Cranthym Challenges with a confident and exciting outlook. It was new, and it was interesting. The word of the competition had spread around the Marble League teams, and the Balls of Chaos weren’t alone. The Opening of the Challenges was to take place in a very large hall called The Cranthym, which was filled with marbles from sixteen different teams. The Balls of Chaos’ dance ‘rivals’, the Pinkies were present, alongside the Green Ducks and the Kobalts. The O’rangers also took up the invitation, and not wanting to be bested by their rivals, the Savage Speeders also attended. These Marble League teams had taken very short breaks from their various competitions and activities during the offseason to compete, even though the competition itself was new and had a rather low broadcast and media coverage.

“There are a lot of teams we know here, who have somehow managed to take the time out of their busy schedules to attend,” Anarchy mentioned to a reporter near the team. “But also some less well-known ones.” They gestured over to a team in a light purple uniform. “Those are the Magusi, they arrived here at the same time as us so we started to get to know each other. Their captain, Mage, is very friendly.” And the Opening began before Anarchy was able to say any more.

The competition was made up of ten different challenges, where the team with the most points at the end was awarded the Cranthym Crown. The first challenge was a maze, and it didn’t go especially smoothly for the Balls of Chaos. The team somehow split up while navigating and finished thirteenth, earning no points. The Hazers won the first gold, a team called Team Strix got silver and the O’rangers snatched the bronze narrowly from the Savage Speeders. However, the Balls of Chaos refused to let this knock their confidence, and in the second event, which involved code-breaking, they placed first. 

The rest of the competition continued chaotically for the team, and with results jumping from the podium to mid-range to lower end, the Balls of Chaos gradually climbed the ranking. It was in the closing of the event that Balls of Chaos had managed to hold on to fourth position, while the third and second places were achieved by Team Strix and Hazers respectively. The first Cranthym Cup and Crown were awarded to the Whizlers.

Back in Hunluen, the team spoke to reporters.

“I’m so glad we did it. It was a blast and has really helped us work on our problem solving and teamwork skills,” Snarl was the first to speak.

“And we also did fairly well. I hadn’t expected us to, but I think we really found that our chaotic nature was very useful as we were able to be creative and experiment with all sorts of ways to solve things, rather than being fixated on one approach as some teams were,” Tumult added.

“We were only one point behind Team Strix,” Coach Harmony said while ushering the team inside to resume their training.

It was ultimately a success for the team, but would it help them with the fast-approaching Marble League 2021? On 14 May, a fourteenth place result from Tumult in the Marble League 2021 Practice Race suggested that the team certainly had a chance to do well, but the full league was coming and could bring anything.

In RetRollSpective, the Balls of Chaos have had a chaotic run in the Marble League, with two finishes in the middle of the standings, one in the top five, and one in the bottom of the standings. They were the first team to win two consecutive gold medals, as well as the first team to have a negative number of points in the standings. They also had a disorderly set of results in both seasons of Marbula One which resulted in two finishes in the middle of the standings. They have a distinct rivalry with Team Primary, but could not be any closer within their own team, which is reflected in their team medal victories. They, true to their Arms of Chaos, are representative of infinite possibilities by any means necessary. Although they seem to have had a fairly rough year, their inconsistent results are sure to lean in their favor again. Best of luck to the Balls of Chaos in the near future, keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: Phoenix, Stynth 
• Editors: Edu G.J., Mesp, Smacg13
• Artists: Jack Ironhide, Phoenix
• Graphic Designers: Stynth, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: Jelle’s Marble Runs, Phoenix
• Release: 02/11/2021

Hello and welcome to another RetRollSpective, where we reflect on the history of marble sports teams that have appeared in the tournaments of Jelle’s Marble Runs. This time, we’re going to focus on the Snowballs, the hosts of Marble League 2018 and inaugural champions of the Marble League Showdown. Read on to find out how this team has chilled the competition!

The Snowballs grew up in Hailfern, a small city on the coast. In their youth, the city was but a village known for its ski slopes, located in the valley a little way inland of the village. Snowflake, who would later become the team captain, lived on one of the ski slopes in an acacia log house with their parents, who owned the slope and named it after them. Snowflake Slope became a regional tourist destination for marbles who lived on the southeast coast of the continent. It is believed that the O’Marbles family came up there to ski each winter prior to competing in the Fruit Circuit.

Snowflake traveled down the slope and through the valley to attend school in Hailfern each day. They met Snowstorm and Snowblast through the school’s snowtubing club, an afterschool activity where they would travel into the valley and tube for fun. When Snowflake got older, they founded the school’s first ski team. The school practiced on Snowflake Slope and competed throughout the region.

The Hailfern Ski Team was competing in the regional finals in Blancouver when Snowflake received news that one of their parents had perished in an avalanche. Snowflake dropped out of the race that they were supposed to compete in and returned home. Snowstorm and Snowblast, to raise support for Snowflake, reached out to the other teams competing. The Blancouver Ski Team, headed by Snow and Snowy, donated their fundraising proceeds from hosting to Snowflake and their remaining parent.

Several months later, the Blancouver Ski Team visited Hailfern for a competition. Snowflake had already dropped out of school to help their surviving parent run the ski lift, but they attended the competition in support of Snow and Snowy’s team. The two, along with Snowstorm, visited Snowflake after the competition, and the four rekindled over their memories in the regional finals. They went out to the slopes, where they rolled together, cruising down the hill in sync with each other. As they ascended up the ski lift at sunset that night, they were ecstatic and promised to meet again.

Snowflake’s surviving parent supported their child’s endeavors in marble sports as they got older, which included team competitions. Snowflake eventually rejoined the ski team at their school, and upon graduation, was admitted to the University of Snoronto. They attended university there along with Snow, Snowy, and Snowstorm, where the four competed together in a variety of marble sports. Their coalition, which became known as the Snowballs, became rivals with the school’s other major coalition: the Gliding Glaciers, whose members were all from an island city called Glidavik.

“It was a friendly rivalry…mostly because they knew that we were better than them,” Snowy explained. “They were more chill. Everyone loved their personalities, but we knew how to dominate the competition.”The Snowballs became one of the most popular university teams on the continent, bringing international attention to Hailfern for the first time in centuries. The team’s incoming invitation to Marble League 2016 only added to the excitement surrounding them.

“We were a wildcard pick, plain and simple,” Snow stated. “We had to be. There was no way we were that good, even if we were performing well in the college leagues. It’s like we skipped the major and regional leagues of marble sports entirely.”

The Snowballs were revealed as the fifteenth team coming to the Marble League and entered the tournament as a counter-pick to more internationally recognized teams like Team Primary, the Rojo Rollers, and the Savage Speeders. They began the season by earning one point in Balancing and five points in the Relay Race, earning a technical bronze medal due to a defect in the top lane of the track. The Snowballs earned only eight points over the next ten events, going scoreless in six of the ten. The team finished their inaugural season in a disappointing fourteenth place.

The team entered the 2017 Marble League Qualifiers with high hopes, only for those hopes to be crushed. Despite placing eighth in the Relay Race and fifth in the Sand Rally, the Snowballs scored no points in the next two events and missed qualifying for the 2017 Marble League in thirteenth place, tied with the Kobalts. After two dismal performances, the team convened to discuss their future.

“It was obvious that we weren’t doing as well as we could have,” Snowflake confessed. “We realized that we needed a lot more professional experience. After watching some of the 2017 Marble League, we competed as an exhibition team in the MFC Championship League, which we had heard of from the Balls of Chaos. That experience prepared us for so much more success in the 2018 season.”

Back home, Snowblast had built up the Hailfern Ski Team to claim its first-ever regional title. The championship was amidst a rapid expansion of the village in business. One of the largest tenants included a construction company, Arctic Corporation, that was working on an arena and training facility for the Snowballs. The stadium was named the Arctic Circle upon its completion.

The stadium was located on the opposite side of the mountain from Snowflake Slope, facing the new city of Hailfern. During the fall of 2017, Jelle Bakker and Greg Woods visited the facility during their world tour, after meeting with the Royal Family of Snoronto. They liked the stadium so much that they offered the Snowballs the chance to host the upcoming 2018 Marble League. In their offer, the team would automatically qualify for the tournament and be able to hold themed events. The Snowballs accepted without hesitation and became the first team to ever host a Marble League.

The team did not appear at the Draw or at Qualifiers, which were held in the Arctic Circle. They recruited Snowblast as their fifth member for the Friendly Round, an exhibition tournament new to the Marble League that year. The Snowballs dominated throughout the tournament, earning first in both the 5 Meter Ice Dash and in the Halfpipe against series mainstays Savage Speeders, O’rangers, and Mellow Yellow. Could 2018 be their year to shine, and do so on their home turf?

Snow began the season strongly for the Snowballs, finishing fourth in the finals of the 5 Meter Ice Dash, and Snowstorm followed up their performance with a ninth-place finish in the Ski Jump. The team fell apart during the Halfpipe event, getting dead last in an event they had dominated in during the Friendly Round, and attempted to resuscitate their fall in the Bobsled event, an event in which the team placed seventh. The Snowballs dropped further to thirteenth place.

The team hung their hopes on Snowflake for Speed Skating, an investment that turned out to be more than worth it. Snowflake earned their first bronze medal against Ruzzy from the Raspberry Racers, which happened to be the team’s first non-consolation medal ever. The team rose to seventh place in the standings and faced Team Pursuit next. The event was on the same course as Speed Skating and was a team event, requiring the cooperation of all four team members for the third marble to pass. The team put Snowy in front and Snowflake just behind, making Snowstorm the third marble with Snow as the back marble. Their strategy and speed led the team to their first gold medal.

This, combined with Snowy’s fourth-place finish in the Snow Rally, placed the Snowballs second in the overall standings. These higher finishes during the middle of the season allowed the Snowballs to remain in the top half of the standings and as championship contenders, although the team did not return to the podium afterward. From the Snowboard Cross to the Sand Mogul Rally, the Snowballs earned 30 points to finish the 2018 Marble League in seventh place. They were tied with the Raspberry Racers in points but had a gold medal advantage over the team, and were just two points below the Hazers in sixth place.

The Snowballs’ improved season, competitively, was marred by tragedy. During a blizzard in Hailfern, an avalanche slid down the mountain and caused major damage to the Arctic Circle, destroying the stadium and severely damaging the Snowballs’ training facilities. The avalanche occurred during a break in the 2018 tournament, which meant that no marble was present in the stadium. Upon surveying the damage, Jelle Bakker and the committee decided to use the Bakker Bowl as a temporary stadium for the final event, the Sand Mogul Race. 

The Snowballs began rebuilding the stadium in early 2019, after participating in the two offseason events. Snowflake placed twenty-first in the 100 Meter Water Race and did not finish the race; they were the first marble to DNF. The Gliding Glaciers, notably, finished third in the race but announced their retirement from the Marble League shortly after. The Snowballs also participated in the Amazing Maze Marble Race, but failed to get past the initial heat and placed second-to-last overall. Things were not looking great for the Snowballs leading up to the 2019 Marble League Qualifiers.

All of the team’s struggles throughout the offseason manifested at the end of January 2019. The team earned only seven points throughout the first three events of Qualifiers, sitting in eighteenth place. Snow placed eighth in the Underwater Race, earning eleven points, but it was not enough to save the team. The Snowballs finished the 2019 Marble League Qualifiers in eighteenth place with eighteen points and did not make the cut for what would have been their third Marble League. The team’s accumulation of skills seemed to have melted.

“It’s something we really tried to prepare against, but we ultimately couldn’t overcome. We know we can do better than that.” Snowflake paused, seeming as if they were deep in thought. “Maybe if the conditions were fairer…”

This comment drew scrutiny from the Oceanics, who were upset that the Snowballs were blaming them for their poor performance. The Snowballs dropped the charges after being advised to do so by the Royal Family of Snoronto, who negotiated with the Royal Family of Dunduei on the topic.

The team learned shortly afterward of the Marble League Showdown and began training for the tournament in their training facility, which had already been repaired. The public heard little from the Snowballs until the 2019 Marble League Showdown, where they were set to compete against the seven other unqualified teams, two fan-voted teams, and two Hubelino teams. The Snowballs had a lot to prove in not a lot of time, and most fans were expecting the Snowballs to fall by the wayside in favor of the Rojo Rollers, Hornets, and somehow, the Shining Swarm.

The Snowballs’ Showdown showing was one that seemed to flash-freeze the competition. The team earned three medals, one in every event but Collision. Snowstorm earned a bronze medal in the Sand Rally, Snow took the gold in Funnel Spinning, and the team earned a silver medal in Balancing. The team won the Showdown and secured a spot in the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers. While training for 2020, the team received an official letter from the JMRC, inviting the team to compete in the first season of Marbula One. The Snowballs accepted and were represented by Snowy and Snowflake in the tournament. Snowflake’s acacia log cabin and Snowflake Slope itself were featured in the background of the team’s reveal poster.

Frostbitten

an addendum by The Emperor

The Snowballs’ debut in Marbula One would be marked with great success, as the “Coldest Comet,” Snowy, snagged a bronze medal at the Savage Speedway GP, becoming a member of the select club of marbles that had podiumed in their first-ever event in a competition.

“I think many questioned my decision to put Snowy in Marbula One, let alone the opening Grand Prix. Snow and Snowstorm had just come off of a successful Showdown season, and Snowflake has been our best Marble League athlete. But I think Snowy’s performance on the track today should speak louder than that,” Coach Blizzard remarked after the race. 

A week later in Orlango, the “Looming Storm” would get a respectable sixth-place finish at the O’raceway. Little did Snowflake know that those would be their last points all season. During the break between races, the Snoronto Royal Family held a meeting with the Snowballs organization. The Royal Family was attempting to finish the re-construction of the Arctic Circle, which had still not been fully rebuilt since its collapse during a break in the Marble League 2018. There was a lack of funding for the project, and the team would need to acquire some, and soon if the stadium was ever to be fully reconstructed. Coach Blizzard would stay behind during the next few races in an attempt to scour Snoronto for a manager for the team; one who could stay in Snoronto and help oversee the stadium reconstruction. 

This help would come from Avalanche, a genius marble that had moved to Snoronto recently. Avalanche was from Osnow, a city nearby to Stormholm. Avalanche had worked on designing several facilities and circuits within the area, including the Short Circuit and the Thunderbolts’ Training Facility. They had recently been hired by Mellospace Industries as a professional Marbula One circuit designer but were open to helping the Snowballs organization. Avalanche dedicated a portion of their income to the funding of the reconstruction of the Arctic Circle, and by the end of the Momotorway Grand Prix, it was finished.

“It’s amazing the difference a fresh mind can make!” Snow beamed, remarking on Avalanche’s wonderful turn around of the stadium. “We’ll finally have a great training facility to operate in again, and maybe we can use that to help us qualify for the Marble League this year!”

Meanwhile, Marbula One was still marching along, and Snowflake managed to grab the Snowballs’ first pole position of the season at the Hivedrive, hosted by the Hornets. Unfortunately, after a mistimed exit off of the Conveyor Belt, Snowflake would fall to fourteenth by the end of the race. They would only muster one spot better at the next race, the Greenstone GP.

“We’ve got to get our head back in the game,” Snowy said, following their teammates’ disastrous runs. “Avalanche has given us some blueprints and tips on how to master the Short Circuit, and I’m looking forward to giving their track a shot!”

Snowy did not qualify well for the race, only managing twelfth, but would freeze the competition as the race went along, and earned the Snowballs their first gold medal in Marbula One!

“Words cannot describe what that felt like…” an ecstatic Snowy exclaimed after the race. “What a race that was…I still can’t believe we won…wow!”

The team traveled next to Tumbletown, home of the Razzway. After a track invasion by the now infamous streaker known as Razzputin, Snowflake could not keep the teams’ momentum going, however, as they would place thirteenth again at the Razzway GP, knocking the team out of championship contention. But Snowy was undeterred nonetheless and secured their third medal of the season at Midnight Bay, home of the Midnight Wisps. This vaulted the Snowballs to fourth overall, and Snowy to second in the racer’s championship. Snowflake, in contrast, would only finish twenty-seventh.

“I just never felt like I could catch up to Snowy throughout the season…” Snowflake said. “Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to have been a part of this Marbula One team, and seeing Snowy on the racer’s podium brings tears of joy to my eyes! I just hope one day it’ll be me up there…” they said, nervously.

The team returned to Hailfern during the offseason to marvel in the glory of the rebuilt Arctic Circle, which they wasted no time in starting to train in for the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers. Snowflake looked to redeem themselves in the Qualifiers and would be selected to participate in the Sprint. However, their shaken confidence was revealed in full during the Qualifiers, where the Snowballs failed to qualify after their captain’s shaky performance in the 5 Meter Sprint.

“Three events into the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers, and they were in a comfortable seventh place overall. As far as they were concerned, they had made it,” former JMRC Member Stynth remarked. “The starting gate lifted in the 5 Meter Sprint, but Snowflake lost their balance early on and was all out of sorts. The captain of the Snowballs placed dead last in the event, and the team fell to fourteenth overall.”

            “I am so embarrassed,” Snowflake admitted, as their voice began shaking. “It was just like Marbula One…I just couldn’t do as well as Snowy. I know I’m the reason we didn’t qualify this year, and I will never forgive myself for that.”

The Snowballs, disappointed with their result in the qualifiers, decided to start their “ColdForGold” campaign with the Minty Maniacs, and supported them during the 2020 Marble League, starting a friendship between the teams.

“I had only seen before the heat began that some of the Snowballs fans decided to support our team.” Minty Drizzel said in an interview after funnel endurance. “It gave my teammates and me a sense of motivation that we have grown and are ready to compete with the big teams like the O’rangers and Savage Speeders not just for gold but for a championship. Once I got to the finals, let alone the final funnel, I knew what I had to do.” The Minty Maniacs would end up finishing 2020 in third place, their best Marble League performance to date with seven medals (four of which were gold).

The Snowballs would once again be competing in the Marble League Showdown in 2020, where they opened the season off with a fourth in the Relay Race, after Snowflake stumbled in the anchor leg, causing the team to drop.

This would be the Snowballs’ closest opportunity for a podium, as they did not fare well in the next three events, placing twelfth, eighth, and ninth in the final three events. The Snowballs would finish the Showdown in tenth and be under the presumption that they would be relegated for the next season until it was confirmed otherwise in 2021.

“I’ve been further considering relinquishing my role as team captain to Snowy,” a disheartened Snowflake said. “They’ve proven themselves a great athlete…and maybe we can do something in team events under their leadership…”

The team returned to Hailfern during the offseason. Following their disappointing Showdown season, the team unanimously decided to take a vacation to Winterpeg for a breath of fresh air. During their trip, they were joined by Stynth, who interviewed the team members on their recent performances.

            “It was amazing to do so well in Marbula One, but we felt all of this pressure after the tournament to qualify,” confessed Snowy. “As a team, we don’t do well under that kind of pressure, and we have accepted that.”

“The team made me realize that I was too hard on myself during this year’s Qualifiers,” Snowflake added. “I didn’t feel like I could lead the team when I was competing at my worst. But knowing failure is the best motivator to work towards success, and that has been the main goal of my leadership this offseason.”

            “We’re not giving up,” Snowstorm promised. “We did well in last year’s Showdown, and we’re aiming high this year as well. We’ve been making great progress on the Relay Run, which we didn’t do well in during 2019 Qualifiers.”

Shortly before the start of the second season of Marbula One, Snowflake officially appointed Snowy as the new captain of the team, hoping for a fresh new start and a good result in Marbula One. The team would select Snowy to compete again, and would this time be joined by Snowstorm, “The Unrelenting.”

Before the season’s start, Avalanche, the team manager, received a phone call from Jelle Bakker, asking whether or not the Snowballs would be interested in hosting a Marbula One race. Avalanche accepted the offer and would get to work on designing their best track yet: The Arctic Circuit.

The Snowballs would choose Snowy to represent the team at the opening Grand Prix; Minty Mania. After a disastrous qualifying and first half of the race, Snowy climbed into fifth place and earned twelve solid points. Snowstorm would have an up-and-down race at the O’raceway, climbing to third before falling to eleventh at the race’s end.

Snowy would score again at the Honeydome, placing seventh in the race. Snowstorm would pick up the team’s first DNQ of the season, failing to qualify at the Aquamaring.

Snowstorm would fail to qualify again at Tumult Turnpike before Snowy was chosen to represent the team at their home track, the Arctic Circuit.

“I just feel like this is such a monumental occurrence!” Snowy said before the race. “We haven’t hosted any competitions here since the stadium collapsed during the 2018 Marble League. And now we’ve got the crowds back in the stadium, it just feels like a new beginning for us all!”

The Snowballs’ fresh start wouldn’t be met with much success, as Snowy only scored one point with a twelfth place at the Arctic Circuit. At the end of the first half of the tournament, the team sat in fifteenth overall, with 23 points and no medals earned.

At the end of the first half of the season, it was revealed that the Marble League Winter Special would be occurring over the midseason break, however, the Snowballs would not be hosting the tournament. That duty would fall to the Minty Maniacs.

The Snowballs would start the tournament with a respectable sixth in the Ice Dash, where Snowy earned the team ten solid points. Snowstorm would not keep the momentum going, however, with a paltry fifteenth in the Snowboard Cross. In another edition of Coach Blizzard’s questionable coaching decisions, Snow was selected to represent the team in Speed Skating; an event that Snowflake had medaled in back in 2018. The inexperience showed, and Snow placed fourteenth.

Following a fifteenth in the Bobsled and eighth in Ice Hockey, the Snowballs would place dead last in the Winter Special, earning a measly 22 points.

“It was very demoralizing,” Snow said in a press conference following the conclusion of the league. “We came in as favorites due to being a snow-themed team and having hosted the last Winter League…and came out on the bottom once more.”

During the Winter Special, manager Avalanche had been busy at work designing one of the most complex Marbula One circuits yet: The Raceforest. The track had been built on the beach, meaning that it was extremely unstable, and its foundations were always shifting.

“I think it’s going to be a heck of a race, if I do say so myself,” Avalanche said, blushing. “With so many complex corners, it will make the best racing marbles shine, and I can’t wait to watch it!”

Snowstorm would represent the team at the Raceforest GP, and after qualifying dead last on the grid, they had their best race of the season; scoring 12 points and gaining 11 positions.

“It was a thriller!” Snowstorm exclaimed. “I cannot express how happy I am, to finally be living up to my teammate’s reputation, and score solid points!”

Snowy would look to continue the momentum at the Momotorway GP, where they qualified third. They’d finish the race in eighth. Snowstorm would fail to qualify once more at the Palette Park GP. Thankfully for the team, this would be the final time that the Snowballs failed to qualify, as they scored points in all of the final three races, with the majority of them coming from Snowy’s seventh-place finish at Midnight Bay. The team would finish the league in twelfth overall, with 57 points.

“It certainly wasn’t a spectacular season…” Coach Blizzard said. “But I think it was a good effort on the team’s part nonetheless. After our other recent performances in both the Showdown and Winter Special, a midpack finish is…quite welcome.”

The team returned to Hailfern as the season concluded, and trained their hearts out at the newly rebuilt Arctic Circle. Avalanche had built extra training facilities inside of the stadium, and the Snowballs wasted no time getting to work with them.

It was during one of these training sessions that Coach Blizzard interrupted the team with some breaking news. It had been confirmed by JMR that the Jawbreakers would be retiring from the sport, and would be replaced by the team’s old rivals from university: the Gliding Glaciers!

“I can’t believe it!” Snowblast said. “Based on what coach is telling me, the former team members won’t be competing anymore, but Glide has taken the reins as the team’s new coach! Oooh, this is so exciting!!!” They exclaimed, overjoyed.

As the build-up to the Qualifiers began, the Snowballs were invited to take place in a practice race between the teams. Snowstorm was chosen to represent the team and finished the race in a respectable sixth.

“I’m happy with myself and that performance.” A triumphant Snowstorm told the media after the race. “We’re feeling good about the Qualifiers this year…I know we won’t let our fans down again.”

In RetRollSpective, the Snowballs are a team that has come a long way since their first season win in the Showdown. They have experienced the loss and tragedy that life brings, but chose to fight through it all towards victory, all the while having “snow much fun” doing what they love. Best of luck to the Snowballs in the near future, keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: The Emperor, Stynth
• Editors: Bobert/Snowster, Smacg13
• Artists: Jack Ironhide, MSPN
• Graphic Designers: Spex, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: The Emperor, Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Release: 12/10/2021

Hello and welcome to another RetRollSpective, where we reflect on the history of marble sports teams that have appeared in the tournaments of Jelle’s Marble Runs. This time, we’re going to focus on the Oceanics, champions of the Marble League Winter Special and Marble Survival 100. Read on to find out how this team has drowned out the competition!

As veterans of the Marble League, the Oceanics have been a staple of the Marble League since the beginning. That said, like a wave forming in the ocean, the team originated out of nowhere. Aqua, Sea, Shore, and Ocean grew up as childhood friends in the cultural capital of Dunduei. They all worked at a surf shop in a nearby town when they were teenagers, which was odd because none of them knew how to surf. They all loved to hang out on the beach, but they weren’t so keen on going into the water unless they needed to cool off. None of the Oceanics learned how to swim until they were preparing for the Marble League, which is likely why the team has a subpar performance record in water events.

The friends discovered their passion for marble sports at dawn one morning, as they brought the surfboards out to be cleaned before the day’s rentals. On the way out, Shore dragged one of the surfboards in the sand, creating a long path. When Ocean brought their board out, they saw the path leading to the water, and decided to have some fun.

“I thought it would be like a slide. I always enjoyed going on the playground when I was a kid,” Ocean recalled to us. “The four of us have been friends forever. We don’t mind playing around every now and then. It’s part of who we are. So I went down the path, and I couldn’t stop myself. There weren’t any rails to clutch to. It felt so free, so exhilarating. I wanted to feel that feeling for the rest of my life.”

When Ocean reached the bottom, they told Shore about the racetrack they had found, and had Shore race down it. Shore knew that they had accidentally made the track, but they didn’t tell Ocean or any of the others about it. The release of this article will be the first time they all find out how it was made.

Needless to say, the friends were exhilarated. They decided to close the shop for the day, and test out the course, extending it until the point that it would be washed away by the tide. The day turned into another day, then the entire week, before Aqua made the executive decision to sell their surf shop and go into training. The friends never looked back.

The 2016 Marble League was announced about two years later, after the friends were already competing in the Seven Seas Circuit with other regional teams, such as the Turtle Sliders and the Balls of Flame. They immediately jumped at the opportunity, requesting to be admitted into the competition. But they froze when the application asked for a team name.

The team had previously been going as “Team Moana”, which means “ocean”. However, they feared copyright strikes from the Non-Descript Entertainment Company. Sea took it upon themselves to choose a new name for the team, considering “Team Liquid” before settling on the name “Oceanics”. It was straightforward enough to where fans around the world would recognize it, but so could the team members as part of their identity living and working with the ocean.

The Oceanics were admitted to the Marble League 2016 due to their success in the Seven Seas Circuit and traveled to the mainland to compete, ecstatic about the chance to prove themselves against teams around the world. However, the team went scoreless from the first event, where they received only one point, until the ninth event, Team Pursuit, where they earned a gold medal. The Oceanics’ morale was renewed, and they went on to get a silver medal in Quartet Diving (a water event) and another point in Hurdles before finishing the season in tenth place, which was better than any members of the team could have hoped for at the halfway point of the season.

They were determined to not give up, and rode their wave of eagerness into the 2017 Marble League Qualifications, scoring a second-place finish in the Sand Race and qualifying in fourth place. When asked about that preseason event, Shore remembered it fondly:

“That feeling when I went down that path, for the first time…I felt a hint of it again that day. It felt amazing. And we couldn’t wait to channel that energy…to raise the wave into Marble League 2017.”

Although the Oceanics started strong with the first event, earning a silver medal in Funnel Spinning and a bronze medal in the 5 Meter sprint, the team continued to struggle in consistently staying in the top half of events. They did have two consecutive fifth-place finishes, but a disappointing last-place finish in Archery spelled doom for the team. They finished in eleventh place with 99 points, unable to crack triple-digits, and shut out of the top ten. While 99 points looked better in writing than the 19 points they had accumulated in 2016, the Oceanics were dejected and returned to their homeland with little fanfare. 

Many saw the team as a staple in the Marble League by this time, but a staple that had never really seen success. It was at this point that the team came into contact with Tide, who was, at the time, promoting marble sports competitions in Mellacai, a major city in science and architecture. Tide personally reached out to the team and offered to train them for the 2018 Marble League Qualifiers. The team did not hesitate.

“I saw a ton of potential in them. I could tell they loved to compete, but they weren’t showing it, because they didn’t know how to. They didn’t exude the feeling that they wanted to be champions, but I knew they did. And I helped them work towards it.”

Tide bought the Oceanics outright, funding their flights to Mellacai and beginning training with them. During this period, the Oceanics stayed out of the public eye completely. Press releases surfaced detailing that Tide would coach the team, that the Oceanics were constructing a new stadium in Dunduei, and that they had hired Reef as their manager, but that was all that the public heard about the team until the Draw.

The Oceanics placed into Group B of Qualifiers and immediately surprised fans by placing first in Curling. The team did not finish the Snow Rally, but a fifth-place finish in the 5 Meter Ice Dash and another first-place finish in the Halfpipe event allowed the team to coast to the 2018 Marble League at the top of Group B. Their performance did not go unnoticed by the fans, as well as other Marble League teams. Pinky Toe from the Pinkies remarked,

“They weren’t competing in the past two Marble Leagues. Granted, 2016 was a rough season for all of us, but they never had a chance to come close to the top five last year. Do they this year? It might be possible. We better watch out.”

The Oceanics did not let up. They earned a gold medal in the 5 Meter Ice Dash, the first event of the main tournament, making an immediate improvement from their performance in Qualifiers. The hashtag #TidePride echoed their victory on social media, and their fanbase began to make waves.

Although the Oceanics missed the podium for the next few events, they were able to stay consistently in the top ten for all events but one. The Oceanics’ next medal was a bronze in Team Pursuit, an event for which they also set a new Marble League record during one of the heats. When asked about this, Aqua could barely stop smiling:

“This season has given me a wave of excitement through every event, with every time we get to compete, and doing so as a team is a particularly special treat. We’ve known each other for our entire lives and to get to do what we do together is a privilege. We take none of it for granted.”

The team did not fare well in the next two events, placing fourteenth and fifteenth, but regained their momentum in Curling, earning a gold medal and proving their dominance in the event, which they had already asserted during Qualifiers. A fifth-place finish in the Biathlon and a seventh-place finish in Ice Hockey kept the team at the top of the standings…until the final event.

“We got a little too headstrong,” Tide shook themselves in disappointment. “I thought we’d be able to pull through. If we had made it into the final heat of that last event, we would’ve been unstoppable.”

Ocean could not control themselves in the Sand Mogul Race. It wasn’t the same as the path that the surfboard had created, straight down the beach in Dunduei. It was contoured at different points, and they tried, desperately, to claw onto the edge of the track. Bouncing off it too much, Ocean finished in fourth of four in the semifinal race, meaning they would not make it to the final race. When the Midnight Wisps and Savage Speeders crossed the line in the next semifinal race, Ocean looked away.

“The Oceanics can still win if the Savage Speeders miss the podium and if the Midnight Wisps get bronze,” Greg Woods commented.

“But I knew. There was no way the Savage Speeders were going to miss the podium,” Ocean recalled. “Everyone on the team just looked blankly at me. Our fans fell silent. High tide was gone.”

About an hour later, the Oceanics took the podium for third place overall in Marble League 2018.

That night, the five team members sat quietly in their hotel room. After some time, Sea finally spoke up.

“You know, I haven’t lost hope yet.”

Admittedly, the team struggled for a few months to rebuild their morale. The Oceanics did not perform well in either of the two offseason events, but their training was not focused on doing well in either event. They began to train in the Seven Seas Stadium as construction entered its final phase, with Coach Tide, Royal Marina, and mascot Alvin supervising. At the end of the Amazing Maze Marble Race, the Oceanics were revealed as hosts for the 2019 Marble League. Mandarin from the O’rangers, allegedly, did not respond well to this news. A fan overheard them saying:

“You mean to tell me that after all we’ve done for the Marble League, the committee decided to pick a team that only did well last season to host the tournament? You know what, I don’t understand the committee. We should form the OMC: the Orange Marble Sports Committee. That’ll be less biased against us for sure.”

The O’rangers, in a joint statement, denied the validity of this statement, but Oceanics fans doubted the statement. A small rivalry between the O’rangers and Oceanics manifested.

The Oceanics won Funnel Spinning and the Relay Race in the Friendly Round and were able to edge out the O’rangers by one point despite finishing last in the Underwater Race. Fans began to question the Oceanics’ performance in water events, noting that they had consistently been low since the 2017 Marble League. We hope that this article can explain why.

As the 2019 Marble League drew near, however, internal changes began to shake the confidence and performance of the team. This would be the first season in which the Marble League actively featured its coaches by having them sit in the grandstand, and the officials ruled that it was a conflict of interest if the coach of a team was also an active member of a team. As a result, Tide decided to become the full-time coach of the Oceanics, and they brought on Bay to serve as the Oceanics’ new reserve. 

Interestingly, Bay had previously competed with the Oceanics in the 2018 Winter Marble League Qualifiers, appearing in the team’s record-setting first place in the Halfpipe. It was later revealed that they were recruited from Mellacai for their growing laurels as an endurance athlete and had to leave the team shortly after Qualifiers to compete in the Seven Seas Circuit. Bay revealed in an interview that Tide personally invited them back to the Oceanics in late 2018, a few months before the Friendly Round, where they competed in the Underwater Race.

That said, the rest of the team did not handle the transition well. “The team didn’t feel the same. Our mojo was thrown off because Tide wasn’t competing on the team anymore, and not only that: Tide didn’t coach as well when they weren’t competing on the team. Tide didn’t see where we were struggling,” Sea remarked in a postseason interview.

Shore added, “Tide didn’t see that we were struggling.”

Granted, this was not the only complication that the Oceanics had to face. The team also had to train for the three water events they would be offering and felt pressured due to the stigma around their low results in those types of events. As such, the team trained extensively for water events, and in fact, may have trained too much:

“I’ve seen a few fans complaining that we didn’t just do badly in water events; we did badly in pretty much every event,” Aqua acknowledged. “In hindsight, we didn’t spend enough time training for regular events. We practiced a lot of water endurance, trying to control our direction against the current and all. I can promise you that I know how to swim now. Unfortunately, I just didn’t get enough practice in the funnels or on the sand to succeed in those types of events.”

Other factors included the impending completion of the Seven Seas Stadium, which impacted the Oceanics’ ability to train before early 2019, as well as the declining health of Royal Marina, whose sickness would prevent them from attending any of the 2019 Marble League.

The first blow to the Oceanics’ morale came in the first event of the main tournament, when Ocean came last in their heat, in front of Royal Triton and over the commentary of Greg Woods, exclaiming “Oceanics, ah, they’re going to finish last again in an underwater event. They will not move on.” The team began the 2019 Marble League with three points, and throughout the next five events, placed in the bottom half in four of those five to secure the bottom of the standings at the end of the sixth event, Relay Race. The team was able to get out of last when they tied with the Pinkies in points at the end of Block Pushing but was still in a bad place by the time the tenth event, Maze, rolled around. Although the Oceanics managed to keep out of last, they were still in second-to-last place, only above the Pinkies.

“Suffice it to say that we were not impressed with the team’s performance,” Reef stated. “We didn’t consider being better than the Pinkies much of an accomplishment…until we weren’t.”

Although the Oceanics reached the finals in the Maze, the team squandered their high odds of medaling when they finished in fourth place. In the next event, the Dirt Race, Shore made it to the final race, but bounced off the course, finishing in seventh and returning the Oceanics to last place overall.

The Pinkies medaled in both events.

“Morale was at an all-time low for us…or in hindsight, it wasn’t even as low as it was at the end of the season,” Aqua said, dismally. “We tried to muster up what we had left during  Rafting. We thought we did well until ten other teams ended up doing better than us.”

That cemented the Oceanics’ fate in the season. “The Oceanics in the meantime, cruelly, they become the first team who will not be able to win the Marble League,” noted Greg Woods as the updated standings appeared on the scoreboard.

The next event, the Elimination Race, appropriately saw two of the Oceanics get eliminated—the team member who participated in the event, Sea, and the coach of the team, Tide.

“I was sitting near Coach Tide when they were removed from the grandstands. Reef and Alvin rolled over to us with a bunch of stadium security marbles, and Reef fired them on the spot. It seemed as if Reef had been planning to fire them for a time, at least for a few weeks,” one of the other team’s coaches, who asked to remain anonymous, reported. “What made it particularly awkward is that Tide owned the team, but Reef was the manager, and thus had the authority to relieve Tide of their coach duties.”

“I had to do what was best for the team,” Reef added. “Tide was our weakest link, especially when it came to training for the water events. We were going to wait until the season was over to make an action, but after the first heat of the Elimination Race, I lost my cool.”

So did the Oceanics fans—as they left the stadium, disappointed in their team for yet another poor result that would further rectify their season of shame. From there, Reef brought Lagoon in as the new coach of the Oceanics, while Tide’s hands were figuratively tied. Tide tried to fire Reef as manager, but this proved futile when the Royal Family got involved. With this, Reef was able to spark excitement and hope within the fanbase, inspiring the fans to return to the Seven Seas Stadium and cheer on their team for the last few events.

Regardless, the Oceanics’ performance in the 2019 Marble League did not improve, and the team finished the season in last with the worst points average of any team in Marble League history, punctuated by finishing in dead last in the Sand Rally. The Oceanics fans had already left the stands after the fifteenth event, but they returned to the stadium and swarmed the podium, voicing their disappointment with a bold sign that read, “NOCEANICS”. 

Despite all of this, Sea remained hopeful. “I still believe in our team, though. We hit rock bottom this year—there’s no denying that. But it was still an honor to host and to be a part of the Marble League for another year. That’s what matters above all, and to continue that, we’re going to work hard next year on ourselves—mentally, emotionally, and physically—to qualify and to prove our worth again in competition.”

The Oceanics started the 2019 offseason in the news, as an article surfaced regarding the team’s dire state of affairs. The article featured an official letter from the Royal Family of Dunduei, which announced that they had purchased the Oceanics in its entirety from Coach Tide. As part of the acquisition, the Royal Family now owned the Seven Seas Stadium and all operations related to it, hosting the 2019 Marble League Showdown and viewing events for the 2019 Marble Rally. The Royal Family allowed Reef to remain as manager and Lagoon as the Oceanics’ new coach, overseeing the team’s offseason training for the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers.

“This season has been one of the most difficult seasons that any team has had to experience. You need to have a clear and positive mindset to compete in a tournament as demanding as the Marble League, and between their stress in hosting, changes in coaching, and the loss of support from their fans, the Oceanics couldn’t do as well as they wanted to,”  asserted Reef. “It’s sad. And it’s even sadder that we let down our fans on our home turf. They had every right to be disappointed in us.”

It would be foolish to assume that we have seen the last of Tide’s influence in marble sports, and it would be even more foolish to assume that Tide is not salty about letting the Oceanics go, even for the amount of money they got for them. After all, it was Tide’s influence on the team that led to their best performance yet in the Marble League…along with their worst.

The team received attention yet again in late 2019 after all Marbula One teams were revealed and the Oceanics were not on the roster. An alleged leaked video claimed to reveal the real reason why the Marble League 2019 hosts would not show up for Marbula One. The clip showed Lagoon giving a fiery speech to unidentified Oceanics athletes.

“We need to build everything up from the bottom,” said the new coach. “We will not be caught off guard by an aquatic event again of all things… and that’s why none of you can leave the training grounds until you get over your fear of water.”

When asked if team management was blocking the Oceanics from joining Marbula One until the athletes resolve their hydrophobia, a spokesmarble refused to comment.

A Wave of Emotions

an addendum by NordiqueWhaler

After a dismal 2019, the Oceanics were attempting to put their struggles in the past. In preparing for Marble League 2020, they took an aggressive approach thanks to a stricter coach in Lagoon. Lagoon made sure the Oceanics would be pushed to the limit and then some. This would lead up to an intense water practice where they would have to overcome their ironic fear of water by swimming 400 meters with torrential rain coming down on them. The combination made Lagoon certain that if they could get rid of their hydrophobia the team would be ready to come back with vengeance in 2020, otherwise things could be just as bad as 2019, or maybe even worse.

At the 2020 Qualifiers, it was announced the events would be Balancing, Funnels, Block Pushing, and Sprint. Sea was optimistic that if they could get a great score in the Sprint just like they did in 2017 and the Ice Dash in 2018, then a spot would be certain. 

“I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out Sprint was in it this year,” Sea said in a pre-qualifier interview. “I’ve done well in the past for this including medalling twice. We’ve also podiumed in Funnels before so I have a great feeling we will be back.”

The Oceanics would start with seventh place in Balancing, followed by Shore’s fifth place in the Funnels. Already, the Oceanics were showing signs of improvement from 2019 as they were sitting in fourth overall at the halfway point. A slight setback of twelfth in Block Pushing sent them down to sixth overall with only the Sprint to go, but this was Sea’s chance to prove the Oceanics were back.

They delivered by getting the third-fastest time of any marble, falling only to Swifty of the Savage Speeders and Red Eye of Crazy Cat’s Eyes. The Oceanics finished the Qualifiers against all odds in third place with 54 points, 19 clear of the cutoff line, stamping their return to the Marble League. 

“After all we went through last year, it feels great to get a chance to prove ourselves all over again,” Shore said at the press conference after the Qualifiers. “Some already think we are bound for one of the biggest turnarounds in Marble history. Be ready for when the Oceanics #RideTheWave!” 

Few took that seriously, even with a top-three performance in the Qualifiers: the statement was greeted by laughs from reporters and other athletes. Wospy of the Midnight Wisps, who beat the Oceanics for the title in 2018, remarked, “It’s going to take a lot to shed that ‘Legacy of Failure’. Title heartbreak, medal drought, disaster in front of their fans, they have had everything that could go against them happen.” Rapidly of the Savage Speeders later added, “They have yet to rank ahead of us in four Marble Leagues, and they think this time they will? After the worst performance in Marble League History?”

The start of the 2020 Marble League did not go according to plan. It started with a tenth in Balancing, which marked a dubious distinction of 20 consecutive events without a medal dating back to 2018. The streak would only continue as chants of “Lolbut 2019” grew louder in the Andromedome as the events rolled on. Especially when the Oceanics finished last in the Halfpipe which put them at 21 events, at the time tied for second with the Jawbreakers in 2016-17. Finishes below the top five, and mainly in the bottom five, would soon follow and the Oceanics found themselves with history, one that they never wanted to be associated with. They tied the Pinkies for the longest medal drought with 26 consecutive events. With only one top-half finish, things had looked like nothing changed from 2019 to 2020.

The next event, the Triathlon would be a crucial point in the Oceanics’ season as it was the first water event. Shore was slated to go. Things were looking bright for the Oceanics early on as Shore led all the way heading into the water leg. That’s where things fell apart, as Foggy and Wospy would pass Shore late to advance to the semifinals. It marked another addition to the Oceanics’ legacy, another water event with nothing to show for, and a new record of 27 consecutive events without a medal. It was to a point where even Greg Woods felt the pain for them.

“The Oceanics take the top spot, desperately wanting to do good in a water event, for once. It must be this time, they have to think. Their coach has been prepping them like crazy for this, it’s more of a mental thing if anything. But they are going to lose it as they drop into the water. The Hazers come up first, will they lose second place as well to the Wisps? They’re going to try to block them, but the Wisps, more speed! They’re going to get by and they will advance. Agh. Shore from the Oceanics cannot get it done.”

―Greg Woods’ call during the heat.

It was at this point where the Oceanics felt like they hit rock bottom mentally. A new record of events without a medal, another failed water event, sitting in fifteenth place in the standings, and being mocked in the stadium. It had felt like 2019 never ended for the Oceanics. However, this was different and the next event, the Sand Moguls, would also change the Oceanics forever—the same event in which the Oceanics had lost the 2018 championship. This time it would be the captain, Ocean, going for them, seeking to get redemption from the heartbreak two years ago. They got off to a great start by winning their heat. Then things got interesting when Ocean received a boost from Green Eye in the semifinal, passing Swifty to advance to the final. In a close final, Ocean would hold off late charges by both Hazy and Minty Flav to secure a victory in the Sand Moguls. 

Finally, after 27 events and nearly two years of misery, the Oceanics had not only secured a medal, they had won an event for the first time since the Curling event of Marble League 2018. In their Podium Moments series, Stynth remarked:

“Ocean’s gold medal in this event symbolizes so much for a team that has been trapped in Davy Jones’s locker during the past two years. It may not symbolize a Marble League championship, and it may not even redeem the Oceanics of their collapse last year…but it does prove that the team has grown. After their fans left their home stadium in disappointment, after sitting at the bottom of the standings two events ago, and after 27 consecutive failed attempts to get on the podium, the Oceanics have done it.”

A teary Ocean spoke after the event. “This means a lot not just for myself, but for the team and the fans here and back home in Dunduei. After all, we went through the past two years coming closer to a title in 2018 than last year in general, and even the start of this season. We will always cherish this moment. The Oceanics are back!”

A big celebration happened after the event, and the Oceanics would ride a wave of positive energy into the next event, the 5 Meter Sprint. Sea, a historically fast marble, was slated to go in this event. Right from the start, Sea made sure to carry the momentum from Ocean in the previous event. They started by getting a second-place finish in their heat, just ahead of Bomble to advance. The semifinal run was one for the ages as Sea clocked in at 5.920 seconds, which shattered a Marble League record that Smoggy had set earlier in the heats, a record that dated back to the Yarble Yellers in the Knikkegen Marble League. As if the gold in the Sand Moguls wasn’t enough, the fans were back and rolling in excitement. Sea would advance to the final, but the quest to perform the rare double gold was dashed in a photo finish loss to Minty Fresh from the Minty Maniacs by 0.002 seconds. This resulted in silver, a second consecutive medal for the Oceanics after going so long without a medal, and also proved Shore’s statement from the Qualifiers correct, the Oceanics were amid a remarkable turnaround. They had already more than doubled their point total from the first eight events and passed their point total from 2019. And the run was not done yet.

After Bay and Shore settled for tenth in the Black Hole Funnel, the Relay was next on the schedule. The Oceanics were more than ready after getting two speed medals. With Bay taking Aqua’s place with the main team for the event, the Oceanics fired out of a cannon in the first heat by not only winning it but by setting a new record of 8.588 seconds. That record would later be obliterated when the O’rangers went sub-eight seconds in their heat. The Oceanics would later advance to the final by 0.051 seconds over Team Galactic. In the final, the Oceanics battled against the Savage Speeders, O’rangers, and Raspberry Racers, all former Marble League Champions. In the end, the Oceanics took home the bronze medal just barely missing out on silver to the O’rangers. For the third time in four events, the Oceanics stood on the podium, something that seemed almost unfathomable before the season. 

Shore talked about that four-event run for the Oceanics after the Relay “This will be something we will never forget. While it does seem a title is out of reach, the team will forever cherish this stretch as one of the best in Oceanics history. We are finally back!”

Aqua would later get a disappointing fourteenth in the High Jump, but most of the attention was focused on the next event, the Aquathlon. The Oceanics had been dreading this event for a long time. This version would be different as it was a team event and a bracket. It did not help that the Oceanics were paired with the O’rangers who had a 35 point lead in the standings. The only thing that mattered was if the third marble beat out the O’rangers’ third marble, the Oceanics would advance. 

The heat started and the O’rangers had a big lead heading into the water, but something magical would happen—the Oceanics suddenly caught up to the O’rangers. While the first two marbles to cross were both O’rangers, a swarm of marbles, mostly Oceanics, soon followed. After replay footage confirmed the results, the unlikeliest of outcomes had come to fruition—the Oceanics had advanced in a water event over the O’rangers. Everyone in the Andromedome including Greg Woods could not believe what had just happened that they ignored that the heat between the Midnight Wisps and Thunderbolts had already started. The Midnight Wisps would beat the Oceanics in the quarterfinal and eventually win the Aquathlon, but that was not the biggest headline from the event compared to the Oceanics’ exorcising their water demons. The event had been named “The Miracle in the Waves”. 

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Ocean said after the event. “We had been practicing for this event for a long time. Lagoon had prepared us for the day we could do well in a water event. The fact that we beat the O’rangers in it made it even more special.”

For the final two events the Oceanics finished in seventh in both Collision and the Marathon, but many fans caught some Marbula One potential when Ocean took the pole in the placement race. While the “Miracle in the Waves” didn’t push the Oceanics up the standings, it did have a fatal cost to the O’rangers, who lost all of their momenta and eventually choked away their 35 point lead and lost the Marble League altogether to the Savage Speeders. The Oceanics would finish Marble League 2020 in tenth place, and while it doesn’t seem like much, they felt better than some of the teams ahead of them like the Raspberry Racers and Midnight Wisps. After the closing ceremony Rapidly gave the Oceanics a card that said this:

“Dear Oceanics,
We (especially Rapidly) apologize for mocking you before Marble League 2020. Turns out you just had a rough 2019 and that was an outlier. You deserve to be part of the top tier of teams. Thank you so much for beating the O’rangers in the Aquathlon because we probably wouldn’t have won the Marble League again had that not happened. We are having a party to celebrate our championship before we head back to Vellis and we thought you should all come to join us since you are the most improved team.
Regards,
The Savage Speeders
Speedy, Rapidly, Swifty, Velocity, Whizzy, Coach Quickly.”

The Oceanics accepted the invitation and they joined the Speeders on the top floor of the Polaria Marble Hotel. The Minty Maniacs and O’rangers were there as well for finishing the season on the podium. While the party was mostly to celebrate the accomplishments of the Savage Speeders, every team in attendance had something to look back on in the Marble League. 

“I’ll give credit where credit is due,” Clementin told Sea at the party buffet table. “Your team was one of the bigger surprises of the season. When you beat us in the Aquathlon, it felt like we saw a team reborn.” Sea thanked and told Clem, “Even though your team didn’t win the Marble League, you still had a better season than fourteen other teams.” 

The Oceanics also congratulated the Minty Maniacs with Ocean telling them, “Your team gave us hope and the motivation not just to us but to other teams that anyone can contend with the big names. It was an honor to share two podiums with the Minty Maniacs.”

The next day the Oceanics flew home to Dunduei. While there was no big fanfare, a small group of fans welcomed them back after a decent Marble League. They eventually took some time off to relax after a long tournament. One day Stynth came by to Neptune Island to visit the Oceanics and reminisce on some of the best moments from Marble League 2020. Sea went straight to the Aquathlon for their favorite moment. 

“We beat the O’rangers in a water event,” Sea repeated. “Yeah, I still can’t believe it. We needed that moment as a team. It was the vindication that proved that we had progressed past our low point last year. I’m not so sure if we’re at our high point yet…and I don’t want to know yet.”

~from “Offseason Moments – ML2020 Part 2”, by Stynth

Stynth handed Ocean an envelope courtesy of the JMRC that said “For Reef (secret)” before they left and told them not to open it until Reef got it. The next day Ocean met up with Reef to give them the envelope. Reef read the letter inside, which said:

“Hello, Reef,
We are going to announce a 20-team Marbula One Season 2 and we would like to extend our invitation to the Oceanics to not only join but to host one of the races as well. We know the pressure of hosting caught up to your team last time but we think it would be better to tell you in advance because you would need to renovate one of the tracks in the regions. Let us know if you can host since Greg, the JMRC, and all of the teams would love to return to Dunduei. Please let me know if this will work for hosting.
Sincerely,
Jelle”

Reef did tell Lagoon about the season coming up and they had no trouble selecting which two marbles would represent. Both of them agreed that Ocean and Sea would be the two representatives since Ocean was the Captain and took pole during the Marathon while getting a top-half finish, and Sea was known for speed, especially in Sprint events.

The problem was what to do with hosting. The Oceanics’ track they had used in the last few Seven Seas Circuits, the Shore Path, was not up to Marbula One standards and had a smaller capacity for attendance. There was a track nearby named the Aquamaring but it hadn’t been used in over a decade and was sitting near Seven Seas Stadium. They thought about using another track nearby, either Check Em Circuit or Hatchling Highway, but felt it would lose the charm of Dunduei.

Instead, the Oceanics decided to buy the Aquamaring and started a massive renovation project, with the help of volunteers across the region. While that was going on the Balls of Flame offered the Check Em Circuit for the Oceanics to practice racing on until the new track was ready. Thanks to all the marbles that helped fix up the Aquamaring, the track was ready in time to host a future race. 

When the official announcement came out, the track was announced as the fourth GP on the schedule. A massive crowd came out at a ceremony at the new track that featured former teams that used to compete in the Seven Seas Circuit including the Stingrays, Golden Seals,  Blue Dolphins, and Team Terra, the latter of whom is still competing but in Pesky’s Marble Championship, as well as some active teams from the Seven Seas Circuit including the Balls of Flame, Archerfish, Tiger Sharks, and Yarrbles. The Turtle Sliders were not in attendance due to another commitment but their youth team, the Hatchling Skidders, represented them. For the opening day, which also happened to be on the same day as Minty Mania, a friendly race was held between the teams before the fans all got to watch the live race take place.

Meanwhile, Lagoon sent Sea to compete in the Minty Mania GP, thinking their speed would pair well with the short track. Sea started near the back in fourteenth but got as high as fifth place late in the race before slipping down to eighth. Nevertheless, the fans were excited and ready to return when Marbula One came to the Aquamaring.

“It’s an alright start, but Marbula One is a completely different atmosphere compared to track events,” Sea explained after the race. “Now that I got a taste of what it’s like I will train harder to compete for top finishes and maybe a fastest lap or two.”

Ocean would race at the O’raceway and barely qualified as the last marble in the race. The race was not much better as they would finish in fourteenth. The next race at the Honeydome was even worse as Sea, a marble best at sprints, would lose energy and fall behind fast, eventually finishing dead last. This was the last thing the Oceanics needed before hosting their race with visions of 2019 coming back to haunt them. 

At last, it was time for the Aquamaring to host its first Marbula One race. The track looked completely unrecognizable from its old Seven Seas Circuit days and presented a challenge for marbles. It included a wave section, a steep drop, and a large straightway with an attenuator prime for passing. Ocean would go as the captain and clocked in a 21.338-second lap, good enough for seventh in Q1. Shortly after, disaster struck on the track.

“What happened there? Yellup is gone!”

~Greg Woods

Yellup from Mellow Yellow went into the ramp at a bad angle and went down it fast enough to bounce over the edge and off the track entirely. Medics rushed to Yellup’s attention and sent them straight to Dunduei hospital. Before Q2 began, track officials built a small barrier to prevent marbles from jumping off the track at the end of the ramp. In the meantime Ocean finished second in Q2, trailing only Pulsar from Team Galactic. Then in Q3 Ocean would win the two-lap showdown with Billy, Pulsar, and Bolt to take home pole position. The crowd, who were incredibly depressed just a year and a half ago after their team finished dead last, were ecstatic at the sight of their captain earning the pole for the race.

Ocean talked about that moment, “And I thought winning the Sand Moguls was one of my favorite moments. Even though it wasn’t the race, it was a redemptive moment to come home and perform strongly in front of our fans who have waited long enough for top performances. They have been with us through good times and bad and we thank them all for their support. Let’s keep it going for the race tomorrow!”

After the qualifiers, Ocean, and the other eighteen marbles from the qualifiers went to check up on Yellup at the hospital. Amazingly, Yellup only suffered from minor injuries and would be allowed to compete again two weeks later. Yellup was thankful that the injuries weren’t serious and that all the marbles came by to make sure they were alright. 

Unfortunately, the pole did not correlate to success on the track as Ocean would finish in ninth. The track became another stomping ground on the Crazy Cat’s Eyes’ domination tour as Red Eye would make JMR history, winning with the largest margin at the time of 2.9 seconds, and the Crazy Cat’s Eyes became the first team to win four consecutive medals in any tournament. The track’s first Marbula One podium consisted of Red Eye, Bolt, and Cerulean, whose podium photo would be put up in the track’s concourse. 

Things only got worse from there as Sea, despite making it to Q2 at Tumult Turnpike, again became tired late in the race and finished dead last for the second consecutive time. Ocean did improve on the Oceanics’ past five races and finished in the best placement so far… seventh. At the halfway point the Oceanics were in an embarrassing seventeenth place, with Ocean and Sea 24th and 30th in the racer standings. Their Marbula One inexperience could not be used as an excuse either as the Crazy Cat’s Eyes, another team that had no prior Marbula One experience, was dominating the season. They couldn’t even say they were better than the Limers at the time as even they ranked ahead of them. The Oceanics felt almost as bad as they did in 2019. 

Sea would talk about their poor finishes in the last two races, “It has not been the season we had hoped it to be so far. It’s also a big change in the competition considering this is both speed, skill, and endurance all wrapped into one. Still getting used to the distance adjustment, to go from 5 Meter heats to full-blown raceways has been a big jump.”

While on vacation in Hailfern, the Oceanics received an invitation to participate in an invitational Marble League Winter Special in the Himarblelayas that would be hosted by the Minty Maniacs. Lagoon and Reef informed the team about the details, and without hesitation, all members signed up to join the Special. Even though it wasn’t for another few weeks, they were able to practice in Hailfern for the events that would appear in the Special. The five events that were slated for the Special were the Ice Dash, Snowboard Cross, Speed Skating, Bobsled, and Hockey, all of which had appeared in Marble League 2018. Lagoon set out a goal: to not just return to the podium but to win the Championship. Knowing that the Oceanics had their best season in 2018, they told the team this:

“I was not a member of the Oceanics then, but I saw their potential in the Winter Marble League that year. This is going to be our best chance to prove that it was not a fluke and that we could be over our past misery. I believe in all five of you and you have shown resilience in Marble League 2020. That is why our goal for this five-event Winter Marble League is to bring home a trophy.”

Lagoon doubled down on their statement by showing a picture of the champions’ sign that each of the past champions has. After showing all five a sixth one was shown, but this was different. Instead of seeing teams like the Savage Speeders or the O’rangers on it, this one was blank. Lagoon said, “See that? That will be us.” 

That hit the Oceanics hard, but they knew it could be done. 

In early 2021, the Winter Special began. The entire top ten from both the Winter Marble League in 2018, as well as the top ten in Marble League 2020, all appeared. Every team except the Chocolatiers and Pinkies, who were in their new uniforms, had all come from Marbula One. The first event was the Ice Dash, an event Sea won back in 2018. However, Shore ran this event instead. Shore was paired in the group of death which included both the Midnight Wisps and Savage Speeders, who had finished ahead of the Oceanics in 2018, along with Starry, one of the top marbles in history. Shore finished last in the group and thirteenth overall.  

Sea explained the team’s plan after Shore’s performance to Marble Sports Films: “This is a time where you can’t fall behind early on. We need to get up in the standings quickly, or else we’ll be too far behind. We’re disappointed in the results today. We know that we haven’t been doing too good lately and the fans deserve better. It’s time we give them better.”

Aqua was up in the Snowboard Cross, in which the Shore had finished in 15th in 2018, their worst event that year. They were already guaranteed a better placement than that by advancing in their heat alongside Hazy. Then in the semifinal, Aqua was last just past the halfway part of the race, before a late surge sent them straight to the lead, just barely over Bolt from the Thunderbolts in a photo finish. While the two were preparing for the final, Razzy, who was eliminated in the same semifinal, told Bolt this:

“Clem told me that the Oceanics had become a better team even more than what they were in Marble League 2020. Now that I have seen it here as well, I believe they could steal a podium in this tournament.” Bolt rolled in agreement.

In the final, Aqua was up against Bolt, Hazy, and Astron. After a tight battle with Bolt in the semifinal, the two were at it again, and it came down to one of the closest finishes in the history of Marble Sports. When the results of the photo finish came in, Aqua had won the race by 0.005 seconds over Bolt for gold. This sent them up to second in the standings.

“I had never been so tense in my life,” Aqua said after the event. “The semifinal was already a close result and with the final, Bolt and I were almost together during the whole event, I tried to go ahead with whatever I had left at the end. Waiting for that photo was so nerve-racking, but then very relieving when I found out I won. Credit to Bolt, they ran a great race, and the Bolts will be great rivals for this tournament.”

The Oceanics would send their captain, Ocean, for Speed Skating. Paired with rising star Minty Fresh, the two would battle with impressive times and at the end both of them would podium, both of them breaking Misty’s record time from 2018. Ocean would rank ahead of Minty Fresh. Their record would later be broken by Thunder, but the silver medal would be enough to put the Oceanics in first overall for the first time in three years. Now the pressure was on—could the Oceanics hold on in the final two events to win a championship that they so desperately coveted? The early answer was yes, as the Oceanics continued their run by getting a bronze in Bobsled. The lead was now twelve points over the Thunderbolts. The Hazers, O’rangers, Minty Maniacs, Team Momo, and the Green Ducks were the other teams that could challenge the Oceanics’ spot for a championship heading into the final event, Ice Hockey. 

The format would be a fixed bracket based on the standings. The Oceanics would be paired with the Chocolatiers. If they were to defeat the Chocolatiers, the championship would pretty much be theirs for the taking. However, the Chocs played spoiler in the event, scoring the only goal of the entire match in overtime. This now meant the Oceanics had to rely on other teams to backdoor their way to a title. 

Help came from the Snowballs, who knocked out the second place Thunderbolts in the first round. The Speeders also chipped in by eliminating the Green Ducks while Team Galactic ended Team Momo’s long-shot bid. The O’rangers and Minty Maniacs played each other so it guaranteed one of them would be out and that would be the Minties. Team Galactic derailed the Hazers’ shot as well, meaning that only the O’rangers could pass the Oceanics if they took home gold. They would be playing their Fruit Circuit rival, the Raspberry Racers, in the semifinal. 

The Racers thought about the Oceanics fans who they remembered after they stormed the arena in anger after Marble League 2019. They wanted to help them in whatever way they could. In a battle between two former champions, it would be the same team that won in the year the Oceanics hosted their worst nightmare, the Raspberry Racers, that would give the Oceanics their biggest gift ever by defeating the O’rangers 3-1 in the semifinal to deny the O’rangers the championship.

What seemed like the unlikeliest of scenarios two years prior had come into fruition—the Oceanics had won a Championship! The Razzies would end up winning the event, but all the attention was on the Oceanics. They had ended their “legacy of failure” and were able to redeem the heartbreak in 2018 and all of 2019 with a trophy. It was a dream come true for all of the members of the Oceanics. The Oceanics would share the podium with the O’rangers and Hazers, both of them congratulating the team on a successful and stunning run, with Clementin tipping their O’rangers hat to the Oceanics as a sign of gratitude.

Clementin told Ocean on the podium, “I tip my hat to you, one champion to another.” The Raspberry Racers who just missed the podium also came by to congratulate the Oceanics.

The team went straight to the fans to celebrate their achievement. The fans not just in the Oceanics section but around the stadium were giving the Oceanics a rolling ovation. The Oceanics anthem played over the loudspeakers before teams returned to the locker rooms. At the press conference following the closing ceremony, the team talked about the mini-tournament.

“Is this real?” Ocean asked the reporters. “I had to feel this trophy to make sure this was not a dream. Anyway, this tournament meant everything for the team. Even though it was not an official Marble League, this victory shows how far we have come. We can’t wait to add another one.”

“First off props to the O’rangers, Hazers, and all the other teams on such a great tournament even on short notice,” Lagoon said, starting their briefing. “From the time I took over I knew this team had the capabilities of winning more than just an event or two, they had the potential to win a championship. Today was the day that confirmed my belief in these marbles. They persevered against their past, took on the best of the best, got three medals out of it and a trophy. The fans here and back home in Dunduei stayed loyal through our trying times and we are going to reward them for their loyalty.”

The next day the Oceanics returned to Dunduei with a crowd gathered around. A special ceremony was held inside Seven Seas Stadium to honor the champions, with Royal Triton declaring that day to be “Winter Marble League Champions Day”. A large banner that said “Winter Marble League Special Champions 2021” was hung next to the podium banner from 2018. A few Seven Seas Circuit teams made an appearance to honor the Oceanics including the Balls of Flame, Team Terra, and the Archerfish. It would be a moment the Oceanics would cherish forever. 

Momentum from the sudden championship did not carry over into the second half of Marbula One. The next two races had Ocean finish twelfth at the Raceforest and Sea finishing tenth at the Momotorway, though the latter was able to get the fastest lap at the end of the Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the next two races proved to be the Oceanics’ downfall as both members would fail to qualify at Palette Park and Misty Mountain.

“It’s unfortunate not to be out there for the race,” Sea spoke after failing to qualify. “When you are one of the four marbles to be tossed aside, it hurts you on the inside. All it could take is to be just a bit faster or not to make a mistake then all of a sudden you are off the grid.”

Ocean would get one last chance to impress at the Savage Speedway. There they would start on the second row behind two of the fastest marbles in Marbula One history: Red Eye, who was leading the Racer standings, and Speedy, who won the Racer championship last season. Ocean would start the race strong and be in second, 0.67 seconds behind Red Eye at lap four. Ocean was running the race of their life and was one of the fastest marbles on the track. There was just one problem—Red Eye. Their lead over Ocean would soon grow into unthinkable margins—2 seconds, 4 seconds, 5 seconds, 6 seconds. It ended up being a final margin of 8.18 seconds. Ocean could hardly believe what they were seeing from Red Eye. “That’s impossible,” they thought. Red Eye would eventually demolish the record and win by 8.18 seconds. While Starry had a late run to steal second, Ocean held off Prim for the bronze, earning the Oceanics’ first medal in Marbula One.

“I wanted to make sure this would not be a repeat of that one year,” Ocean told reporters after the race. “I knew winning the race was out of the question once Red Eye started to pull away, but we now have a bronze medal out of this season so it wasn’t a true disaster of a season. I still can’t get over how dominating Red Eye was. That may be something none of us will forget, and to share a podium with them, they have 100% earned the championship. Congratulations to both Red Eye and the Crazy Cat’s Eyes on one of the best seasons in history.”

The medal would put Ocean in the top half of the Racer standings in nineteenth. Sea would finish ninth in the final race at Midnight Bay, which put them 36th in the Racer standings. The Oceanics finished a dismal seventeenth place, their lowest placing in a tournament so far. 

Lagoon talked about the season for the Oceanics “Yeah, maybe Marbula One is not our strong suit. We did get a good race as well as a pole, but seventeenth is not acceptable for any of us. We hope to participate again, but who knows if we’ll get invited back. At least we’ll have the Winter Special Championship to look back on during this stretch.”

After the long season, the Oceanics took a week off to relax for a bit following Marbula One Season 2. They all met up at Ocean’s residence, which has a private coast. While they were relaxing and reminiscing on how they did over the past few years, a strange sound was heard. “We’re going to make it this time!” said one marble. “You’ll be Shell Shocked”. It was Frank and the Turtle Sliders who brought some fans over to promote awareness of the team. An announcement was made prior that allowed the Sliders to compete in the Marble League 2021 Qualifiers, alongside the Limers and Snowballs and two new teams, the Gliding Glaciers and Solar Flares, who normally would not have had a chance to qualify. The Turtle Sliders kept going by the next few days shouting the same message.

The next week, the Oceanics would fly to Felynia. Before the Qualifiers were to begin, a practice race was held just outside Felynia in the Cat’s Dunes. Ocean took part in this race and finished in tenth place, 4.38 seconds behind Indie from the Indigo Stars. It was a nice warm-up and it allowed them to compete against the Turtle Sliders for the first time since their Seven Seas Circuit days. Ocean and Crush spoke after the race to catch up on all that had happened since they had last competed against each other. During the draw, the two hoped they would be placed in the same group. The Oceanics were slated to be the sixth team to be selected, and Lagoon drew a red ball with the letter A, meaning they would be placed in Group A. A little while later with five teams remaining, the Turtle Sliders were up, and with two A balls and three B balls remaining, Splint drew a yellow B-ball, sending the Sliders to Group B. The two would not have a chance to compete in the same group, but hoped they could compete together in the Marble League if they both made it… or the Showdown if they both failed but they didn’t mention that.  

In RetRollSpective, the Oceanics are a team that has reached high tide—and crashed to low tide—in the Marble League fanbase, then rose again and fell again. We still “sea” great potential in the future of the team now that they have a championship and hope that their worst days are behind them. Best of luck to the Oceanics in the near future, keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: NordiqueWhaler, Stynth
• Editors: Fouc, Smacg13
• Artists: Betawolfs, Jack Ironhide, Piney
• Graphic Designers: Fouc, Novawolf, Spex, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: The Emperor, Jelle’s Marble Runs, NordiqueWhaler
• Release: 05/10/2021

Hello and welcome to another RetRollSpective, where we reflect on the history of marble sports teams that have appeared in the tournaments of Jelle’s Marble Runs. This time, we’re going to focus on the Thunderbolts, the third-place finishers of Marble League 2016. Read on to find out how this team has stormed the competition!

Bolta, Bolto, Boltu, and Bolty, the four original members of the team, are all from the twin cities of Thorston and Stormholm. They met at a mythology convention in 2012 where they all dressed up as mythical creatures of the sky. When they tried to communicate with each other, each realized that they couldn’t speak. Through roll language, they found several things in common including their affinity for racing. Each member had aspired to compete in marble sports, but their inability to speak made it difficult to find a team. Upon meeting each other, the possibilities flooded in and they began planning for their athletic careers. No sooner had the four left the convention that they had already decided on their team name: the Thunderbolts.

The team joined the Knikkegen Marble League later that year and rose through the ranks, peaking at second where they finished in 2014 and 2015 behind the Screw Blades and Team Primary respectively. The team became known as one of the fastest teams in the league, and by the time the 2016 Marble League was announced, was one of the top teams alongside Team Primary and earned an invitation to the tournament. The Thunderbolts did not want to be known as “the team that couldn’t talk,” but as “the team that always shocked the competition.” And that they did; the Thunderbolts’ achievements in competition prove that any marble can overcome adversity and shine on the podium. Regardless, this did not mean that the team members had easy lives. It was only after three years of competition that the Thunderbolts allowed interviews with the press, where the now-former team members disclosed this information with us. We hold the utmost respect for them for sharing.

The Thunderbolts had a banner year in the 2016 Marble League. They struck quickly, earning their first medal during the second event when the team took a bronze medal during the Relay Run. They followed that up by claiming their first gold medal in the Collision event and rose to first place overall. Another silver came after Bolta reached 97.6 cm in the fifth event, Long Jump, and a fourth medal followed via a bronze in Team Pursuit. In the final event, they added one more medal, a bronze in Hurdles, to finish with five medals in twelve events. While much of the attention seemed to focus on the close win of the Savage Speeders against Mellow Yellow in that final race in Hurdles, few viewers noticed that Bolto was just two-hundredths of a second behind Yellup, 5.36 versus 5.34 for the latter. Up until the Hurdles event, the Thunderbolts had been in between first and second place since the fifth event, but at the end of the 2016 Marble League, the Thunderbolts fell to third overall: tied with Mellow Yellow in points, but just behind them in medals.

The Thunderbolts automatically qualified for the 2017 Marble League by way of their third-place finish in the previous season. The team started the season well enough, placing eighth in Funnel Spinning and earning a bronze medal with Bolty’s 71.0-centimeter performance in the Long Jump. 

At this point, the team was fifth in the overall standings, which, as the tournament progressed, would be the closest they would get to the podium. The Thunderbolts dropped to tenth after Fidget Spinner Collision and had yet to recover by the ninth event, dropping further to fourteenth place.

The Thunderbolts mounted a small comeback in Archery, where they scored another bronze medal and earned a third with Bolta’s run in the final event, the Sand Rally. The Thunderbolts ended in twelfth place overall, a far cry from the podium which they had stood on in 2016, but the team was still grateful for their chance to compete, shying away once again until the 2018 Marble League Qualifiers. 

The team was sorted into Group C; their third-place showing during the Snow Race and first-place in the Halfpipe event allowed the Thunderbolts to storm into the 2018 Marble League with high hopes. These hopes initially seemed dashed with Boltu’s fifteenth-place finish in the 5 Meter Ice Dash, but Bolto’s fifth place in the Ski Jump and the team’s fourth place in the Halfpipe reignited hope for the Thunderbolts.

It all built up to the fourth event, the Bobsled: where the Thunderbolts earned their first medal of the season and their first gold medal since 2016. They rose to second place in the standings, expecting excitement, but there was very little if any: Team Momo’s injuries seemed to draw far more attention from the marblebase.

In the latter half of the season, the Thunderbolts remained in the top eight of the standings, with two more bronzes to their name thanks to Bolto in the Snowboard Cross and the entire team in the Biathlon. The championship seemed within reach for the team, but during the final two events, the Thunderbolts placed in the lower half of the standings. This, coupled with a finish in dead last during an earlier event, Curling, caused the Thunderbolts to fall just outside the top half of the standings and finish in ninth place overall after the 2018 Winter Marble League.

During the offseason, the Thunderbolts continued with a mediocre array of finishes. They were one of seven teams that did not finish in the 100 Meter Water Marble Race, and they did not make it past the initial heat of the Amazing Maze Marble Race. It seemed as if this could be the first year that the Thunderbolts would not qualify. 

Little did we know, there were major changes on the horizon for the team. During the 2019 Marble League Qualifiers, it was revealed that a new team member, Lightning, represented the Thunderbolts in Funnel Spinning. The team had another new member with Shock as well, who competed in the Underwater Race, and was joined by Thunder, Bolt, and Zap for team events. The Thunderbolts asserted their newfound energy and qualified for the 2019 Marble League in ninth place, with forty points to their name. The team was one of seven to have made it into all four Marble Leagues so far, an impressive feat regardless of place.

“We were faced with an unprecedented predicament,” Thunderstorm, the team’s coach and manager at the time, explained. “All five of the original members had enough at the end of the 2018 season. Their hearts weren’t in it anymore, and I could tell that they just wanted to live life again. They retired, and I recruited five of my trainers from Thorston to hop onboard the team. They have prolific experience: Lightning competed individually in the KML, Thunder and Shock competed in the Tour de Vellis against the Speeders, Zap is a rising star in their own right, and Bolt is Bolty’s cousin.”

“Honestly, though, we had no idea how big the shoes were that we needed to fill,” Bolt conceded. “Not that marbles wear shoes. Except for Marblegs. Sometimes.” When pressed for further questions about Marblegs, a marble thought to be a myth for centuries, Bolt declined to answer.

The Thunderbolts entered the 2019 Marble League as a rookie team in everything but name only, and started well, building from its energy seen in Qualifiers. Lightning placed sixth in the Underwater Race, Shock placed fifth in Funnel Spinning, and the team, after setting a Marble League record in Balancing, had its record broken by the Hazers and earned its first silver medal since the 2016 season. The Thunderbolts moved up to fourth place in the standings, tied with the Green Ducks on points and medals but behind on countback.

Unfortunately, save for a fourth place in the Relay Run and a sixth-place by Thunder, the team’s captain, in Surfing, the Thunderbolts were unable to get above seventh place in the remaining eleven events, and steadily fell towards the bottom four in the standings. The team’s worst finishes were two back-to-back events where they placed dead last, with Lightning’s DNF in the Dirt Race and the team’s slow and unsteady Rafting run sealing the team’s fate. At the end of the next event, the Thunderbolts were officially locked out of winning the 2019 Marble League, and they finished the season three events later in thirteenth place overall and 119 points earned.The Thunderbolts’ hosting bid for the 2020 Marble League was denied in favor of Team Galactic’s bid. The team, dejected, returned to Thorston to train for the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers. A few months later, they received an official letter from the JMRC, which invited the Thunderbolts to compete in the first season of Marbula One. The team was shocked, but accepted the invitation without much hesitation, with Shock and Bolt submitted to represent the team in the tournament.

The Calm and then the Storm

an addendum by Roilan

After seven months of intense training, Shock, Bolt, and coach Thunderstorm flew to Vellis for the start of Marbula One. The high expectations they placed on themselves didn’t come to fruition in the first half of the season. Despite Bolt’s fifth-place finish at the O’raceway, the Thunderbolts sat in 13th place overall halfway through. It looked like they would continue their declining performance. 

However, the season turned around in the second half. At Greenstone, Bolt qualified in a season-best third position and looked to improve on that in the race the next day. For a while, it was a battle for second, but an outstanding fifth lap, the fastest lap of the race, by Bolt closed the gap on Orangin and Bolt was able to take the lead through turns 2-4. Orangin would get the last laugh with an overtake on lap 8, but Bolt claimed the silver. Shock replicated the feat in front of the home crowd at the Short Circuit GP. After qualifying eighth and falling as low as eleventh, Shock slowly started making their way back through the field. Most of the race was spent oscillating around sixth place, but Shock put it in high gear with two passes on the final lap to claim the Thunderbolts’ second consecutive silver medal. After a couple more bottom-half finishes, the team ended the season in eighth, their best finish in competition since 2016, and went back home to train for the 2020 Marble League.

The Marbula One team went home to the news that their new training facility, just on the southeast outskirts of Thorston, was complete. Built to accommodate the harsh storms in the area, it had indoor and outdoor training options and stands as one of the largest training facilities on Marblearth. It was designed by Avalanche, an architect from the nearby city of Osnow, who designed many famous and exquisite buildings across the region. 

The momentum from their strong finish in Marbula One carried into Qualifying for the 2020 Marble League. There was nothing flashy, but consistent top-half results in each of the four events ensured their fourth-place finish in the Qualifiers, making their fifth consecutive Marble League.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t convert that into success in the Marble League. The Thunderbolts found themselves in the bottom four in three of the first four events, and the trend of average finishes continued throughout the competition. One bright spot of the tournament came in Event 15, Collision, where the team took silver and earned their first Marble League medal in 27 events.

As the Thunderbolts ascended out of their heat, their fans were holding their breath. “I was a part of the team in 2016,” Bolty recalled, “and we were undefeated in our heat. This year’s version of Collision was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before—complex and tactical. There were so many close calls, but the team hung on.” Bolt, cousin of former member Bolty, trained using a specific maneuver that allowed them to remain relatively untouched in the center of the arena, spinning in place to arrest their momentum. Bolt implemented this tactic flawlessly in their quarterfinal and strongly in their semifinal.

from “Podium Moments – ML2020 Event 15”, by Stynth

The team’s Collision performance got them from fifteenth to eleventh in the standings, but a fifteenth in the Marble Marathon pushed them down to thirteenth overall where they finished, mirroring the finish in 2019. The team was never higher than 11th overall and only had six top-half finishes. 

Even with the subpar performance, the city of Stormholm was not dejected. Excitement rippled through the city for the upcoming conference between the team and the local community. Most of the team’s operations are conducted in Thorston, but the team chose the nearby city of Stormholm for this conference. Stynth traveled to the region to attend.

As I hastily grabbed the pad off of my head, the five current members of the Thunderbolts lined up in front of me—and in front of them, the five original members of the Thunderbolts. We rolled out of the room together and into the press room to thunderous applause from hundreds of Marble League fans, ascending the ramp to the stage and taking our seats.

The Thunderbolts’ new manager, Static, had a few words to say at the start of the conference: “What a historic moment. I think it’s really important to note that although our franchise hasn’t had the best performances or luck, it’s built on a legacy of overcoming adversity in everything we do. Each of our athletes can attest to that.”

Bolto rolled back in approval, translating to: “Our achievements aren’t greater than the new team, even if we finished on the podium in 2016. It’s not about winning.”

“It’s about staying determined,” added Bolta. “We’ve all been there, and we have all succeeded from our best to our worst.”

from “Offseason Moments – ML2020 Part 1”, by Stynth

The overall point of the conference was to announce a change in team involvement. Thunderstorm would continue to be the coach but would focus on the performance level of training. They would help with technique, strength, conditioning, and any other aspect of training that would directly come into play in the competition. 

It was further announced that the old members of the team, namely Bolta and Bolty, would be involved with the team. Using their competition experience, they would help with the mental aspect of competition. Bolta and Bolty would use their experience at the highest level to help with resilience after a bad performance, motivation before each event, and handling the moment. 

The separation of responsibilities within the team led to more efficiency within the organization. Right before Shock and Bolt were about to start Marbula One Season 2, I got a chance to ask Shock about the transition.

“We were all excited to announce the transition. We look up to them as a standard to what we can become and hopefully surpass in the future.”

“Has the training been any different and if so, can you feel a difference?”

“We’ve all gotten pretty good at roll language,” Shock jested, “But in all seriousness, the physical training is still as intense as ever; Thunderstorm still likes to push us pretty hard and likes to push Bolt and me especially hard as we enter this season. The mental training has been a little different. Our recovery days are now significantly more focused on strategizing, handling the moment, and helping us focus on each situation. Every moment in competition is testing your mind just as much as it is testing your physical ability, and having guidance from marbles who have succeeded at the highest level is invaluable to us.”

The new training regimen introduced in the offseason had an almost immediate payoff in competition. Shock got the team’s first points of the new season in the opening race at Minty Mania, qualifying and ending in tenth and getting three points. The first sign of the high-quality performance that the Thunderbolts would display over the next few months came at the O’raceway. Despite having a mediocre race, Bolt flew through lap fourteen in a blistering 25.63 seconds, receiving an extra point for fastest lap, earning five points overall. 

Two races later at the Aquamaring, Bolt came looking for hardware. After qualifying in fourth, they climbed up to second in the opening five laps. Bolt found themselves side by side with race leader Pulsar of Team Galactic on the belt, and with the better launch off into lap six, Bolt held the lead. Their lead got as large as almost two seconds before relinquishing it to Red Eye on lap eleven. Bolt contended for the top position for the rest of the race, but ended in second, equaling their best career finish.

It was right back to work for Bolt the next week at Tumult Turnpike, and their form was just as good. After going third-best in Q1, Bolt defended the transfer position in Q2 and went to Q3 for the second week in a row. They made up all three positions in the first shootout lap and got pole position for the race. Already having their best qualification position, Bolt put together their best race yet. Never lower than third position and leading for ten of the sixteen laps, it was the Thunderbolts’ best chance to pick up gold. In the end, Hazy took the top step and Bolt got a second consecutive silver—the team’s fifth silver medal in the calendar year. Shock got their best finish of the season the next week at the Arctic Circuit with a fifth-place finish. At the halfway point, the Thunderbolts sat in fourth overall.

During the Marbula One hiatus, the whole team was invited to compete in the Marble League Winter Special. Thunderstorm said the goal was to “continue the momentum from Marbula One.” After a last-place finish in the Ice Dash, Bolt competed in the Snowboard Cross event. In the heats, they finished one-thousandth of a second behind Kinnowin of the O’rangers and advanced to the semifinal where they again got second, two-thousandths of a second behind Aqua of the Oceanics. The rematch between Aqua and Bolt came in the final. Aqua held the lead for the top half of the course before Bolt took the lead toward the bottom of the course. In a third consecutive photo finish, Bolt fell again and claimed the silver medal, their third silver in the past three months. 

With the second-place finish, the Thunderbolts moved up to sixth in the standings and sent Thunder to represent them in Speed Skating. Thunder was in the last pair to run and was on pace to finish fifth after the first lap. The next two turns were much better and they were on pace for first halfway through the race. When the dust settled, Thunder ran a 29.46: a Marble League record. It was also the Thunderbolts’ first gold medal since Bobsled in 2018 and left them in second place overall, also their highest since Bobsled in 2018.

The final two events were average, getting tenth in Bobsled and eleventh in Ice Hockey after losing in the first round of the tournament to the Snowballs. They ended the Special in fifth place making it their highest Marble League finish since their third place finish in 2016.

After the special, Thunder commented on how the new training routine helped the team in the Marble League.

“The work Bolta and Bolty have put in the past six months has helped immensely. I could feel the work paying off in the second lap of Speed Skating when I was slipping out of touch with Ducky but had the resilience to pull it back for gold. Sure, we didn’t end the way we wanted. We wanted to defend our Bobsled title but just fumbled the steering a bit near the end, but there’s a lot of good we can take from this. We look forward to building on this in 2021.”

When Marbula One resumed, Bolt got right back to work at the Raceforest. They jumped from seventh on the grid to get a bronze in the race. It was Bolt’s third medal in three Marbula One appearances. With the result, the Thunderbolts held second in the overall standings and Bolt held second in the individual standings. A few poor qualifying performances, including two failures to qualify in the next three races, hurt the Thunderbolts, but they remained in the podium positions overall. 

The season fell apart for the Thunderbolts after the Raceforest GP. They didn’t get past the qualifying round in three of the final five races: Shock at the Momotorway and Misty Mountain and Bolt at Midnight Bay. In between their qualification woes, each competitor had a mediocre race. At Pallete Park, Bolt struggled in the early parts of the weekend. Qualifying fourteenth and quickly falling to sixteenth, it looked like the first poor performance of the season for Bolt. They did well to battle and end in ninth, matching their finishing position at the O’raceway but without the fastest lap.

Two weeks later at the Savage Speedway, Shock got an opportunity to improve on the fifteenth from the inaugural season. It started optimistically; fifth on the grid and third after the first turn boded well for the struggling marble in their final race of the season. However, as was the case for most of the team’s second half of the season, Shock struggled to find pace during each race and tumbled down the order. They fell as far down as twelfth before bouncing back and ending in seventh. After their rough final five races, the team ended in sixth overall, and Bolt finished fifth in the individual championship. A good result, but after the blistering start to the season, there was a lingering disappointment.

“We’re not sure what happened,” Bolt expressed, “After the Raceforest, we thought [the second half] was going to go just as the first half did. Hard to say what the [Marble League Winter] Special did to our focus in M1, but it wasn’t helpful clearly.” 

After the Marbula One season ended, the media was very critical of Thunderstorm’s competitor selection in the Winter Marble League.

“If I could do it over again, I probably would’ve rested Shock and Bolt,” Thunderstorm responded in a press conference, “but they’re fierce competitors. They want to compete. It’s hard to tell them they are being rested.” Thunderstorm’s hot seat wasn’t cooled at all with the Marble League 2021 Practice Race in Felynia where Bolt finished dead last against all 27 other teams.

As a welcome intermission from the harsh storms, the Thunderbolts stayed in the Felynia area in the time between the Practice Race and the Qualifiers. Welcomed into the Marble League village, the main five members spend their time exploring along the river.

“The weather here certainly is different,” Zap joked, “Anytime it gets this calm back home, you know a big storm is looming.”

In RetRollSpective, the Thunderbolts do not always contend for the overall title, but they are always in the thick of things. They always are around to compete for an event podium and have an upward trend towards getting back to successes of the past. Recent success has made the team a big name in marble sports and they look to keep that reputation going forward. Best of luck to the Thunderbolts in the future, keep on rolling! 

Credits

• Writers: Roilan Estates, Stynth
• Editors: Fouc, Smacg13, Skyfall_707
• Artist: Jack Ironhide
• Graphic Designers: Novawolf, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: The Emperor, Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Release: 01/10/2021

Hello and welcome to another RetRollSpective, where we reflect on the history of marble sports teams that have appeared in the tournaments of Jelle’s Marble Runs. This time, we’re going to focus on the Savage Speeders, dual champions of both Marble Leagues 2016 and 2020 as well as Marbula One Seasons 1 and 4. Read on to find out how this team conquers the competition!

The Savage Speeders hail from Accellaise, Pace, and Vellis, three cities in a region of the world known for their cultural, artistic, and economical significance. Speedy and Rapidly are siblings and hail from Accellaise on the coast of the continent, Velocity hails from Pace, a nearby coastal city, and Swifty and Whizzy are friends from the major city of Vellis. The five marbles met ten years ago, during the Tour de Vellis, a marble sports marathon held in the city and throughout the region. Speedy and Rapidly had already been competing in local tournaments in Accellaise, so when Velocity brought up the idea of forming a team, there was no hesitation.

The Speeders trained vigorously over the next two years to qualify for the marathon, fighting to make ends meet when it came to scheduling and traveling. Nonetheless, the team was able to qualify for the tournament and made headlines with a fifth-place finish after the tournament. For a rookie team, it was unheard of.

“We disclose as little as we possibly can about our training,” Speedy assured. “It is one of our most important secrets to our continued success in marble competition. What I will tell you is that we work the hardest out of any team. We do not settle for anything less than what we know ourselves to be: the best.”

The Speeders continued to compete in the next three Tours, never finishing below the top five. In the 2014 Tour, they clinched their first win, and in 2015, repeated it. News headlines throughout the world began comparing the team to the unstoppable force of early berserkers, referring to them as “savage”. The Speeders reacted positively to this, adding it to their team name to become the Savage Speeders.

While celebrating their back-to-back victory, the Savage Speeders were approached by marble sports aficionado, Greg Woods. Woods had been headlining the Fruit Circuit for years, but the Circuit was losing viewership and funding—and fast.

“I had a few contacts from different regions, specifically Jelle Bakker in the city of Knikkegen, who wanted to start an international marble tournament called the Marble League,” explained Woods. “It was already going to include a few teams from my Fruit Circuit, but I needed to recruit other teams myself. The Savage Speeders were a long shot, but I knew that if I could convince them to compete, the Marble League might be successful.”

The next day, the Savage Speeders announced that they were retiring from the Tour de Vellis to the disappointment and confusion of many fans. Their confusion grew a few days later when it was reported that the team had purchased a stadium in Accellaise and renamed it “Le Course de Sauvage.” 

“None of this made sense,” a fan recalled. “They were so successful in the Tour, and then they left without explanation. I figured there had to be something more on the horizon. Something bigger.”

Soon enough the team’s fans caught wind that the Savage Speeders in Knikkegen and a small pack of diehards yelled as the main team of four rolled into the Bakker Bowl. Because of their more inconsistent performance, Whizzy sat out of the main team but was on the front row in the stands, keeping the fan section synchronized.

In retrospect, it’s easy to forget the Speeders had many average performances throughout the 2016 Marble League, sinking as low as second-to-last in the Team Pursuit. It’s much more memorable that they were the only team to win four golds, and the only team whose medals were all golds. The team set a nascent Marble League record in the Relay; Velocity flew down the Water Race’s waterfall to take gold there; and Rapidly was lengths ahead of everyone else to win the 10 Meter Sprint.

Then there is the final gold medal. The Speeders were two points behind the Thunderbolts into the final event, the Hurdles. Apart from a mediocre Long Jump performance, it was the first time team captain Speedy started on their own. “It’s a captain’s duty to clutch the final event for the team,” said Speedy at the time.

“People forget about us back in 2016, but I believed 100 percent we could still win it,” recalled O’rangers captain Kinnowin. “With that Hurdles event, I even led Speedy for a while. But they sped up so quickly on the last two hurdles that I was simply left in the dust.”

Beating the O’rangers in their heat, Speedy started in the final along with the Thunderbolts, Mellow Yellow, and Team Momo – every team in the top four of the standings. The pistol fired, and Yellup of Mellow Yellow had a brilliant start. But out of the last hurdle, all the audience could see was a blur of three marbles side by side.

“Oh, actually it’s gonna be a very close finish!” exclaimed Greg Woods. “What is timing and scoring gonna give us?… And it’s going to be Speedy from the Savage Speeders!”

In an interview given after the final event, Speedy explained, “We were really conserving our energy. We knew going into the Hurdles that we needed to win the event to win it all, and when the gate lifted, I rushed down the track to the finish line. I had to. It didn’t matter if I was exhausted. It was all worth it to prove that we were on the top.”

The team’s victory tour was jubilant, as they traveled around the world with their four gold medals and all five members of the team. When the Savage Speeders returned to Vellis for the final part of their tour, the city hosted a day-long parade through the city on the same course used for the Tour. At the end of the day, the team was gifted an honorary key to the city, which inspired their hashtag, #SpeedIsKey.

Over the next six months, the public heard nothing from the Savage Speeders, a practice that would become the standard for the team in the offseason. The team’s stadium was closed to the public and protected by security. In future years, it became a yearly tradition on MarBook to post joke events to raid the stadium in the hopes of finding the team’s deepest and darkest secrets. None of the events occurred, although one year, a streaker rolled by the stadium the night before and was apprehended by security.

The Savage Speeders automatically qualified for the 2017 Marble League, along with Mellow Yellow, the Thunderbolts, and Team Momo. The team appeared in the opening ceremony with Whizzy back on the team in place of Velocity, the latter switching out with them so Whizzy could compete. Whizzy competed in Funnel Spinning and placed fourth, earning twelve points and starting the season off on a good note. Rapidly followed next and placed sixth in the Long Jump, and the team placed eleventh in Fidget Spinner Collision. At the end of the first quarter of the season, the team sat in eleventh place, which, admittedly, did not look promising.

The team, however, was just warming up. The Savage Speeders vaulted into third place in the standings following Speedy’s silver medal in the 5 Meter Sprint, trailing only Mellow Yellow and the Chocolatiers who were eight points ahead. Swifty earned another silver medal in the Hurdles, which allowed the team to rise to the top of the standings. The Speeders’ gold medal in the Relay Race cemented their position in the first place, twenty-two points clear of the Limers and even further ahead of the rest of the competition.

They held on in Block Pushing, missing the podium but placing fifth, maintaining their twenty-two-point lead, this time ahead of the Pinkies. They placed fifth again in the High Jump, but their lead shrunk by four points. It became apparent that other teams were beginning to rise in the standings, such as the O’rangers and Team Momo, which had both medaled in the previous few events. The Savage Speeders responded with a gold medal in the Steeplechase, but even then, Mellow Yellow joined them on the podium. It was then that the Savage Speeders began to slow down—too soon.

The team placed in the lower middle of the pack in the final three events, unable to reach the top half. The O’rangers did exactly the opposite: earning eight points in Archery and two silver medals thanks to Kinnowin in the Underwater Race and Clementin in the Sand Rally.

“We weren’t worried until Kinnowin set the Marble League record in the Underwater Race,” Swifty retorted. “We thought we had done enough. Until all of a sudden, I didn’t make the Sand Rally final.”

After holding first place for seven consecutive events, the Savage Speeders lost their lead and finished in second place overall in the 2017 Marble League. It was a historic upset that has gone down in history as one of the greatest comebacks in marble sports.

The team, having automatically qualified for the 2018 Marble League, disappeared shortly after the conclusion of the 2017 season to the tune of “OOOOOOOOOOO” echoing throughout the stadium. The Savage Speeders made their next public appearance in the 2018 Winter Marble League Friendly Round, an exhibition tournament starring the prequalified teams of the main tournament. This, of course, meant that the team would be competing against Mellow Yellow and the O’rangers again, as well as the Snowballs for the first time since 2016. Swifty finished in third during the 5 Meter Ice Dash and the team finished in third for both Curling and the Halfpipe. They ironically finished fourth overall after the Friendly Round, despite their consistent third-place finishes. Needless to say, the Speeders were not happy.

Swifty opened the 2018 Marble League by placing…you guessed it, third in the 5 Meter Ice Dash. Of course, this time, it mattered, with the team earning fifteen points towards what they hoped would be their second championship. However, Speedy faltered in the Ski Jump, placing dead last in the event and plunging the team to ninth in the overall standings. Speedy was taken out of the roster for the next event, Halfpipe, and replaced by Velocity, who was now the team’s reserve member. The Savage Speeders earned a silver medal.

After a disappointing performance in the Bobsled event, where the Savage Speeders placed below Team Momo, which had suffered two injuries, Rapidly brought the team back into contention with their silver medal in Speed Skating, which tied the Marble League record until Misty’s performance set a new record and earned gold for the Hazers.

At this point, the Savage Speeders could not be ignored. They had medaled in three of the first five events and were reaching closer and closer to the top of the standings, which the Oceanics, Balls of Chaos, and Hazers were trading off. The team finally reached the top of the standings with another silver medal in the Snow Rally, this time earned by Whizzy. They were tied with Momo in “snow points”, but lost to them in average times. The results of the Snow Rally, despite putting the Savage Speeders in the lead, are what many fans consider to be the reason that the Savage Speeders lost the 2018 season.

The team held on to the top of the standings until Curling when the Oceanics’ gold put them ahead. The Speeders fell to third, six points away from first place, and remained there following the Biathlon. The Ice Hockey event saw all of the team members competing, and for the first time since the Halfpipe, the Savage Speeders made the podium in a team event. They scored just one point against Team Galactic in the third-place match and fended off the team with their strong defensive strategy. Their bronze medal put them just two points behind the Oceanics in the first place.

It was anyone’s game going into the final event, the Sand Mogul Race. An unprecedented ten teams could mathematically win the 2018 Winter Marble League, but the Savage Speeders kept their eyes forward.

“We medaled in most events. There was no reason why we couldn’t medal in one more, and finish the season stronger than ever before,” Whizzy cleared their throat. “That is until the Midnight Wisps passed us in the final seconds of the semi-finals.”

“Semifinal B. Midnight Wisps, the Hazers, Savage Speeders, and the Snowballs. Down they go. Savage Speeders out to an early lead. Midnight Wisps up into second, they fend off a challenge. Can they get up there? Midnight Wisps take the win and they will advance. They could’ve stayed there; they didn’t have to make that last-second lunge to get up into first place, you will still advance into the finals since it’s the top two…” commentated Greg Woods.

The Savage Speeders glanced over at the standings. The Midnight Wisps, just four points behind them, would win the 2018 Winter Marble League if they won the event…by just one point.

And they did—pulling off another extraordinary comeback against the Savage Speeders to take their championship, as was the will of the wisps.

The Savage Speeders made two public appearances during the 2018 offseason for both practice events. Whizzy placed sixth in the 100 Meter Water Race, above most of the Speeders’ rivals. The team advanced to the semifinals of the Amazing Maze Marble Race with their strong second-place standing, shutting out the Midnight Wisps. They advanced to the finals and finished in third, just three points ahead of the Limers in fourth and decisively behind the O’rangers and Raspberry Racers in the lead.

Their next public appearance was in the 2019 Marble League Friendly Round, as the Savage Speeders had automatically qualified for what would be their fourth Marble League appearance. The team finished in fourth out of the four competing teams with nine points, behind the Midnight Wisps with fourteen points, and the O’rangers and Oceanics with more.

The Savage Speeders acquired Quickly as their coach on 25 February 2019 and appeared with them during the opening ceremony on 19 April 2019. They started the 2019 Marble League as well as they possibly could have, in a comeback that proved to fans to “never count out” the Savage Speeders. In the Underwater Race, Rapidly earned the team’s first gold medal since the Steeplechase in 2017, and in Funnel Spinning, Speedy earned a back-to-back gold medal.

“When I came on to the team, they were so pent-up about losing the past two seasons. They blamed other teams, not themselves,” Quickly revealed. “Their negative energy was toxic. What I told them to do—to transmute that energy into a positive performance—set them up for a strong 2019 season.”

The Savage Speeders led the standings during the first four events, leading fans to wonder if they would ever give. They finally did in the fifth event, the 5 Meter Sprint, when Whizzy finished dead last and the Hazers, who earned a silver medal, rose to first overall. The Savage Speeders hoped that they would be able to recoup in the next event, the Relay Run, but they finished last in their heat as the Thunderbolts and O’rangers moved on. The teams both made it to the final, and the O’rangers earned a silver medal, their first of the season.

The team was not doing its best at the midpoint of the season; it had dropped to seventh place at the end of the Biathlon and stayed there after the Hurdles, with the Midnight Wisps closing in seven points behind. The team needed at least a podium finish to get back into the top five and catch up to newer teams such as the Raspberry Racers, Hazers, and Green Ducks, who seemed to be running away with the season. The Savage Speeders returned to the podium in the Maze event with a bronze medal, and rose to fourth place, tied with Mellow Yellow in points but ahead of them in medal count.

The next event, the Dirt Race, arguably set the tone for the rest of the season. The course was unpredictable with sticks, leaves, and shallow, winding paths making it a course fit for a champion. Swifty competed first in Heat B, qualifying for the final race behind Pinky Toe and Indie. During the first third of the final, Swifty almost crashed out of the course, rolling on the outside of a stick and back onto the track. With a burst of speed, they rolled ahead of Ducky in the third quarter of the race, the finish line nearly in sight…

Out of nowhere, Pinky Toe zoomed down the course, ending up just behind Swifty. They tried and failed to block Pinky Toe, who won the Pinkies’ first-ever gold medal in a historic comeback. Swifty, stunned, didn’t even notice Ducky pass them for a silver medal, and could not get going in time to beat Rozzy for the bronze medal in the last five milliseconds. The top three of the 2019 Marble League became clear, separated by twenty points from the team in fourth place, none other than the Savage Speeders.

The Savage Speeders showed no signs of rebounding until Surfing when it was already too late for the team to be able to win the 2019 Marble League. The team could still finish in the top three with good results in the final two events; they instead fell apart in the penultimate event, Collision, placing dead last and allowing Mellow Yellow to pass them in the overall standings with a bronze medal.

“I was disappointed,” Quickly recalled. “I had every right to be. They started the season off the best a team has ever started a season, and they let it go. I may seem like I’m easy on them because I’m telling them to stop being so negative, but I do expect a lot.”

“They’re right,” Rango, the coach of the O’rangers, agreed. “The difference between the Savage Speeders and every other Marble League victor is that the Savage Speeders put so much pressure on themselves. They don’t work to be the best they can be. They work to be better than everyone else.”

“You should help me coach them,” Quickly suggested.

“No, I don’t think I will.”

Rapidly, who started the season strong, finished relatively strong in the Sand Rally in fifth place, earning eleven points. Rapidly finished just behind the O’rangers in fourth, who earned twelve points to finish their 2019 season with one-hundred and thirty-nine points, a familiar number to the Savage Speeders.

“Don’t,” Rapidly stopped me. “Please don’t mention that number to me…to any of us…ever again.”

The Savage Speeders finished the 2019 Marble League in fifth place, three points behind Mellow Yellow in fourth, which had finally finished ahead of their rivals at the end of a season. It was the team’s lowest finish, placement-wise, in their history, and the first time in the history of the Marble League that the Savage Speeders neither finished in the top three nor automatically qualified for the next season.

After an admittedly disappointing fourth season, the Savage Speeders were pleased to receive an official letter from the JMRC, inviting the team to compete in the first season of Marbula One. The Savage Speeders accepted and were confirmed as the first team on 20 October 2019. On the same day, they announced that Speedy, the “Speed Freak”, and Rapidly, the “Maroon Missile”, would represent the team in the upcoming tournament.

“Speedy, as the team captain, was a no-brainer. Rapidly is one of the more celebrated athletes on the team, and they’re a good foil to Speedy—they have decisive control over their capabilities. Together, Speedy and Rapidly were the two athletes I considered to be best suited for this tournament,” Quickly confirmed in an interview.

The rest of the Savage Speeders did not sit idle, however. The JMRC had also selected the team as the hosts of the first Grand Prix. Swiftly, Whizzy and Velocity got to work preparing Le Course de Sauvage for Marbula One, building the course themselves. They named the course the Savage Speedway and renamed their entire stadium in Accellaise the same name to clear up any confusion.

Speedy made their debut as a Marbula One racer in the Savage Speedway Grand Prix Qualifiers on 15 February 2020, where they set a time of 31.20 seconds to beat. Unfortunately for them, every racer beat their time, and Speedy entered the first Grand Prix with a starting position of dead last—on their home circuit. However, Speedy was not ready to give up. By the third lap of the race, they had moved up thirteen places from their starting position to third, and they finished the race in fifth place, earning ten points and an extra point for setting the fastest lap.

Rapidly made their debut as a Marbula One racer at the O’raceway Grand Prix Qualifiers on 22 February 2020, where they set a lap time of 31.89 seconds and placed sixth on the starting grid. During the Grand Prix, Rapidly entered the top five during the sand portion of the track and remained there for much of the race, only exiting when bumping Wospy forward to clear their yellow flag. After returning to the top five in lap five, Rapidly closed in on Billy in the lead, but was ultimately unable to catch them, and finished in second place.

The Savage Speeders, living up to their name, continued to be a formidable force throughout the season. Speedy qualified for the race at the Momotorway in seventh and finished the third Grand Prix in sixth. Rapidly qualified for the race at the Hivedrive in seventh and earned their second silver medal at the end of the fourth Grand Prix, not even a second behind Pulsar in first. Rapidly lead the Racer Championship halfway through the season, and the Savage Speeders as a team sat in third overall.

Rapidly, tired from the previous Grand Prix, did not do well in either the Qualifiers or the Race at Greenstone, qualifying in eleventh and finishing the Race in fifteenth. Coach Quickly put Speedy in for the Short Circuit GP, a decision that put the team into the lead overall at the end of the Race. Speedy qualified in second with a time of 17.85 seconds and finished the sixth Grand Prix in third, taking the lead for four laps of the race. The team rose to the top of the standings with seventy points but fell in the individual standings, with Rapidly’s blunder at Greenstone dragging their points down.

Rapidly redeemed themselves in their last Grand Prix at the Razzway, qualifying in the third and finishing seventh, keeping the team fourteen points within the championship in second overall. Would Speedy be able to deliver in the final Grand Prix of the first season of Marbula One?

The final Grand Prix felt eerily similar to the final event of the 2016 Marble League. It was the feeling that the team in the lead—the Thunderbolts then, the Hazers now—was going to be overturned. It was the feeling that the championship was something truly special because it was the first in a series of many Marble League and Marbula One tournaments. It was the feeling that there was something to prove. It was the feeling that Speedy would dominate, and prove once again to the world to never count out the Savage Speeders.

Speedy captured pole in the Qualifiers at the Midnight Bay with a time of 24.54 seconds, putting them in the prime position to rush away from the competition once the starting gate fell in the Race. They did exactly that the next night, only losing the lead once to Prim, and regaining that lead two laps later. Speedy never looked back.

The Savage Speeders won the first season of Marbula One with Speedy earning 59 points and Rapidly earning 42 points, placing first and sixth respectively in the Racer Championship. They won the team championship with a seven-point lead above the Hazers and a 42 point lead above the O’rangers, who stood to their left on the podium.

The Edge of Glory

an addendum by Fouc

The stars glimmered above the Andromedome, and the Savage Speeders were competing in their team’s first-ever Marble League Qualifiers. Hounded by the press to comment on the chances of the Speeders not qualifying, other coaches declined to comment or were measured in their praise.

“Take it from me: Never count out the Savage Speeders,” said Coach Rango of the O’rangers. “The few words I got out of Coach Quickly last week suggest they’re as strong as ever.”

The feeling inside the Speeders’ locker room was different. Half an hour before they were to appear on the balancing beam, Coach Quickly and team captain Speedy were locked in a heated argument over who should compete in what event. Speedy had a difficult time accepting a teammate, Swifty, showing up for the final qualifier event, the 5 Meter Sprint.

“I close for the team. Everyone agrees I am the closer,” boomed Speedy. Quickly replied: “Any Speeder out there can hit top five in the Sprint. But we’ve gone through the plan! You need to lead the team and make the first contact in Block Pushing and we send out someone fresh for the final event.”

The argument ended in a compromise: Speedy thought Swifty can race in the Sprint conditional on Swifty “showing their worth” on the Balancing beam, and the captain vetoed Quickly’s plan of having Whizzy in one of the team events.

This is the paradox of the Savage Speeders. After the championships, the gold medals, and the world records, the team fills Marblearth with awe, a team unflappable and assured. However, 2020 also showed us the team’s internal struggles, through a series of candid interviews made when their performance was lacking and increased media access to their facilities.

It reveals a team that has to deal with constant pressure and self-doubt; a team that faced a leadership struggle in 2020; and a team that had to learn how to support each other instead of bringing each other down.

As much as the final plan was a messy compromise, the Speeders’ natural skill led to a comfortable victory in the Qualifiers, with 78 points over four events, three of which were in the top three. Swifty themselves was a sensation, winning the Sprint with a time of 5.203 seconds.

“I have to thank Coach Quickly who told me to give it my all,” said Swifty after the race. “Because it doesn’t matter if we already qualified before my race. Our track performance is never in doubt. And soon no one will doubt we’re winning this Championship.”

Right after the 2020 Marble League flame was phased into the cauldron, the Speeders were swamped by press while rolling off the field. Asked for a quick reaction, Speedy said: “our teamwork is stronger than ever, and other teams like the O’rangers better watch out.”

With words like these, everyone expected a top performance from the Speeders in the opening event, Balancing. It did not look hard to repeat their Qualifiers performance, where Rapidly was the center of a tight formation that led to two marbles reaching the end. Instead, the athletes went off the beam in all directions for a fourteenth-place performance.

Another team event followed: the Halfpipe, where the Speeders were drawn together with the O’rangers. The two teams’ fan sections were seated next to each other, and both sides pushed themselves to yell louder than the other as the teams streamed out the gate.

Then, disaster: the Speeders saw three O’rangers marbles already slaloming away from the finish, blocking their movement down there. Only Velocity made it to the end, and they gave an O’ranger even more time by pushing back to the end.

“Oh my gosh, so good that it’s another Marble League record!” announced Greg Woods. You could hear nothing but the O’s from O’rangers fans as that team set a new record of 34.49 seconds. The most intense matchup between these two rival teams since 2018’s Ice Hockey ended with the O’rangers soaring to second overall, and the Speeders in last.

Whizzy recounted what they heard in the locker room after that event. “None of us were speaking, even though it wasn’t quiet. The O’rangers fans were loud outside. It was Coach Quickly who first spoke up: ‘Speedy, was it right to set expectations like that?’ They were pretty tough on each other that evening.”

When we interviewed them in 2021, neither the Speeders coach nor the captain would comment further on those interactions. However, according to Quickly, “that was a time when we needed less practice and more communication. Any other team would be over the moon if one of our five athletes joined them. But inside, before and after I joined, too often the athletes feel inferior and anxious because of each other.”

It was that moment that Speedy relented on dictating who should compete in which event, giving full control to the coach. As Quickly recounts it: “Speedy agreed to let me and only me lay out my plan, so I got the team together. I showed them a newspaper claiming we ‘won’t compete for the title’ and crumpled that into the trash.”

“Always remember every one of you is an elite athlete, the fastest marbles on Marblearth,” recalled Rapidly of the coach’s pep talk. “Every one of you will podium this Marble League. Every one of you deserves the glory. But to beat the O’rangers and all those top teams, we need teamwork. I am here to tell you there’s no weakest link in this team… when all of us equally contribute, we grow stronger and work better as a team.”

“In particular, I had to work with Whizzy,” said Quickly. The coach revealed Speedy’s insistence that Whizzy should step back and be the reserve member after two infamous performances, losing to the Wisps in the 2018 Sand Moguls and a last-place finish in the 2019 Sprint.

“No repeat medalist in this League gets disrespected as much as them,” said Quickly. “They can call them the ‘reserve’, but to me, those were just labels. Going into Event 3, I told them Whizzy must compete in the funnels. For once, nobody spoke up!”

Funnel Endurance is supposed to be a free-for-all in every funnel, a mess from start to finish. But the Speeders keep it steady every time by sending Whizzy, who stabilizes themselves and rarely drops quickly through a sequence of funnels.

For a moment in the first round, after Whizzy was the third to fall into the green funnels, their reputation was about to be broken. But the Speeder would bump several competitors out their way and into the hole in the final funnel, qualifying second in their group.

The Speeder kept to their strategy in the final up to that last funnel, when they collided right away with Kinnowin. With the O’rangers captain hot on their back, Whizzy sped up and broke out from the other competitors bunched in the middle. Then there were only three spinning, only for Whizzy to veer too close in and get bumped by Kinnowin twice. They’d drop down right after and take the bronze.

Stynth, reporting from the scene, would write: “While it is still far from certain whether the Speeders will win the 2020 Marble League, one thing is for certain: they are out of the basement.”

Reflecting on that moment, Whizzy said: “I could hear the Speeders fans cheering for me, but I still felt pretty low about getting knocked out by an O’ranger. It was still good, though.”

What the Speeders fan section really looked forward to was the Newton’s Cradle event, where the duo of Speedy and Rapidly would show up. The team captain smashed into the Cradle with all their might and Rapidly notched up a 99.80. Between runs that day, Rapidly would still talk up how it was good to almost get 100 points until the team saw the O’rangers win it all with a 107.55.

For Coach Quickly, who retold the aftermath, the ninth in Newton’s Cradle “was infuriating. The two of them back then wouldn’t accept pairing with Velocity or Swifty, but that result finally convinced those two the team exists beyond them.”

However, veteran marble sports fans would remember Quickly’s first public statement after the event, which was more strident in tone. With their team eleventh overall and the O’rangers in first, Quickly called their Marble League a “disappointment.” The Coach praised Whizzy as “the only one who showed up” and that “the plan going into the season hasn’t worked.”

Rapidly would not start for the Speeders until the Triathlon. During that interlude in 2020, Rapidly was asked once about Quickly’s statement. Their response was curt: “There’s not much I can say, but I’ll live with it.”

From Event 5 to Event 10, Speedy made one appearance on the Block Pushing lineup, while Rapidly raced once in the Triathlon. Despite this, the Speeders had two bronzes and five top-five placements. Across four racing events, the team made it to the finals in all but one: the Triathlon, where Rapidly started.

The Hurdles, Block Pushing, Long Jump, and the Sprint: these were all classic events going back to the first two Marble Leagues. Even though the Speeders regularly scored in the top half in Block Pushing and dominated the track events in 2016 and 2017, it wasn’t clear if their experience could compete against new talents like the Hazers, Raspberry Racers, Green Ducks, or the Minty Maniacs. Their only record against them on the track was in 2019 when the Speeders tied for last across the three major track events.

But with time, Marblearth saw more of Coach Quickly’s strategy. No matter which Speeder started for their team, the same racing style was there. They would not have the flashiest start, but the Speeders rarely veered off in strange directions or saw their momentum come to a stop. Their aim was true and their acceleration was constant, no matter on track, sand, or water.

They would advance again and again off of lapses in their opponents’ judgment. Swifty overtook the Hazers in Hurdles at the final hurdle, climbing out of a heat of death. Or recall how quiet the stands in the Andromedome were during the Sprint semifinal, while a photo finish was arbitrated between Velocity and the Hazers’ Smoggy. The Speeders fans went ballistic when Velocity ran ahead by a millisecond. Right at the finish line, a slight wobble from Smoggy that Velocity lacked could have determined it all.

The team’s fourth place in Block Pushing would be their team-best in the event. In their best push, Speedy rammed into the block and sent it flying, sliding only on the far end. With Swifty, Velocity, and Whizzy quickly catching up, the block kept going and ended up at 81.80.

No good news lasts forever, though, and the Speeders would lose their touch in multiple finals. Swifty took the first hurdle at a bad angle and could never catch up again to the Wisps and Raspberry Racers. Both them and Velocity would lose their grip halfway through the final, on the Sand Moguls and Sprint respectively.

Locked in a three-way tie for second at the Triathlon semifinals, Rapidly sped up so much going into the dive that they stumbled before they swam. The battle for second was lost soon after, in exchange for several shoves between Rapidly and the Wisps’ Wospy. That was how the star Speeder ended in seventh.

“After Triathlon I was getting ready to test the sand myself, but I talked to Rapidly about all that contact going on,” said Swifty. “I told them: ‘What gives? That was Wospy, you saved them on O’raceway five months ago! Why so aggressive?’ I didn’t get a word out of them at the time, though.”

As noted by Stynth,

Funnel events are all about maintaining speed [and] colliding as little as possible.

from “Podium Moments – ML2020 Event 11”, by Stynth

Not surprisingly, Speedy and Rapidly wanted to go out again for Event 11, the Black Hole Funnel. “It was a risk,” reflected Coach Quickly. “I could have seen Velocity and Whizzy up there, and the rest of the team agreed with me. However, talking to Speedy changed my mind.”

The decision to drop into the Black Hole was one of the few Speedy would discuss with us at length. “The reasoning was simple – this is a big funnel where you are rarely colliding against others. That means the marbles who proved their grip on the Marbula track should go. If you can believe it, the Coach wanted me to start in High Jump at first. I told the Coach ‘I don’t do that.'”

The Speeders would win overall gold and hold the highest scoring run in the whole event, at 58.32 seconds. Interviewed alone by Stynth afterward, Speedy and Rapidly were jubilant. The Captain said: “They called the season ‘over’ for us…when it had barely begun.”

Stynth also wrote:

It is easy to look at a team that consistently does so well and think that it’s always that simple—but for the Speeders, it is not.

from “Podium Moments – ML2020 Event 12”, by Stynth

The Speeders had two past golds in the Relay Run, but this season’s top overall teams had the momentum going in. The O’rangers barely lost out in the 2019 Relay, while the Minty Maniacs just won a gold in the Sprint.

The Speeders had their main lineup of Velocity, Swifty, Rapidly, and Speedy, a dream team by any sense of the term. Yet this team barely beat out Mellow Yellow in the opening heat to place in second, far behind the winning Oceanics. Meanwhile, the O’rangers demolished the current Marble League Relay record.

“It was too tense! We didn’t even dare say a word to each other!” said Swifty. Playing the starter, Swifty’s poor handoff to Velocity almost sunk their team when Team Momo dashed past them. Watching Momomomo stumble on the anchor leg, Speedy picked up the pace and forced a photo finish. Once again, it was the Speeders who advanced by a millisecond.

The final, judging by team momentum, was really between the Raspberry Racers and the O’rangers, neither of whom faced stiff competition in their rounds. Speedy switched with Swifty to take the first leg, only to stumble out the gate and see Clementin leave the Captain far behind. Velocity ran their leg, and the O’rangers’ lead grew more.

Then Greg Woods spoke for all of us: “The O’rangers have done it again – but here come the Speeders in the lane right next to them!” In the third leg, Rapidly charged like a speeding bullet, beating Orangin in the other lane to the anchor leg. Kinnowin stumbled, and maybe that did not even matter. Swifty stuck to their plan and finished several lengths ahead.

The Speeders won the gold against the O’rangers and were now second in the standings. After the Hurdles, the O’rangers were in first and the Speeders were 38 points behind. Now they trailed by ten.

In one event, the Speeders let the gap with the O’rangers grow to 35. Whizzy placed last in the High Jump, the only competitor to not clear the 36 cm mark. The booing from the Speeders fan section felt longer than the jumps Whizzy made.

“All I could hear for the next three days was the booing, and the loud O’s when Mandarin took the gold,” said Whizzy. “I couldn’t sleep because I was replaying it.”

Rapidly talked about the “despair” of that moment, while Velocity admitted their rage over not being picked despite doing well in Long Jump. For the Coach, however, there was planning to do. “A team in a Collision is only as good as their weakest link, and Whizzy was not ready mentally. If we don’t knock Collision out of the park, the championship is over. I asked Speedy to figure out Aquathlon because my focus was on our fifth member.”

In a sly tone, Speedy said they can’t comment on how they prepared the team for Event 14. But the results were undeniable: By diving into the water with lots of space between them, the Speeders could accelerate underwater and cut through any formation by their opponents.

Having beaten three teams on pure speed, the Speeders in the final faced off against the Midnight Wisps, masters of tactics. With three Speeders rolling off to one side, one of the Wisps went over and got to nudge all of them off course. And yet, it was Velocity who made a last-minute push, forcing a photo finish. They were a hundredth of a second away from taking gold for their team.

The Speeders were twenty points behind the O’rangers going into Collision. It was an event that commentators say the Speeders were “historically terrible” at, but there was no precedent for this moment. Unlike the past, the Speeders decelerated more going into the dominoes and knew how to avoid all the electrons and planet balls careening their way. They won every one of their group matches.

The toughest match for the Speeders during the knockout round was against Mellow Yellow, where the latter’s tight formation sent the Speeders flying all kinds of ways. By what both Quickly and Speedy call a “miracle,” one of their opponent’s athletes dropped out at the last second and the Speeders advanced with a 3-2 score.

“I don’t know how they did it, but Coach Quickly just felt something was wrong,” said Whizzy. It was the reserve who Quickly instructed to start further to their right, a formation change the Coach immediately petitioned to the JMRC. The request was approved right as the Wisps slinked off stage in their defeat, and the move paid off: the team launched out in a more coherent spear formation, beating the Minty Maniacs 4-1.

It all ended with a safe formation and a tight Speeders win over the Thunderbolts, 4-3. Fans of all stripes were amazed, and answering their call Stynth interviewed the Coach after the Speeders waved before their ecstatic fans. Back then, the Coach told us: “I have little details to give you. It is our team’s tradition not to reveal our training strategies.”

Asked a year later about their Collision preparations, Quickly responded: “There is still little to say, but I will say that gold is my greatest achievement. It is the result of every member of this team cohering together and trusting each other.”

The Speeders were five points ahead into the final Marathon. Stynth, interviewing Captain Speedy before the race, got the following answer:

I do not doubt that I am going to win the event and the championship. There is no other outcome.

from “Podium Moments – ML2020 Event 15”, by Stynth

Twice the Speeders captain started for the team in a championship’s final event – 2016’s Hurdles and Marbula One’s Midnight Bay – and twice they won the event and the title. Sprinting past sector and sector to go from last to second in the qualifying race, Speedy’s promise seemed inevitable. Imagine the surprise among the team when Speedy went wide on the first turn of the Stardust Accelerator, falling nine places as they got pushed out to start the Marathon proper.

“I know Speedy will never admit to this, but after that first sector the Speeders’ plans were done, out the window!” reflected Kinnowin on that race. “And I can admit to myself our plans were done too. That whole race for me and them was just about quick reactions, fighting between each other on every turn. It got pretty ugly.”

With Speedy and Kinnowin bumping back and forth, Coach Quickly fixed their sight on the front. “There wasn’t anything to say to our Captain, not until we knew who’s likely to be first,” recalled Quickly. It was not until Lap 20, after Wospy faltered and Minty Fresh started growing their lead, that Quickly said they sent a message to Speedy on the team radio: “Ease up, just beat O1 and it’s ours.”

Speedy would finish ninth that race, two ahead of Kinnowin. The exact gap, however, was less important. What’s important is that after the O’rangers beat the Speeders last minute in 2017, the reverse came to be in 2020. The media thought the Speeders were past their prime, and they were wrong. Coach Quickly was right: the Savage Speeders won the 2020 Marble League.

Before the final event, Quickly says they met with Coach Rango; with both scrutinized every day over coaching two of Marblearth’s most storied teams, they formed a bond on the job. It was Coach Rango who, seeing the most spiteful of the O’rangers’ fans, suggested both teams should join together in a show of unity no matter the result.

The shouting between the Speeders and O’rangers fan sections, which were right beside each other, turned to cheers toward a circle on the field, with both teams standing side-by-side around the trophy. “This trophy goes out as well to our greatest competitor, as well as marble sports fans across the world,” declared Speedy to applause.

It was then that Quickly was pushed to take the final roll down the winner’s track, having the honor of dousing the Marble League flame. “It was not an easy year – none of the Speeders’ years were easy,” reflected the Coach. “But 2020 is the best so far.”

Unlike the urban legend among Speeders fans, the team does take some time off of practice in the summer off-season. Between the galas and gatherings they attended, the two siblings, Rapidly and Speedy, were also interviewed by Stynth:

I stood aside from the city’s mayor and the Speeders’ new manager, Savvy, as they handed the Speeders their second honorary key to the city after their homecoming parade…

“It makes us look tough,” Speedy asserted. “But of course we’re happy we won the Marble League! Between this championship and winning both Marbula One championships, this is our year.”

“You don’t need to put that façade up,” Coach Quickly disagreed. “It doesn’t make you look tough. It makes you look out-of-touch.”

“We’re the best team in the League. We are untouchable,” refuted Rapidly.

Coach Quickly sighed.

from “Offseason Moments – ML2020 Part 1”, by Stynth

Rapidly, by their admission, does not go on vacation often. However, scheduled between the training Quickly proposed for them or the publicity shoots Manager Savvy set up, they said “it was nice to have some private time with my friends and people I trust.”

Ahead of the second season of Marbula One, Rapidly led a team of four to travel across Marblearth. They raced up and down Colina Umerun in Numerun, saw the gleaming skyscrapers around Zuro’s main boulevard, then retreated to the fjords west of Thorston. Another team would meet them there for the week: the Midnight Wisps, four of their friendliest rivals.

“Don’t whine if we got 139!” said Wisps Captain Wispy at the time, to fewer Speeders laughter than they expected. “The Speeders are the best team of all time, so you know we think about if 2018 was just a fluke.”

“They are not the villains some fans think,” said Wospy. “Not just Rapidly, but the whole team was there for us after that experience on the O’raceway. We’re not in the best mood either after losing that auto-qualifier, so it’s nice to bond over both our near misses now.”

“It’s nice to get our feelings out, and they seemed more emotive than usual then,” said Wuspy. “Rapidly said they’re sorry for what they did to us at Polaria, but we still don’t know what they referred to.”

There is one conspicuous absence in this story: Speedy, the Captain. “Well, it’s been four years now where they travel off somewhere without telling us,” explained Velocity. “It does annoy me a lot, but when you’re the greatest living athlete you don’t go by other people’s rules.”

Despite multiple inquiries from us, no one within the Speeders organization or any other team recalls seeing Speedy that off-season. The one exception was Minty Fresh, 2020’s highest-scoring individual athlete. They recall a surprise appearance by Speedy on the Minty Mania grounds, a few weeks before the Grand Prix took place.

“The two of us went off to the side and had an intense conversation,” said the Minty Maniac. “A lot of Speedy wanting to know my training regimen, but also telling me how I can improve my mindset and maintain top placements. The only issue was a week after, I had a hard time remembering all the detailed suggestions they gave!”

According to Coach Quickly, Speedy and Rapidly were finally back in Vellis ten days before traveling to the Minty Mania GP for Marbula One Season 2. “I would have liked to have more of a discussion about racer choice,” said the coach, “but Speedy had one sentence for me: ‘Without Rapidly in the Relay, we would only have silver and would have lost the Championship.’ Fair enough.”

Qualifying Day came along in Herbotamia, and Speeders fans hollered when Speedy rolled onto Minty Mania. Across three qualifier rounds and two race-offs, the defending Racer’s Champion was in better form than ever. What caused them to start at P4 was not bad defense or lack of acceleration, but because they overshot the belt in the final race-off and fell two rungs. 

That small error did not seem a big deal. Speedy moved their way up to P2 behind Yellow Eye as the race started and played perfect defense, keeping on the track’s center and not letting a train of racers behind them pace. Only one snuck by: Team Momo’s Momo. It was on Lap 5 when speeding up out of the banked turn to catch Momo, that Speedy crashed.

They bounced up the circuit’s conveyor belt rather than lodging on it, arching down into the belt’s side gear. The red flag lights flashed and the belt shut down, but not after the gears already scratched Speedy and juggled them in the air.

With the other racers stopped by the belt, cheers turned into whispers. All marbles were propped still except for the stewards rolling in to retrieve Speedy. “I remember saying, tell me they’re OK please, tell me they’re okay,” said Wospy.

Carried up the belt and off the circuit, Speedy was immediately checked up in the garage. When medics announced they had only minor scratches, the crowd roared and the race restarted. “It’s just a miracle, the greatest one that team pulled off,” said Coach Rango.

But, for the first time, Speedy watched a race roll on that they could not finish. When asked by us about their feelings during that race, Speedy showed us a shelf with hundreds of cards bearing well wishes. There was optimism from athletes like Starry, Kinnowin, and Yellow looking to challenge Speedy again soon; long prose from coaches and sportswriters; and a few from Accellaise’s youth, children who were inspired by Speedy to get into sports themselves.

“Honestly, I don’t remember the pain I felt in that moment – though it hurt,” said Speedy. “I remember the fear from thinking ‘is this the end? Will I never be as fast as I was? Will I ever race again?’ “

Speedy let go of the cards, then continued: “If I never raced again, how will Marblearth remember me? Marble training will improve in the future, so I doubt I am the greatest racer of all time. Then will they remember me for my controversies, my conduct, my character?

“I always thought those questions distract from practice, from maintaining my fitness. But the week Rapidly raced, I took time off to ponder this. I didn’t train at all going up to Honeydome. My mind was somewhere else.”

Rapidly would have their opening race at the O’raceway, and the potential duel with Orangin of the O’rangers was all the rage. With both putting in average Q1 times, they were side by side on the starting grid at tenth and eleventh. On the first lap of the O’raceway Grand Prix, it was Rapidly who stepped up through the sand and rushed to fifth. Suddenly, Rapidly took the 45-degree turn into Sector 3 wrong and got checked left and right by Orangin and Red Eye.

Finishing the first lap in eleventh, Rapidly would only do worse. Time and time again they’d deflect off the curb into Sector 3 rather than turning next to it, wasting valuable seconds and getting overtaken. Even as Orangin befell a similar fate, there was no satisfaction. Orangin placed second to last, but Rapidly ended dead last.

In the post-race press conference, reporters were treated to an unusual sight. Rapidly openly criticized some coaching and management decisions, saying they were not given enough chances to race ahead of Marbula One. “It doesn’t help that the O’rangers had all these great fixes to the track that made it so hard to race skillfully on.” If the press moved on that time, it’s because neither Quickly nor Rango commented on the stir.

The Speeders’ stay in the bottom three of the rankings was brief. As soon as Speedy finished their qualifying lap at Honeydome in the top eight, the air around them felt different. They drifted across the Bee Dance sector with ease and never slowed down in the Hive, sneaking around Bumble on the last corner of their hometown track to take pole position.

Beaten to the inside line out the start by Bumble, Speedy would get bumped side to side by competitors and fall to eighth by Lap 2. But then the Racer Champion showed their true skill – the power to stay on the racing line on tricky turns like the Bee Dance or the final M-shaped chicane. Weaving around those who overtook them, Speedy circled Momo by Lap 5 to retake the lead.

Speedy, Momo, Bumble: the race’s top three danced around each other to take a decisive lead, but it was the Speeder who was on point whether on turns, straights, or the belt. Once Speedy built up a distance away from second place, the other two faltered.

“Speedy gets the win, the Savage Speeders’ first of the season of Marbula One!” Announced Greg Woods. The Speeders fans were not the largest, but they were the loudest that day. Their idol was back in it all.

The one wrinkle in their hopes was the Tumult Turnpike. With some questionable choices in their racing line, Speedy qualified poorly and started P16 there. Making it through all the chaos in the opening laps, the Speeders Captain would fight up the standings to finish ninth. With 30 points, they were seventh out of 40 racers.

Rapidly was a different story. After the O’raceway, the team’s second racer took to the asphalt at the Aquamaring and Arctic Circuit. On the former track Rapidly placed last: they kept taking the outer lane of the central split, colliding and never picking up momentum. On the Arctic Circuit, a poor start by Rapidly compounded when they collided against the sharp Turn 7, swiveling for a moment before racing again.The time was 23.93, just below the cutoff for qualifying for the main race with Rima and Red Eye to go. On the same day that Rima asserted their place in Season 2 and Red Eye looked to nab another gold, Rapidly caused the Savage Speeders to not qualify for the first time in any JMR event.

What happened after Rapidly’s DNQ was not revealed until after the Marbula One season concluded when a recording surfaced of a meeting between the Speeders’ Marbula One team. Coach Quickly would eventually confirm the recording is factual.

At the start of the tape, Quickly made mention of Speedy, Rapidly, and Swifty in the same room. Then they revealed the reason for the talk: Quickly made an inquiry to the JMRC on whether a racer can be swapped out after Race 6, and the Coach wanted to raise the possibility of swapping Rapidly for Swifty. 

“Are you thinking straight?” Was Speedy’s only reply. Quickly then went into a long speech where they analyzed Rapidly’s racing failures, predicting they would finish in the bottom quarter among all racers this season. To conclude, the Coach said: “Even if there are family bonds between you and Rapidly, the stats don’t give me much hope. Starting next year Rapidly can focus on Marble League 2021 instead.”

“I know Rapidly much better than you could,” retorted Speedy on the tape. “And this move by you is out of the line. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Several minutes of yelling over each other followed. During one part, Speedy can be heard saying Rapidly won gold medals before Coach Quickly was involved in sports. During another, Quickly claims Speedy is jealous because Swifty has raced better than the Captain. Then, the sound of rolling is heard.

“You’ve made excuses for your sibling for three years now, but I thought you’d shut up when the team’s reputation is on the line,” Quickly can be heard saying. “I’m done with you two. If you think your sibling’s so great, figure their racing out yourself.” According to Swifty, the ear-splitting crash ending the recording was the moment Quickly swung the locker door behind them. “It was just silence between the three of us there… when Speedy started rolling out, I went right after the Captain. We had to give Rapidly some space.”

After the Arctic Circuit GP, the media only heard from Manager Savvy that there would be an unexpected delay in the Speeders press conference. When Rapidly came out and was asked if their underperformance was due to “personal troubles,” they responded: 

I appreciate that some people may be trying to give me an excuse to fall back on, please ignore the rumors. These results, whether they are wins or losses, are mine and I own them. I’ve won, and I’ve lost. That’s the game we play…

I do not want my failures to be excused by claims of personal troubles, or injuries, or anything at all. I own it all. I own the wins, and I will own the losses.

From that day to the Winter Special, the Speeders were a non-entity. They were eleventh overall in Marbula One, Rapidly was without points, and Manager Savvy had nothing to comment on any journalistic inquiry. The Marblebase would gossip back and forth on whether Rapidly would be sacked until a short JMRC statement noted no M1 team made a final request to swap racers mid-season.

Finally, on a snowy night at the foot of the Himarblelayas, the Speeders’ team plane touched down and carried the whole team in it. Speeders fans crowded around every athlete they knew, their coach, and their manager. Silent as they rolled past upon arrival, the team issued a statement from Captain Speedy: the team would use the Marble League Winter Special to showcase athletes apart from Rapidly and themselves, so the M1 racers would not have to overexert.

According to the JMRC, the Speeders were invited to the Winter Special as the runners-up of 2018’s Winter Marble League. As much as they acted like they were invisible the whole tournament, the Speeders were as fast as ever. Swifty could have scored higher in fifth in Ice Dash if not for losing a photo finish, and the same for Whizzy’s sixth in the Snowboard Cross if not for a block by Team Galactic. Less memorable were Velocity’s last place in Speed Skating and a sixth-place in Bobsled marred by a bumpy finish.

Going into the final Ice Hockey event, Speedy and Quickly appeared together at a press conference for the first time since Tumult Turnpike. Their answers to questions were curt, but the idea was clear: Both marbles were sharing coaching duties in search of a Hockey Gold that eluded them in 2018.

What followed was the peak of the tournament for the Speeders, starting from when they quickly dispatched the Green Ducks and the Snowballs. Playing against Team Galactic in the semi-final, the Speeders nearly lost by one if not for Rapidly checking a Galactic defender and letting it all tie up 3-3. Then the two teams went into a double-overtime grudge match, broken at the last second by a Rapidly back-hander into the Galactic net.

“Those two overtimes were so contact heavy, we were really out of breath coming out of it,” said Swifty. In the final, the Raspberry Racers not only had more stamina but also had a whole separate section of Oceanics fans shouting for them. The Speeders were outplayed in the final 4-1, but still walked away with a silver medal.

According to independent analyst Roilan, the Speeders’ Whizzy made the most saves while Swifty shot the most goals. With every Speeder on a podium for the first time since Polaria, the warmth started to show in the team. Looking back, Coach Quickly places more emphasis: “We needed that moment to bring some joy back into our lineup.”

In less than a week, Speedy was across half of Marblearth and testing the straights on the Raceforest circuit. A repeat Racer’s Championship was possible, and the Captain fielded more questions about whether they could beat the Cat’s Eyes, Hazy, or Billy. The answers were generic: they would beat them all, no doubt.

That Grand Prix was the first time Speedy raced against Red Eye in Marbula One, and the first time Speedy was beaten by Red Eye. The Cat’s Eye ran a faster Q1 lap, then defended against Speedy behind them for three straight laps. It all came undone when Red Eye smacked against the starting lights, letting Speedy roll past – but not enough to overtake Team Primary’s Rima for pole.

In the main race, we saw Speedy’s lesson from the Qualifier was “be more aggressive.” The Speeder cut right in front of polesitter Rima before the first turn, only to see Red Eye nudge them off the racing line and lead out of the first sector. Speedy was more consistent exiting the belt, but Red Eye’s superior handling of straights meant the lead traded back and forth between these two.

The theatrics started on Lap 10 when the nearly lapped Razzy stuck to the middle of the track and refused to let Red Eye through. Cutting ahead of Red Eye to take first, Speedy found themselves just as vulnerable to Razzy. The racing was tense, Speedy going bumper to bumper trying to overtake the Raspberry Racer.

“This is not that hard, I thought, they were a mediocre racing team,” said Speedy. “But it was aggression I wasn’t used to, and I kept hitting more and more curbs. That was how Red Eye overtook me for the last time.”

After fifteen laps, it was Red Eye with the double gold medal this season. Diplomatic after the race, Speedy in their mind must have rewound Greg Woods’s call of the last lead change: from the defending Racer Champion, a “momentary lapse of judgment.”

Much occupied Speedy’s mind at that time. They would explain that they had little time for personal training because after Coach Quickly’s ultimatum they were focusing on Rapidly. Whole days were spent practicing with Speedy’s sibling, trying to resolve what the Captain diagnosed as a “lack of drive.”

“Rapidly’s qualifying laps were mediocre, with little understanding of the right line into turns,” diagnosed Speedy. “They then start in the middle of the pack and make no effort to climb up like we did last season. A few laps later, Rapidly is far behind the midfield and doomed to be out of points.”

 “Everything Speedy said to me made sense, and we worked long hours on how to race differently,” said Rapidly. “But the day before we traveled to Om, I wasn’t up to Speedy’s standards and they said to me: ‘I wish I knew why you aren’t how you used to be.’ Which is … the point isn’t for Speedy to know me better than myself.”

At the Momotorway, the worst of Speedy’s predictions came true. Rapidly collided against the attenuator out of Sector 1 in qualifying, placing eleventh on the grid in the end. At the Grand Prix’s start, Rapidly barely accelerated going in and out of the wide 180-degree turn, and would take turns too late, colliding with the side. By Lap 3, they were last and only got slower. Rapidly’s final finishing time was 20 seconds behind Yellow Eye’s championship-defining win.

There were no reporters crammed into Rapidly’s press conference as in the past, and the racer could only say one thing before leaving: “I’m sorry for disappointing the fans.”

At Palette Park, Speedy qualified at a respectable seventh, several rows ahead of Racer Championship leaders like Red Eye and Bolt. However, press questions still focused mostly on whether the Speeder fears those rival racers could catch up to them. At one point, the Captain exclaimed: “What do you want to know?! I don’t know how Red Eye trained to be this good and I don’t want to know how.”

“It was a lapse of judgment,” recalled Speedy. “But I was so used to calling myself the closer, not these new racers. The skills to go from the back row and front row are rare, and they’re owned by me. At least, that was what my ego told me.”

Racing on the fastest track of the season, Speedy’s experience showed. While the dark horses like Pulsar or Tumult took the early lead, Speedy overtook them all by avoiding crashing out on the straights and banked turns. Then came the race’s second half.

“Wospy has recovered very nicely, up into second place!” announced Greg Woods. “I think Speedy could see Wospy coming up the belt, so went on the inside just to be safe.” What seemed like strategy – Speedy swerving inside one lap and outside another – might have been hesitancy and fear as Wospy kept making up the gap.

On Lap 16, Speedy was overtaken after a poor belt exit. Greg Woods chuckled: “Wospy, into the lead – and that was from dead last!” Speedy accelerated past Wospy the next lap and built up a bigger lead, but the two were neck and neck again at the penultimate lap.

On the third turn of that lap, Speedy got forced by Wospy up a curb, ceding the lead. On the final lap, Speedy accelerated one last time to get right behind Wospy, but it fell short. Wospy became the first racer to go from last to first in Marbula One history.

Rapidly recalls what happened after. “Speedy was being diplomatic in public. Losing two close finishes like that made them heartbroken. They told me we can’t train together anymore, because Speedy needed to focus on themselves. And the best thing I did that season was knowing I’m on my own, but not isolating myself.”

Rapidly filed through a stack of letters, and picked out one from Wospy sent after Palette Park. “Dear Rapidly – I wouldn’t have won that Marbula gold without you,” they read, “… At my lowest point, you kept me going on the track and showed me one failure didn’t mean I should be left behind… The world of marble racing needs you to contend like you always had.”

“After the Momotorway, I talked to Whizzy more about composure as well as to others,” said Rapidly. “Then Wospy sent me that message, I read it and I broke down that second. I needed someone to tell me that. I own my failures, but it’s not right for me to be defined by them!”

“There were three days I spent with Rapidly after Palette Park before their long ride to Misty Mountain,” said Whizzy, “and something changed. They were colliding less with me in training, daring to glide on top of track curbs and more. The fire in them was alive.”

Flying through the fog, Rapidly made it past the Misty Mountain’s Q1 round for the first time in three races, starting in sixth. Once the race started, Rapidly swerved beautifully past one marble and another, sticking to the racing line down the pair of Z turns in Sector 2. Halfway through the race, the Speeder put some distance between their opponents, placing provisionally in fourth.

Without much to do with the drama at the front, Rapidly went to third before the restart by profiting off Wispy colliding with Bumble at the sharp corner. Then, on the first lap of the restart, they sped up on the final straight and swerved between Starry and Cerulean to take the lead.

For the first time this season, Rapidly led a lap—two, in fact. In the end, some solid defense from Hazy and Mallard held the racer back to third place. But that third is a Marbula One podium placement for Rapidly over a year in the making.

“I stepped onto the podium that day, with a bottle to celebrate, and I just felt it was so fun – like it was when last season started.” said Rapidly. “Coach Quickly was at my side, and before we got on they said to me ‘I’m sorry for what I said.’ But it was okay because I told Coach as well – right now is a time to party.”

As Rapidly’s redemption began, Speedy was in a bind. The Captain had a chance to defend their Racer’s Championship title against the two Cat’s Eyes, but their real objective was more visceral. “I can’t help but think I must beat Red Eye again where it mattered,” they recalled.

The Captain was aware of Coach Quickly –  if not the whole Speeders team – saying they should run at Midnight Bay as the best way to get a second gold. Yet, Speedy insisted they should run and win at the Savage Speedway, supposedly to entertain as many home fans as possible. Once White Eye repeated that Red Eye would run on the Speedway, Quickly thought: “Speedy went out because they think it’s destiny, even if I don’t.”

In the Q1 round, Speedy pulled a respectable time: 24.551 seconds, just milliseconds behind two others for provisional fourth fastest lap. The cheering home circuit fans quickly held their breath, seeing Red Eye’s time right after: 24.337, the fastest by several lengths.

The two race-offs turned into a duel between Speedy and Red Eye for pole position. Making up ground, Speedy was on the same belt rung as Red Eye, until the Cat’s Eye’s great belt exit left Speedy far behind. “Speedy looks a bit shocked,” said Greg Woods: Red Eye won a decisive pole position, Speedy in P2.

The two giants were still on the same row on the starting grid: there was time to turn it around for the Speeders. But two laps in, the dream was over. While Speedy was boxed in on all sides by Ocean, Minty Drizzel, and Prim, Red Eye was ahead of the pack and their lead grew wider and wider. Speedy weaving between friend and foe on the Speedway’s long straight was more performance than anything that mattered. 

Red Eye clinched the Racer and Team Championships by running eight seconds ahead of all others. Speedy’s racing was more uneven and eventually, they were overtaken by Starry, finishing in sixth.

Fate was unkind toward Speedy this Marbula One season. There was no comeback and the suspense for the Championships resolved in a way no Speeders fan wanted. In this season Speedy was consistently one of the best, but just got beaten for gold at the end of races again and again. Following a few words of congratulation for Red Eye, Speedy retreated from the fans’ view and into the garage.

A fair share of the home fans rolled out of the stands before the podium ceremony took place. For the few that stayed around longer, they tried to sound optimistic. “I still have faith in our captain, and they and Rapidly will always be the core of the team for me,” said one interviewee. “And after seeing this whole race with Red Eye… sometimes you just have to recognize greatness.”

Midnight Bay, the circuit marking the Speeders’ first taste of glory last year, was now a race without stakes. Rapidly raced for the team at a time when the fans were mainly worried Yellow Eye and Hazy could squeeze Speedy out of the Racer’s Championship Podium altogether.

Rapidly finished the Midnight Bay Qualifiers in tenth, nowhere near the main news that day as Bolt did not qualify while Cerulean took pole in a statement after Misty Mountain. On race day, seconds in Rapidly jumped up the curb around the opening hairpin, falling to fifteenth. The team radio, however, sounded unfazed. “It’s not a fatal error,” broadcasted Quickly. “The plan is still in motion, focus on belt exit.”

Focus is what Rapidly did, accelerating to the belt’s center and then skirting by the opening curbs. At the start of Lap 2, they went from fifteenth to seventh. The climb only continued: they, Razzy, and Cerulean were the only racers to consistently not overshoot the hairpins and get stuck on the curbs.

Ten laps in, Rapidly saw Razzy wobbling from a poor turn around the opening hairpin and darted past to take the lead. “A great move there, going around the outside!” exclaimed Greg Woods. Even if Cerulean sped up to take second by the final lap, it was never bumper to bumper between them. Rapidly, to the fan’s cheers, won the Midnight Bay Grand Prix by over a second.

The garage erupted with noise after Rapidly’s win. Over the radio, Coach Quickly could be heard: “That was perfect.” Speedy would recall thinking to themselves: “I don’t understand what just happened, but my sibling is back.” If Speedy wanted to talk with Rapidly after the race podium celebrations, there was no time. Rapidly just pushed their sibling back up the podium so they’d accept their second place in the Team Championship.

In the end, even if the Crazy Cat’s Eyes dominated Marbula One Season 2, the Speeders were the next best thing. Rapidly’s gold meant the team climbed from fourth to second, and Speedy ultimately saved their second place in the Racer Championship.

“I think back to what I said about Red Eye out of passion, and no champion deserves to be questioned that way,” said Speedy after the festivities were over. “This is a season full of legends old and new. I’ll see you all again for Season 3.” Meanwhile, Rapidly was too busy rolling with joy in front of the Speeders fan section.

On one of our final days at the Vellis training complex, a group interview with the team was delayed because they spent extra time diagnosing Rapidly’s middling 23rd out of 28 at the Felynia Practice Race. Manager Savvy instead toured us around the complex, more than any outsider has before. For the first time, we saw the variety of contraptions and courses inside, the latter built of various materials, more than enough with which to host a Marble League.

With only time to ask one question with the whole team before the day was over, we asked whether the team was willing to host a Marble League soon. “We think about it all the time, but now we know the real issue is the pressure it puts on us,” said Coach Quickly. “I respect the Crazy Cat’s Eyes for juggling winning Marbula One and hosting this year, but I can’t imagine the stress they’re under to excel at both.”

“The more pressure you face in your life, the sooner the cracks start to show,” said Whizzy. “Sometimes we need to take a step back and fix what was broken.” It was a wise comment to which the whole team nodded in agreement.

To make up for the delay, our reporters saw how the Speeders usually wrap up training days: the team, Coach included, would race one more time against each other on a random track, which this time was a combination sprint and sand moguls track.

Coach Quickly, being larger than the others, stumbled early out of the gate as they usually do. The other five stayed balanced in their track lanes, before swinging and jostling each other over the sand up to the finish. Three red blurs rolled through the finish line: Speedy, Whizzy, and Velocity in a photo finish.

“You know, let’s just call it a tie for first between us three,” said Speedy. Our reporters waved goodbye after that moment, but as we left we saw a cheery sight: the Speeders were huddling together, laughing. 

In RetRollSpective, the Savage Speeders are a team that is as complex as champions get. They reached the pinnacle in both Marble League and Marbula One – twice. They hold the record for the most total medals in the Marble League (35) and most golds (15). Despite their storied successes, the Speeders’ internal culture reached such a pressure point that it could have put some athletes’ careers on the line. Fortunately for us on the outside, the team processed through the worst and is ready for Marble League 2024. Unfortunately for the other teams, this means you once again can’t count out the Savage Speeders to win it all. Best of luck to the Savage Speeders in the near future, keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: Fouc, Stynth
• Additional Writing: Jaiden
• Editor: Smacg13
• Artist: Piney
• Graphic Designers: Baron, Marble Sports Films, Minos Fylaktos, Spex, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: The Emperor, Jelle’s Marble Runs, Piney, Vector
• Release: 28/09/2021