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 eye up the Crazy Cat’s Eyes, the champions of Marbula One Season 2 and hosts of Marble League 2021. Read on to find out how this team has clawed through their competition!

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes are best known not for their appearance in Marble League competitions, but their likenesses that are portrayed in the Marble League logo. The team was personally requested to be featured by Pim Leurs after they settled on the final design.

“It was a true honor to accept,” said Red Eye, the team’s captain. “The photoshoot was a lot of fun, and we even got to meet Jelle themselves.”

“I tagged along for emotional support,” remarked Cyan Eye. “It would have been cool to be in the logo, but I’m over it,” they said, glancing behind them as a transparent and black cat’s eye marble rolled past them to be professionally photographed.

All things considered, the Cat’s Eyes would not have been asked to model for the logo if they had not been so successful in marble sports. The team hails from Felynia, a city perched between two rivers known for its prestige in film and entertainment. The dunes outside of the city are nicknamed the “Cat’s Dunes” in honor of Crazy Cat’s Eye, a Marble Rally athlete that trains there in solitude. Crazy Cat’s Eye’s fans in the city are numerous, but they train alone in the dry, hot sand, knowing no fan is crazy enough to travel as far into the desert as them.

Their fans in the city may be numerous, but only six of them have joined Crazy Cat’s Eye in international marble sports tournaments. The Crazy Cat’s Eyes, inspired by but not affiliated with the Marble Rally athlete, became the only major sports team in Felynia. Each team member hails from a different district in the city, chosen to represent Felynia in marble sports.

“We didn’t know each other at first, no,” confirmed Blue Eye. “I would argue that has made us closer, though.”

Green Eye added, “It’s made us want to get to know each other better.”

The city of Felynia submitted the team to compete in the 2015 Knikkegen Marble League, which had received an influx of applications from around the world. The Cat’s Eyes were accepted into the tournament.

“It was awesome and scary and wonderful,” Yellow Eye reflected. “We were better at events focusing on accuracy, like Balancing, and team events, like Team Pursuit. Speed was not our strongest suit.”

“I trained them the best I could with what I knew,” White Eye, the team’s coach since 2015, asserted. “We focused on honing our stealth and our speed—two ancient Felyni traditions that ensure the mastery of quick precision in competitions. They weren’t up to speed then.”

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes, after placing eleventh in their rookie season, returned home to Felynia as the 2016 Marble League began, but they continued to train. A year and a half later, the team’s application for the 2018 Winter Marble League Qualifiers was accepted, and the Crazy Cat’s Eyes left for the Arctic Circle to compete.

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes were sorted into Group A and appeared in the first heat of the 2018 Winter Marble League Qualifiers alongside the Hazers, another rookie team. Blue Eye rolled and stopped right on the button, and their show-stopping accuracy helped the Cat’s Eyes place third in their qualifying debut. Yellow Eye’s third-place finish in the 5 Meter Ice Dash, coupled with two fifth-place finishes in the Snow Rally and the Halfpipe, allowed the team to qualify for the main tournament of the 2018 Marble League, fourth in their group.

Yellow Eye earned the team’s first bronze medal in the second event, Ski Jump, with a distance of 119.2 centimeters. After placing second-to-last in the Halfpipe, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes proceeded to place sixth thrice in a row, rising to eighth by the midpoint of the 2018 season. Their sixth-place streak ended when Red Eye competed in the Snow Rally and placed thirteenth, and the team fell to eleventh overall.

“The 2018 standings weren’t spread that far apart, but we were having a hard time keeping up with everyone else,” Red Eye confessed. “We were in twelfth going into the Biathlon, and we weren’t getting the attention that the Hazers or even the Racers were.”

Of course, the Biathlon was the Crazy Cat’s Eyes’ shining moment in the 2018 season—it was an event that tested both speed, handoffs, and accuracy. The Cat’s Eyes finished with a time of 25.53 and 3 points off the time, not only earning a gold medal but breaking a Marble League record.

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes were one of ten teams that could win the 2018 Marble League going into the final event, where they came in at tenth place. The team remained there as Yellow Eye placed dead last in the Sand Mogul Race, and finished their rookie season with 96 points earned.

“I know I could have done better, but I didn’t expect to win,” admitted Yellow Eye. “We always felt behind the competition. There’s always next year!”

They continued to lag behind the competition during the offseason, where Red Eye did not finish the 100 Meter Water Race and the team placed last in the Amazing Maze Marble Race. The Crazy Cat’s Eyes’ chances of making it into the 2019 Marble League did not seem high.

All of the doubt surrounding the team disappeared completely after the first event of Qualifiers, where Green Eye flexed on their competition with a time of nearly two minutes in Funnel Endurance and placed first of the twenty teams. Even after placing last in Block Pushing, the team dropped only to fourth overall. The Crazy Cat’s Eyes qualified for the 2019 Marble League in third place overall thanks to Blue Eye’s third-place finish in the Underwater Race, with 54 points earned.

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes entered the 2019 season with their eyes on the prize, having specialized in team events and honing their accuracy through stealth training. Blue Eye began the season where they left off, placing ninth in the Underwater Race. Coach White Eye put Yellow Eye in for Funnel Endurance instead of Green Eye, who was training for the 5 Meter Sprint. Unfortunately, Yellow Eye was not able to replicate their teammate’s success, placing fourteenth and dropping the team to thirteenth overall.

The team quickly turned around their fortunes in three events, medaling thrice in a row. The Cat’s Eyes’ first medal came in a team event that focused on accuracy—Balancing, an event that they had not officially competed in nearly five years. That seemed to mean nothing for the team, though, as Green Eye and Yellow Eye coasted to the green zone at the end and broke the Rojo Rollers’ four-year-old record. The team held on to the provisional lead, with a score of 351, until the Thunderbolts and Hazers surpassed the record—but the Crazy Cat’s Eyes remained on the podium to earn a bronze medal.

They “would not be denied” in the fourth event, Gravitrax Slalom, as Greg Woods put it. The event, much like the Biathlon, was an ideal combination for the Crazy Cat’s Eyes: a team pursuit focusing on speed and tested on Gravitrax, which was the team’s preferred track to train on. The Cat’s Eyes earned their first gold of the 2019 Marble League in a decisive victory against the Raspberry Racers, Jungle Jumpers, and Green Ducks in the final—figuratively scratching, tearing, and ripping apart their competition, as the message on the jumbotron alluded.

The grand finale of the Crazy Cat’s Eyes’ three-event charge came in the 5 Meter Sprint, which Green Eye competed in after missing Funnel Endurance. Coach White Eye’s decision paid off, as the sprinter snuck into the final after placing second in both their heat and their semifinal, and earned a bronze medal with a time of 6.238 seconds. At the end of the fifth event, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes rose comfortably to fourth place in the standings.

The Cat’s Eyes remained a constant in the top half of the standings for most of the remainder of the season, remaining around fifth and sixth besides some finishes in the lower middle of the pack. Some of the team’s best finishes were in Block Pushing, where they placed sixth, and the Elimination Race, where Red Eye earned the team’s third bronze medal of the season in a nail-biting finale. With three events to go and four medals to their name, the team was in a position to claim the prize.

If their last three events were anything to go by—which they were—it seemed that the Crazy Cat’s Eyes had lost sight of the competition. Red Eye competed in Surfing, the event immediately following their bronze medal, and placed dead last, highlighting an unusually tone-deaf roster decision by the coach. The team’s momentum all but evaporated after this, as does the rain in the hot desert of the Cat’s Dunes, and the Crazy Cat’s Eyes finished the 2019 Marble League in eleventh overall after two more finishes in the bottom of the standings.

For all the talk of the Oceanics’ collapse, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes had one of the worst streaks in Marble League history in their last three events. On their journey back to Felynia, the many fans that went along with the team grumbled all the way through. How could their team blow a chance at the Marble League podium like that? How could they follow up a last-place finish in the Sand Moguls with a second-to-last showing in the Sand Rally? And how can this team carry on the legend of Crazy Cat’s Eye when the athletes seem to dry up at the sight of sand?

The topic of their sand performance was touchy for Red Eye. “We look up to Crazy Cat’s Eye so much. If it wasn’t for their influence on marble sports, we would not have been chosen to compete. That said, we are always looking to improve our performance in the Marble League and I don’t think it’s fair to compare our skills in sand events to theirs.”

More than ever, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes were rarely seen during their practice sessions. Red Eye, a celebrity around town, was not seen for many months, even as the marble world kept its sights on Marbula One. That was when a rumor started to spread. Some of the Crazy Cat’s Eyes athletes were seen rolling to the east, heading straight for the Cat’s Dunes…

Great Expectations

an addendum by Fouc & Ghostly

When the Crazy Cat’s Eyes lined up before the Andromedome balance beam, it was the first time they had competed together in a year. The other teams read the press releases – that Felynia’s High Council, led by the fair Cleocatra, invested heavily in the team, that they now have a new manager by the name of Bullseye – but none of that mattered if the athletes flopped in the 2020 Marble League Qualifiers.

Then the gate snapped back, each athlete sped down their lane on the beam, and the team scored 30 more points than the current leaders, the Savage Speeders.

Apart from a blunder in Block Pushing, the Cat’s Eyes during Qualifiers were no longer a midfield team. Even if the Speeders scored the most points in the Qualifiers, the Cat’s Eyes were safely in second. From Red Eye to Cyan Eye, they all clocked faster times than before.

Asked for comment after their second-place showing in the Qualifiers’ 5 Meter Sprint, Red Eye said: “Podium or not, at every point during the Qualifiers we were doing better.” That quote sums up the team’s trend for all of last year.

The one exception might be the Cat’s Eyes’ performance at the opening event of Marble League 2020, Balancing. The team placed fifth, their worst placement in that event, but the team’s reliable teamwork returned in Halfpipe. They got a silver medal with a total time of 64.49 seconds, beating the Minty Maniacs in third by over 5 seconds. Stynth reported: 

While the Minty Maniacs are getting the most attention out of the newer teams, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes have also shown up, earning their first silver medal. Either of their Halfpipe successes against the Hornets would have broken the Balls of Chaos’ record, and their first heat would have broken the Maniacs’ record. Green Eye’s performance in their second heat, while not record-breaking, was one of the best among individual marble athletes.

from “Podium Moments – ML2020 Event 2”, by Stynth

Cyan Eye finished in the top half in Funnel Endurance whereas Yellow Eye was in the bottom three on last year’s track. In Newton’s Cradle, Yellow Eye leaped to glory off of Green Eye’s strike and just barely missed a podium, a quarter of a centimeter away.

“It always stings when you get so close to victory just to barely fall short,” Yellow Eye remarked afterward. “We’ve been very close to getting our second medal this year these past two events. I’m hoping we can push even further beyond this and get a new medal!”

The Cat’s Eyes were confident they could continue their success in the Long Jump, as they had won a bronze in the Ski Jump in 2018. Sure enough, Blue Eye made a perfect landing to nab the gold. With eyes on the Minty Maniacs and the O’rangers dueling for first, White Eye’s team was 5 points behind the leader and 28 points ahead of fourth place, finding themselves the only team putting pressure on the top two.

With a chance to lead the overall standings, Yellow Eye took to the starting gate for the 5 Meter Hurdles. Overshadowed by Razzy’s record-breaking runs in their heat and semi-final, the Cat’s Eye rolled out of the starting gate in the semifinals and found it now hard to explain what they did there. But afterward, they were told they had shattered the new hurdles record by 0.2 seconds, lowering the time to 8.126s.

Still finding it hard to consistently start well, Yellow Eye would squander an early lead and finish fourth at Hurdles. But they were undeterred, later stating: “Knowing I’m a world record holder is just fantastic. Lots of times after that event, I’d feel exhausted in training and Coach would tell me: ‘you have a world record, so why can’t you go one more lap?’ It’s funny how that always works on me.”

A solid seventh place in Block Pushing was followed by twelfth, seventh, and twelfth in Triathlon, Sand Mogul Race, and 5m Sprint, respectively. These results evoked a sinking feeling Cat’s Eyes fans know too well: the last-minute collapse or the wider case of the “Second Half Curse.” In the 2018 Marble League, their team went from eighth after Event 6 to an overall placement of tenth; in the 2019 Marble League, a sixth-place performance by Event 8 resolved in eleventh place by the end of the competition.

The team overall stayed in third place despite it all, but they went from a one-point gap from the top two after Hurdles to being at risk of getting overtaken by the Wisps and Raspberry Racers in the standings by the end of the 5 Meter Sprint.

As fans began sweating bullets, dreading the familiar fall from grace, up came the Black Hole Funnel. Unlike many other teams, coach White Eye benched the duo from Newton’s Cradle for a new pairing in the Black Hole Funnel, using Red Eye and Blue Eye this time around. The fans’ fears were dashed away as the duo nabbed a bronze in the event! As Stynth reported from the scene:

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes continued to up the ante on their best season yet, remaining in championship contention by earning their third overall medal in the Black Hole Funnel. Both of the Cat’s Eyes’ runs exceeded 35 seconds, with their first run being the strongest of the two thanks to Red Eye’s dominant performance.

They, with a run of 33.15, recorded the longest individual time in the funnels across both runs. “I’ll admit, it was a bit eerie when Quacky dropped down from the funnel and it was just me. But I knew I had to keep on rolling, and I let myself do just that until I fell to the bottom. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my career.

With their bronze, the team found themselves just ten points away from claiming the lead.

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

The joy would not last long. The Cat’s Eyes’ record in the Winter Biathlon drove their fans to believe they would podium in the Relay events soon enough, and yet in 2020, they would hear Greg Woods call out Green Eye’s “slow start” out the starting gate in the opening heat. Three slow and unfocused passes later, the Cat’s Eyes finished last in the Relay with the only time above nine seconds, dropping to fifth overall.

“To make things worse, only team management and our athletes knew about our Marbula One and 2021 hosting bids back then,” said White Eye. “I kept fielding calls from Bullseye that the High Council would scale down funding for both bids if the team can’t be expected to podium next year. I didn’t tell my athletes that, naturally.”

The more the Cat’s Eyes could not triumph over the Second Half Curse, the more their fans seemed to believe in it. Going into the final event, the team had four straight bottom-half finishes and was eliminated from championship contention. After never leaving the top-five throughout the entirety of the league, they were now in danger of ending in sixth with the Hazers close behind.

“It was not a fun time. We needed to get away from finger-pointing at Green Eye or Red Eye,” recalled White Eye. “I told my team to stick to the schedule, we’ll take a break for Showdown day and we’ll get out and cheer for our friends, the Turtle Sliders.”

The friendship between the Cat’s Eyes and the Turtle Sliders came out of a chance encounter. “After the 2018 Marble League, we would make these trips around the world to connect with the top teams,” said White Eye. “Then right before we were to meet the Oceanics in Dunduei, we were told they had to cancel to finalize some personnel changes.”

With a trip to the other end of Marblearth booked but in search of a team to engage with, the Cat’s Eyes sent out a request to the only other team they knew there – the historic rivals to the Oceanics, the Turtle Sliders. Their veteran member, Shelly, was thrilled to meet.

“It was one of our best trips ever,” said Blue Eye. “We grew up in the desert, but the Sliders knew that and took us boating all around the nearby islands. They showed us all their facilities and we dived and raced underwater together!”

The Sliders would then make several trips to the Cat’s Eyes’ Felyni grounds. “Our trip last year was eye-opening. We’ve never seen any team take racing pace and acceleration as seriously as our Felyni friends,” said the captain, Crush. “With the rest of the sports world focused on each other in Marbula One, we agreed to keep these techniques a secret.”

Even though the Sliders could not exit the Showdown’s relegation zone, we must think the Cat’s Eyes were thrilled to see Squirt dash out the starting gate in the final Sand Moguls, taking the lead. Unfortunately, none of Squirt’s Felyni training aided them in staying straight, as they would end third in their heat.

“I talked to Squirt and Shelly after Showdown, since both our teams were feeling the nerves,” said Red Eye. “But you know what? They told us right away they want to practice with us again in Felynia.”

“I spoke with Red Eye before the Marathon and they told the same story,” said White Eye. Then they said, ‘what does it mean if we’re not trying as hard as them?’ I told the team Red Eye had a point: if we let ourselves be defined by curses and we’re not trying to break the pattern, then we’ll never have that champions’ mindset, that thirst to win. And then Red Eye told me they had to go out for the Marathon.”

Good feelings aside, we encountered the one issue the team would not go into detail about: how they reacted to the controversial qualifying race before the Marathon, where, by the first lap, a collision off a chicane left Red Eye stranded, only getting started again a lap later. Everyone referred to what we already knew: that an exceptional consensus among coaches let Red Eye start the main race in P5 on the grid, and the sincere gratitude the racer directed to the JMRC for the ruling.

More informative is an interview with O’rangers coach Rango following the 2020 Marble League. “It’s important that us coaches and the organizers worked out a solution,” said Rango. “Without going into details, there was a real risk the final race would go on with only 15 teams. In the end, Kinnowin and our team would have made up ground over the race, but a race defined by a crash and controversy is not fair to anyone.”

Starting at fifth, Red Eye still lost control in the opening laps and fell to a low of eleventh. But then the team captain made multiple overtakes out of the starting gate, shooting to fifth a third of the way through and climbing their way to a bronze medal. The Crazy Cat’s Eyes secured a fifth-place finish in the 2020 Marble League with 160 points, and the celebration was just getting started.

“Right before the closing ceremony, our team heard the JMR Committee unanimously approved our bid,” said Blue Eye. “I had to keep my composure because White Eye and I had to give our press conference about all this, but that night I was just in a daze. The budget the High Council set for our games is astronomical. I watched our fans rolling with joy in the City Square because of the bid, and I watched them cheer for us from their balconies for the first time.”

“After another soul-crushing second half, I wasn’t expecting much,” said Violet Eye, a noted Felyni pundit. “But Red Eye finally handed us fans a good season finish, by far the best the team has ever had, and CCE got picked to host on top of it. At that point I thought we had peaked for the year. Little did I know how wrong I was.”

The schedule was tight for the athletes. In Felynia, the High Council would tear down Felynia’s athletic fields to build a world-class Coliseum, with seating for 20,000. Suddenly, the team had to manage business deals and stadium construction, and with this background, Stynth visited the Crazy Cat’s Eyes during the 2020 offseason:

“The finish line should be just about in sight with Crazy Cat’s Eye…gonna cross the line first if things hold out as they are? Yes, they do!”

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes were cheering as I rolled into their arena, which was rife with scaffolding, paint cans, and wet concrete. I had heard Greg Woods’ voice booming through the speakers, almost as if they were really commentating in the stadium—but as I listened, I realized it was just a replay of the first race of the 2019 Marble Rally.

            “We can’t go to this year’s Marble Rally. We have to train,” Coach White Eye insisted. “We’re not taking our prequalification spot for granted, and we’re not going to let the host’s curse get in our way. Next year is our moment…”

The next logical step in our conversation was to ask the team about the rumors of them searching for the legendary Marble Rally athlete in the Cat’s Dunes.

“You’re almost finished, but it isn’t quite a wrap. The answer is who’s just above us on the list with the last hoisted map.”

            Red Eye immediately started sweating. “What are you talking about? That was just the press trying to stir up the…uh…sand. Plus, we know Crazy Cat’s Eye wouldn’t actually want us to bother them during their training. It would be a waste of time.”

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

The coach also had to respond to the JMRC invitation for the second season of Marbula One. There was no denying sending Red Eye, the “Crimson Cat,” but the second spot was harder.

“Lots and lots – half my team, even – felt we should go with Blue Eye,” said White Eye. “But I talked to Red Eye and Blue Eye about this as well. Yellow Eye and Green Eye both had just one bronze to their names, and I thought I had to take a risk on one of them to hone that champion’s mindset in them.”

As some Felyni pundits predicted, Yellow Eye’s superior form to Green Eye at Polaria gave them the nod for Marbula One. The “Flashy Feline” joined the team captain on a promotional shoot in the dunes, thrusting Yellow Eye into the eyes of marble sports fans.

With no circuit up to grade for Marbula racing in Felynia, manager Bullseye struck a deal with Limers’ manager Blimey, renting out their legacy Sotsevsa track for training between each Grand Prix. Two weeks before the Minty Mania GP, Red Eye and Yellow Eye would take turns setting times at the Sotsevsa “Lime Lap,” shaped like an L and allowing the Cat’s Eyes to practice coming out of turns and accelerating on straights.

News of this was only revealed close to the end of the Marbula One Season’s first half, and even then some racers first reacted to the training regime as if it were a practical joke.

But, according to Yellow Eye, “us and Coach only had tapes to review before figuring out our training, and we saw all the times that racers would get wiped out on the hairpin or the turn. And the Limers gave us a good deal! Red Eye and I just checked up on each other to make sure our turns stayed perfect.”

Race day came soon enough. At the Minty Mania GP, Yellow Eye volunteered to start in the opening pair of qualifiers, setting a lap time alongside the defending Racer Champion, Speedy. It took a moment for anyone to notice Yellow Eye gained ground on the opening esses, and then the newcomer kept clean off the final walls while Speedy could not. Yellow Eye had the faster time, and the fastest time overall.

There are no lack of replays of those first four GPs for the Cat’s Eyes. Yellow Eye never conceded the lead except for a few seconds during their win at Minty Mania. Red Eye started on the second row of the O’raceway GP after a double overtake in qualifiers, ending with a silver. Yellow Eye continued the podium streak with a bronze at the Honeydome. At the Aquamaring, Red Eye almost always stuck to the inner lane on the drag strip that scrambled others’ race lines, fending off challenges from the Thunderbolts’ Bolt to win with 26 points.

No team so consistently challenged or took the lead in every race of the season’s first half. Greg Woods had all the superlatives to describe them: “the team to beat,” “superb grip,” “absolutely peerless.”

Or take how other racers described them. For Bolt, Red Eye “simply does not let up no matter how fast their past laps were. It’s exhausting just to remember.” For Momo of Team Momo, “I saw the three or four lengths I was behind Yellow Eye at Minty Mania but just couldn’t close it after the restart. I never felt so close and yet so far.” Bumble, Starry, Billy, and Tumult all recall how a Cat’s Eye overtook them on the slightest slip-up.

In truth, both Cat’s Eyes had lost momentum in the early laps of the O’raceway and the Honeydome as well, yet fought back and podiumed in both. But neither had the right feel for the tight turns on Tumult Turnpike and Arctic Circuit, Yellow Eye placing seventh and Red Eye eighth respectively. The racers began to have doubts, wondering what changed in the last two races.

Despite their doubts, they still podiumed in four of six GPs, scoring 102 points, ahead of second-place by a gold medal’s worth in points. For the first time, the Racer’s Standings had first and second both occupied by the same team, Red Eye at 52 points and Yellow Eye at 50.

Even with such a lead in the Championship, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes kept to their routine. Invited to the Marble League Winter Special next to the Himarblelayas, the team had several weeks to spare. They spent all of it practicing at Sotsevsa or other circuits where they were invited.

Bullseye spoke frankly about the mental toll of spending so long away from home. “It got to the point that my team, every day after practice they’d call me about if I could get them Felyni Falafel. That’s the kind of food your parents know how to make and no one else. I had to hunt for a chef from back home to fly over to them!”

At the Winter Special, Coach White Eye wanted to give their Marbula One stars extra rest and sent Blue Eye into the opening 5 Meter Ice Dash. Placed into a “heat of death” with Smoggy, Clementin, and Minty Drizzel, that extra rest paid off when Blue Eye charged past Clementin and set a new event record.

“It was not easy fighting to win in every heat!” said Blue Eye. “Something sent me leaping into the air in the semis, sensing Smoggy speeding up to push me aside in the final… I only won because I kept my cool.”

The other teams’ consternation at yet another Cat’s Eyes gold was short-lived. Fans could only cite the Second Half Curse as the team placed no higher than eighth for the remaining events, including a first-round elimination in Ice Hockey marked by poor defense and a last-place showing by Red Eye in the Snowboard Cross.

Seeing that the team finished eleventh overall with a total of 35 points, Red Eye replied: “White Eye is one of the greats, but all I can say is that I’ve been focused on going fast on straights for months. You can’t just tell me to slalom!”

In the end, the team had scored eleventh before and they took the results in stride. Red Eye made an early trip out of the Himarblelayas to acquaint themselves with the Raceforest track. Just a week and a half later, they’d find themselves near the front of the starting gate, watching the lights about to go out to start the Raceforest GP.

Leaping out the start with defending Racer Champion Speedy, Red Eye was always battling in the top two in the race, speeding down the racing line and looking for the overtake every turn.

As Red Eye recalled, during a chaotic three-racer battle with lapped racer Razzy: “Razzy and Speedy are world-class, but I could see them swerving back and forth trying to make a cheap pass around me and each other. You can’t risk losing your grip on a slow track like this, so I ignored them and kept to the plan.”

Whirling past Speedy after they bounced against a tight turn, Red Eye kept to the very consistency they cited and won their second gold with the fastest lap.

The bar was raised to the highest level in the Cat’s Eyes’ friendly rivalry, and yet Yellow Eye met it. After a beautiful five-racer overtake out of the conveyor belt sent them to third, Yellow Eye gained ground with every poor turn and bump made by others on the Momotorway to win that GP. Suddenly the Cat’s Eyes had 51 more points and 153 points total, eliminating ten teams from the Teams’ Championship with four more GPs to go.

The world truly changed for the Cat’s Eyes after those back-to-back golds. In a good way, according to Cyan Eye: Demand was overwhelming for watch parties held on whatever grounds were open around Felynia Coliseum. The first party was held during Red Eye’s Palette Park practice trials, and on many stands one saw two fans balanced on top of one another, all rooting for their captain on the Jumbotron.

In a bad way, according to Red Eye: the mood changed for them when they saw Speedy’s press conference before Palette Park. Asked repeatedly about facing Red Eye in the race, the Speeders captain shouted: “What do you want to know?! I don’t know how they trained to be this good and I don’t want to know how.”

After Red Eye’s fourth-to-last showing at that GP, Yellow Eye told us: “I still have huge respect for Speedy after that silver, but why did they say that? When we work as hard as we did, you’d think these greats would show us any respect.”

Perhaps the pressure got to Yellow Eye too, caught in the back half for most of Misty Mountain GP and ending in 13th. Just as the outside press focused on Red and Yellow Eye after Momotorway, they now hyped up the odds of Speedy or Hazy seizing the Racer’s Championship.

White Eye announced the day before practice that Red Eye would challenge Speedy at the Savage Speedway with doubters all around them. “At Team CCE, we’re prepared to show we’re the best,” said the coach.

The rest is history: Red Eye silenced the crowd with a lap 0.1 seconds faster than all others in the Qualifiers, followed by a pole position. Speedy could only watch on as Red Eye never looked back from an early challenge by Prim. The Cat’s Eye extended their lead every lap until they finished a full eight seconds ahead of the runner-up. Red Eye scored the first “purr-fect” 27-point weekend in Marbula One history and clinched the M1 Season Championship for the Cat’s Eyes that evening.

The Speeders fans trickled out of the stands with a whimper, and the other garages kept to themselves after pleasantries during the podium ceremony. But it didn’t matter for Felynia’s racers. Both of them and White Eye took a call from Blue Eye, who raved about the celebrations on Felyni streets: the sight and sound of fireworks above going into the night.

“They’ve been gone too long,” recalled Blue Eye. “I said, ‘you’ve got to come home and check this out.'”

The coda of the Cat’s Eyes’ Marbula One season was Yellow Eye’s tenth place finish at the Midnight Bay Circuit. The team didn’t capture first and second in the Racer’s Standings, not without trying; Yellow Eye just was too inconsistent navigating the circuit’s turns. But with the season over, one lapse was no longer worth putting off all the reasons to celebrate.

Using the “share of total points earned” measure, the Cat’s Eyes’ Marbula One season is the second most dominant season in JMR history (behind the Bumblebees’ Hubelino Tournament 2018 showing). Red Eye won more GPs than any other racer and scored nearly as many points in six races as the Savage Speeders did over one season of eight GPs. Yellow Eye placed third in the Racer Standings and led more laps in their career than all but 2 other racers. It’s the Cat’s Eyes alone who now look to form a Marbula One dynasty.

Before leaving Midnight Bay, Speedy was asked about losing the Racer’s Championship to Red Eye.

“There’s no doubt Red Eye is destined to be one of the greatest of all time, so congratulations to them,” said the Speeders captain. “I think back to what I said about them out of passion, and no champion deserves to be questioned that way. I want to apologize for that and hope we can compete as friends, not enemies.”

Eight months after they parted for Sotsevsa, Red Eye and Yellow Eye flew back to Felynia to begin practice at the Coliseum. The sheer sight of what awaited them outside the airport: tens of thousands of Cat’s Eyes formed like a rainbow, gleaming under the desert sun. Red ribbons and streamers filled the air, lifted as if by rockets, their exhaust the yellow flares and their engine the sound of crowd din and horns. In the center of it all, there was a giant red banner unfurled for this crowd’s heroes: “DON’T STOP FE-LIEVING”.

Local reports were that Red Eye was overcome with emotion, then told the crowd: “Let me invite you to my training grounds, my second home. We’ll put on a show.”

The same week that all 2021 Marble League teams were to attend the Qualifying Group draw at Felynia Coliseum, the Felynia High Council organized an exhibition Practice Race. Televised across Marblearth to exhibit the natural beauty and wildlife beyond the city, the race fielded one racer from every team present at Polaria last year. The track was a classic sand rally track on the outskirts of the Cat’s Dunes. Red Eye took the front row alongside Wispy, Razzy, Ocean, and Momomomo of Team Momo.

Perched on stands next to the starting gate, the Cat’s Eyes attendees erupted as Red Eye took the inside line and was in the top 8 after the opening turn. As their fans now expect, the new Racer Champion fell to the midpack to tenth after the first sector, but clawed up the ranks from there. Their rivals lost grip on the banked turns, took long detours, or even fell prey to the local beetles. A last-minute block from the Chocolatiers’ Bonbon meant Red Eye had to be content with fifth, still the best showing that day of any racer from the last Marbula One season.

Further local reports described Red Eye as aloof when rolling past Rapidly, Razzy, and other Marble League veterans. In contrast, the Cat’s Eyes captain conversed with Snowstorm, Bonbon, and especially Indie of the Indigo Stars. To the third-place finisher Momomomo, Red Eye was quoted: “Happy to go one-on-one out here next time.”

Looking for a final interview before this year’s Qualifiers, we were told Red Eye and Bullseye had an audience with Cleocatra themselves out on the dunes, while local media have Blue Eye and Yellow Eye booked up to the Marble League. We were able to talk with White Eye and Green Eye the day after the Coliseum’s grand opening and asked them about their newfound fame.

“It’s hard to believe, you know? Not just how the city feels about us now, but also thinking if our team could fall to the Host Curse,” said Green Eye. “I have to admit I’m on edge!”

“What I say, though, is that it’s not about what others expect of us. It’s that we now know what we’re each best at,” said White Eye. “Green Eye’s the perfect fit for the funnels and Blue Eye’s our high flyer. Nobody will beat Yellow on the track or Red on the circuit. Every day after practice, we tell ourselves that we can and will take gold in every event we see.”

In RetRollSpective, the Crazy Cat’s Eyes once wanted to be the jack of all trades, only to realize they are masters of speed and balance. They coordinated better than before in the 2020 Marble League, but it was their Marbula One Season 2 domination that made them the host team with the most momentum ever going into their main event. To the extent that they need it, best of luck to the Crazy Cat’s Eyes in the near future; keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: Fouc, Ghostly, Stynth
• Editors: Ramen Powder, Smacg13, Skyfall_707
• Artists: Jack Ironhide, Louisly
• Graphic Designers: Pim Leurs, Spex, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: Jelle’s Marble Runs, Nugget, Piney
• Release: 16/07/2021

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 cover the O’rangers, champions of Marble League 2017 and Marbula One Season 3, and arguably, the most popular marble sports team. Read on to find out how this team has charmed the competition!

The O’rangers are not just a team—they are a family of marbles with a strong heritage that has dominated for generations. The O’Marbles run an orange farm, close to the city of Orlango, that also specializes in bull-wrangling and, notably, off-road racing. The current head of the family, Mandarin, has emphasized this last aspect more and more in recent years, especially with the rise of televised marble sports. This drive and passion led Mandarin to found the O’rangers with their siblings Clementin, Kinnowin, Tangerin, and Orangin, in 2006, and the team began participating in local competitions shortly thereafter.

The O’rangers performed well enough over the next two years to draw attention from a marble troupe of teams, named the Fruit Circuit. After surveying the O’Marbles Farm (to verify that the O’rangers were fruit-based) the Fruit Circuit allowed the team to join the troupe. The O’rangers remained in the troupe for eight years until the Fruit Circuit’s demise in 2016, with the rise of the Marble League. The team was in fourth place, closely behind Mellow Yellow, Raspberry Racers, and the Limers, when the Raspberry Racers failed to finish the final race. The O’rangers finished the race modestly, with enough points to pass the Racers and move into third place behind Mellow Yellow in second and the Limers in first. The O’rangers’ third-place finish qualified them for the 2016 Marble League.

However, the O’rangers were skeptical of the competition that lay ahead of them. To test the waters, Mandarin, Clementin, Kinnowin, and Tangerin went undercover in the first event of the Marble League, going under the names of O1, O2, O3, and O4 to compete. The four placed ninth, scoring no points for the O’rangers. Seeing that the competition was serious, the four revealed their true names and represented the O’rangers for the rest of the 2016 Marble League. Their true identities were reflected in the reupload of the 2016 Marble League in 2019, with the graphics displaying the correct names of the team instead of O1-O4.

The O’rangers did not earn any points until the third event, Collision, where they placed fifth and got three points (although they had received a bonus point in Event 2 due to a track defect). The team earned a gold medal in Long Jump with Kinnowin representing the team, breaking the Marble League record at 103.8 centimeters. Although the O’rangers did not get another medal in 2016, they got enough fourth and fifth-place finishes in the next few events to secure an overall fifth-place finish at the end of the tournament. They had landed eight points away from taking fourth place, and just one point above the Rojo Rollers in sixth, a team with three medals to its name.

The O’rangers patted themselves on the back for a successful season but knew in their hearts that they wanted more. This became apparent at the O’Marbles Farm when Mandarin announced plans to build an official marble sports raceway on the property, which would remove a few acres of orange trees. Surprisingly, the city had few complaints regarding the developments. As a local fan put it:

“The O’Marbles didn’t just help our business boom back in the day, they were our business, and we’d be lying if we said that they aren’t to this day. Their orange business is the immigrant success story that marbles dream of telling, and their racing business is on another level of greatness. They’re active in the community and we support them every step of the way. OOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The team performed well in the 2017 Marble League Qualifiers, getting a third-place finish in the Relay Race and ending in third place with more than enough points to qualify. It was then that the O’rangers began to get recognized as a serious contender for competition in the 2017 Marble League, and the team experienced a large surge in fans. When the first of July came around, the stands were packed with a swath of fans in orange, holding signs and howling “OOOOOOOOOOOO!”. Needless to say, the O’rangers and their fans were hoping for a strong season, but they had no idea exactly how great things were going to turn out. 

This is not to say that the team dominated throughout 2017; this was quite the opposite. The team’s famed rivals, the Savage Speeders, dominated in the earlier half of the season, rising to the top three in the standings. But the O’rangers remained persistent. They continued to train even during the Marble League, and finally, in the fifth event, they earned a bronze medal and a spot on the podium. As the Savage Speeders ascended to the top of the standings, the O’rangers positioned themselves in seventh place, rising three spots. They stopped training immediately and took a pause, conserving their energy.

It was a strategy that, in the short run, seemed ineffective. The next event saw the Speeders get a gold medal while the O’rangers lagged in fourteenth-place. Their Fruit Circuit rivals, the Limers, had taken second overall in the standings as the O’rangers dropped to ninth. Few were looking at the O’rangers as a team that could surpass the unrelenting strength of the Savage Speeders. Very soon, everyone would.

Their first place in Block Pushing, as their first gold medal of the 2017 season in the seventh event and a new record to boot, launched the team into fourth place overall, four points behind the Limers and nearly a gold medal within reach of the Savage Speeders. The fans were ecstatic as they poured out of the stands, and the security officers could barely hold them back. It was a real energy that drove them, and it inspired the team itself to keep pushing.

Mandarin immediately followed up the team’s success in Block Pushing with a silver medal in the High Jump, which vaulted the team into second place, now less than a silver medal behind the Savage Speeders. The team that once seemed to be sweeping the competition had now lost its insurmountable lead within two events. The top of the standings was in sight for the O’rangers.

The Savage Speeders and Mellow Yellow had finally realized the momentum of the O’rangers, and in the next event, both teams got gold and silver respectively, denying the O’rangers an early victory. At the end of the ninth event, the standings looked oddly similar to the end of the 2016 Marble League: the Speeders were in first, Mellow Yellow was in second, and even Team Momo was in fourth place. The O’rangers clung to third, their fate hanging in the balance like a ripe orange on a tree.

“You know what I’ve realized over the years? It’s that nothing is set in stone when you’re competing,” Mandarin noted, years later. “Just when you think something is going to go one way, it ends up going in a way you’d never think it to. That’s the beauty of marble sports: they’re always unpredictable. And they keep us on our game, always striving to be the best that we can be even when things aren’t going our way.”

And strive they did. In the tenth event, Archery, the O’rangers closed in on Mellow Yellow’s place in second, remaining in third by two points. In the eleventh event, the Underwater Race, the O’rangers set another new record in one of the heats and finished in second place, securing second place in the standings and becoming one of two teams able to win the 2017 Marble League. Of course, that other team was the Savage Speeders.

The O’rangers needed at least eleven points to overtake the Savage Speeders in the final event if the latter team scored no points. The Savage Speeders are a team known to be fast, one of the best teams at racing. The final event was the Sand Rally.

The O’rangers and their fans held their breath, watching the first heat of the event. They hoped for a miracle.

Swifty of the Savage Speeders, once in the top four, was swiftly falling back in the line of marbles racing to the finish. They reached dead last by the middle of the race and didn’t rebound back. The Savage Speeders’ fans were shocked.

“I don’t think our championship leaders are going to advance at this point. It would take a massive lunge for them to get up there!” Greg Woods exclaimed. “The finish line is nearly in sight, now—no, the Savage Speeders will not advance! They will not make it into the final, and they have to hope that that ten-point lead they have amassed throughout these eleven events is going to be big enough to survive the twelfth…”

Clementin was already at the starting gate. The loudspeakers were booming, Greg Woods’ voice ringing out the names of the teams moving on. The ball bearing lunged forward released the bar, and Clementin bolted forward in the lead. As Greg Woods told the fans about the Jungle Jumpers missing the event, the O’Marble didn’t care. They kept rolling forward.

Clementin did not sacrifice their spot in the top four, guaranteeing that they would move on to the final. They said nothing as they traveled back to the starting gate. Again, they lunged forward once the bar was released, eventually securing a dominant lead. As they turned the final curve of the course, Clementin eased up a little bit, allowing Starry of Team Galactic to rush past them and take the gold medal. But it didn’t matter: Clementin had done everything they had to do in the final event. And it paid off.

The O’rangers had won the 2017 Marble League.

It was a comeback that once seemed impossible; a threshold once out of reach; a championship that shattered the fanbase, right under the Speeders’ eyes; and oh—did the fans scream “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” for hours!

The team automatically qualified for the 2018 Marble League upon their win in 2017, but it was their victory tour around the world that the team treasured the most about their win. It was such a big deal for the team that they shut down O’Marbles Farm for the occasion, inviting their entire family on the trip. This caused a month-long decline in orange production, but the world didn’t seem to mind. Celebration was in order, and the team reveled in it. When asked in an interview with Rick O’Shea, marble sports reporter, about how the team would try to replicate their success in 2018, Kinnowin replied:

“We can’t. But that’s what makes our sport great. It can be so unpredictable. It’s never going to feel the same though, because we were the first ones to come from the middle of the pack to win it all. Our names are going to be forever remembered as the ones who, uh, made the greatest comeback in Marble League history.”

True to Kinnowin’s claim, the O’rangers did not replicate their 2017 success in the 2018 Marble League. The team placed third in the Friendly Round and remained in the upper middle of the pack for most of the season. They were far from on the radar, as the Savage Speeders continued to dominate, the Hazers stunned the competition as the best rookie team since 2016, and the rising waters of the Oceanics tried to turn the tides of the podium. The O’rangers never lost their fans, but it didn’t look like the team would ever be near a second victory. They had no medals to their name after nine events.

But the team had been consistent in the first nine events, only scoring below eighth place once, in the Halfpipe event. The O’rangers were practicing the same strategy that they had the year before: they were conserving their energy. Taking a deep breath, they entered the tenth event, Biathlon, and finished with a silver medal.

The O’rangers shot up to second in the overall standings.

The fans were shocked. After medaling only once, the O’rangers were, once again, formidable competition in the Marble League. Of course, they were thrilled. Could the O’rangers replicate last year’s success? Their “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” echoed through the Arctic Circle.

However, the O’rangers lost focus after their silver. Although they were still one of four that could win the tournament at the beginning of the final event, the O’rangers faltered in the first heat, only earning five points and assuring their fate: they could not win the 2018 Marble League or finish in the top three. While other fans, particularly Speeders fans, were elated, O’rangers fans were understandably distraught. They had still experienced an amazing season, but Kinnowin’s prediction rang true. The O’rangers finished eleven points behind the Oceanics, still placing in fourth, but missing another chance to prequalify…or so they thought.

The O’rangers participated in both offseason events for Marble League teams, training at their O’raceway in between. Despite doing well in previous water races, Mandarin failed to replicate the team’s successes with the 100 Meter Water Race, for they finished in twentieth out of twenty-seven teams. That said, the O’rangers had a successful showing in the Amazing Maze Marble Race, finishing as runners-up to the Raspberry Racers in first, ahead of the Savage Speeders in third, and ahead of the Limers in fourth. The race proved, again, that the O’rangers were a force to be reckoned with in marble sports.

Although the O’rangers lost their 2019 hosting bid to the Oceanics, the team took the Oceanics’ qualification spot, thus automatically qualifying for the second year in a row. In the Friendly Round, the team won both Block Pushing and the Underwater Race, repeating similar successes from the 2017 season. They finished second, just one point behind the Oceanics.

The O’rangers entered the 2019 Marble League with one new addition: their coach, Rango, who, initially, was not sure how to take the reins of the team. Kinnowin, once the star of underwater events and now the captain of the team, had a bad run in the Underwater Race and finished in a startling fourteenth place for the first event of the season. Clementin, hoping to rectify a disappointing start for the team in Funnel Spinning, crashed into the wall just past the starting gate, stopped themselves due to head trauma, and was unable to finish the event. The O’rangers fell to dead last in the standings for the first time in their history and seemed to have crashed to rock bottom alongside the Oceanics, all happening as the Savage Speeders reigned at the top of the standings.

Coach Rango immediately rolled towards the course after the initial heat and was stopped by security as the officials, ascertaining that Clementin was in a good enough condition to leave the track, got the athlete off the arena. Thankfully, the doctors confirmed that Clementin had only a minor injury—but they were advised to stay off the roster for a few events, which Clementin accepted.

“I know a lot of fans were concerned, especially about the standings. Those are just numbers,” Rango asserted. “Safety is our number one priority. Even now, I’m not so sure if that starting area was as safe as it could have been, but I am happy—and lucky—that Clementin is okay now.”

After three more subpar finishes in the middle of the pack, the team earned its first medal of the season in the sixth event, Relay Run. The team collectively earned a silver medal after a tie in the semi-finals with the Pinkies, which led to a tiebreaker race that the team easily won. Mandarin, the marble closest to the finish line, did not get the best push-off from Clementin behind them, and the O’rangers lost the gold to the Green Ducks in the final leg of the race.

The team rose to ninth in the standings, its first foray into the top ten, but fell mysteriously to tenth place after placing fifth in Block Pushing. The team fell to eleventh after placing fifth again in the Summer Biathlon and remained there after just missing the podium in the Hurdles final. The O’rangers rose to ninth after placing sixth in the Hubelino Maze but would fall again just three events later with a fourteenth place finish in the Elimination Race. Mandarin, luckily, earned two consolation points due to a track defect, but the team dropped to eleventh overall, with the Raspberry Racers, Green Ducks, and Hazers at the top of the standings, and the veterans failing to catch up behind them. An eleventh-place finish by Tangerin in Surfing sealed the O’rangers’ fate in 2019: out of championship contention and unable to finish in the top three.

“While we’ve only finished in the top three once, it still hurt us to see that we couldn’t make a comeback,” admitted Mandarin, swallowing heavily. “We had our roughest start yet, but we couldn’t understand why we weren’t at least in the top ten of the standings, if not the top half. We had almost enough fourth and fifth place finishes to rival the Ducks,” he claimed.

The next event, Collision, had not been the O’rangers’ strongest two years prior. Their 2019 performance was a different story, as the O’rangers advanced, second in their initial group heat, to dominate over the Jungle Jumpers, edge over Mellow Yellow, and fight for the gold in the final round. The O’rangers won a gold medal for the first time since Block Pushing in the 2017 Marble League. Their fans were ecstatic, and their “O” chant rang through the crowd, louder than it had ever been. The team rose four spots into seventh place overall.

The O’rangers’ hard work to climb back from nothing was finally starting to show, and Kinnowin’s fourth-place finish in the final event, the Sand Rally, earned the O’rangers twelve more points to finish the 2019 Marble League in sixth place overall, 139 points strong. The team’s longest season had finally come to an end, and, through its struggles, the O’rangers endured and were enriched, growing even stronger. 

They earned an opportunity to put these skills to use in the first season of Marbula One. The O’rangers were the second team revealed for the tournament on 23 October 2019, and submitted Clementin, “Our Darling”, and Orangin, “True Orange”, to represent the team. Additionally, the team was selected to host the second Grand Prix at their O’raceway in Orlango.

Clementin earned pole position in their debut at the Savage Speedway Grand Prix on 15 February 2020, setting a time of 28.11 seconds. After beginning the race at pole position, Clementin lost the lead after hitting the attenuator. They remained in the top five until the third lap, where they were passed by Yellow, and aside from a brief reemergence during the seventh lap, did not return to the top five. Clementin finished the race in sixth, just behind Speedy, who had, interestingly, qualified for the race in last.

Orangin seemed to have been struck by the rumored “host’s curse” in their debut at the O’raceway Grand Prix on 22 February 2020, where they qualified in fifteenth with a time of 33.86 seconds. During the race, Orangin was able to move up to as high as seventh in the standings but could go no further, and fell out of the top ten. They finished the race in a disappointing fourteenth place, and the O’rangers fell from sixth to tenth in the overall standings.

Clementin, meanwhile, would continue to pull their weight, finishing in fifth and setting the fastest lap at the Momotorway despite qualifying in eleventh. Orangin began turning their season around at the Hivedrive, where they qualified in second with a time of 24.23 seconds. They led the race through the first lap, but fell victim to the hive several times and finished the race in eighth.

The Greenstone Grand Prix changed the O’rangers’ Marbula One season for the better, mirroring the team’s strength during the latter half of Marble League seasons. After qualifying in second with a time of 33.76 seconds (just fifteen milliseconds behind pole position!) Orangin dominated the long and winding roads of Greenstone to clinch the team’s first win and gold medal. They led the race for seven of the nine laps and lost the lead only to Bolt, taking it back at the beginning of the final lap. The team rose to fourth in the overall standings.

Clementin did not fare as well at the Short Circuit, qualifying in fourteenth and finishing the race in tenth—but they set the fastest lap with a time of 22.10 seconds. Orangin competed in their final Grand Prix at the Razzway, qualifying in fourth with a time of 28.92 seconds. Although they never took the lead, Orangin never left the top five either. They were able to secure second place in the second sector of the last lap, and finished there, also setting the fastest lap with a time of 32.25 seconds.

The O’rangers had risen to third in the overall standings and remained there as the inaugural season of Marbula One concluded at Midnight Bay. Clementin’s qualifying run of 25.75 seconds was mired in controversy, not for their run, but for the run afterward—Speedy’s early start.

“I was personally used to being on the course at the same time as other marbles. That’s how we qualified earlier in the season,” Clementin explained. “I understand why the fans were upset, though, and I think Speedy could have waited a little while longer.”

Clementin qualified in eleventh, diminishing the team’s chances of winning the race and the season. They sealed the O’rangers’ fate by finishing in twelfth, and the team finished their season in third with 69 points. The O’rangers set three of the eight fastest laps during the Grands Prix, the most of any team in Season 1.

“I have no regrets,” stated Rango. “Orangin had been itching for a chance to demonstrate their skills, and I knew they would thrive in this competition. Clementin, too—they both showed everyone the best of the O’rangers. They should be proud.”

Gloooooory Days

an addendum by The Emperor

For the first time since the 2017 Marble League, the O’rangers would have to compete in the Qualifiers. They managed to secure a third-place finish in Funnel Endurance and finished the qualifiers in eighth with 41 points. To start the main league, they tied with the Oceanics in tenth in Balancing. The O’rangers then asserted their dominance with a gold medal in the Halfpipe.

“Look at the O’rangers! Three up top, slaloming in tandem, back and forth they come! I would have to think that would have to be an easy victory for the O’rangers.” Greg Woods remarked as the OOOOOOs reigned. “Oh my gosh! So good that it’s in fact another new Marble League Record!” The O’rangers fans celebrated with an early gold, making it their second gold in the past four Marble League events, dating back to 2019.

“Will the team burn out early, or will the O’rangers continue to be a pressing force to be reckoned with throughout the season? Regardless, I am sure we’ll hear O’s reverberating throughout the Andromedome for events to come,” Stynth, a former JMRC member, remarked after the event.

To follow up their gold from Halfpipe, Kinnowin snagged a silver in the Funnel Endurance, earning the team their second medal in three events.

“It was special, ya know,” Kinnowin said after the event. “Coming back and finishing on the podium was huge after getting stuck at the top last season. It showed we were ready this time. I think we could pass the Minty Maniacs if our fine form continues.”

And pass them they did. Clementin and Tangerin managed to do what no O’ranger had done before; win a second gold in the same year. With a gold medal in the Newton’s Cradle, the team vaulted atop the standings with two golds and a silver. That meant that the O’rangers now held the record for the best three-event streak in Marble League history, with 70 points.

“Going into an event where we weren’t even sure what it looked like, how it worked, and what it was, we saw a lot of teams get good scores before us. Walking away with the Marble League record was beyond our expectations!” Rango remarked after the event.

Following a poor finish in the Long Jump, Kinnowin was chosen to represent the O’rangers in Hurdles, an event that the team had medaled in before. After placing sixth, the O’rangers sat in second in the standings, looking to redeem themselves in Block Pushing. And that’s exactly what they did. With their fourth medal of the season, a bronze, they jumped atop the overall leaderboard again.

“It was great, ya know?” Tangerin said after the event. “Four medals in the first seven events, it’s a great feeling. Especially given our general track record of having a bad first half.”

To follow up their 105 points in seven events, (averaging out to a bronze per event) Orangin came in with another bronze in the Triathlon. 

“Some coaches were a bit confused with my decision to put my reserve in such a complicated and long event. But I never had my doubts in Orangin’s skills on the Marbula One track, and I never had my doubts with Orangin here,” Rango said after the podium celebration. “We’ve excelled in all of those course aspects in the past, and I found nothing to display the contrary here.”

Tangerin, however, could not keep the momentum going with a twelfth-place finish in the Moguls. Following a tenth in the Sprint from Orangin, and a sixth-place finish from the gold medal Newton’s Cradle duo in the Black Hole Funnel, the O’rangers sat barely in first overall. 

“We’ve got to make the final push now, and hold on to the championship from here,” Clementin said before the Relay Race. And that’s exactly what the O’rangers did. The team went with a strategy of subbing in Orangin in the place of Tangerin, which paid dividends early.

“It’s anybody’s race at this point, until the O’rangers stamp their authority in the bottom two handoffs, and reset the record!” Greg Woods exclaimed as the team obliterated the record by over half a second. The team would hold on to finish the event in second, with six medals in twelve events now, matching the Raspberry Racers one year ago. 

The O’rangers would then go on to win another gold medal, their third of the season, in the High Jump, with Mandarin setting a new record of 40.5 centimeters.

           “The key to High Jump is to just let yourself go like you’re shooting for the stars,” Mandarin explained. “The sky isn’t the limit.”

            “It never was,” added Coach Rango. “This season has been our season, and we’ve redefined what it means to be an O’ranger. Have we done enough? No. We want to win it all, and with the next few events playing to our strengths underwater, in collision, and racing, I really think we’ll get there.”

However, what would happen next would become perhaps the most infamous moment of the O’rangers’ career, as they collapsed in a fashion that only their fiercest rivals had in years prior. The humiliation began with losing to the Oceanics in a water event, followed by placing last in Collision. Kinnowin would place eleventh in the Marathon, not high enough for the O’rangers to clinch the championship, as the team placed second overall, with 195 points and seven medals earned. The O’rangers finished as runners-up to none other than the Savage Speeders, who claimed their second Marble League championship in a stunning upset.

During the offseason, the O’rangers returned to Orlango to train. The atmosphere of the city seemed deprived, and the O’rangers fans seemed scarce in the city. There were rumors that an artist had graffitied an Amalanta Falcons logo on a billboard near the city, which would later be proven true by the team. The Falcons, a regional sports team, had notoriously choked their Mega Marble Classic title away after a commanding thirty-five to zero lead early on.

“It’s a shame that some of our fanbase is…very…temperamental,” Clementin said while the team attempted to remove the graffiti. “I understand that we blew it, trust me, I beat myself up about it all the time. But it pains me to see such heinous acts by our fans from a poor performance.”

“We still finished second!” Tangerin said. “Sure, we didn’t win. But I’m just happy we got an overall podium, and I wish our fanbase could be a bit more supportive.”

Following the return home, the O’rangers hosted a family reunion at the farm in an attempt to lighten the mood. As per reports of the locals, around 30 marbles in sparkling orange uniforms rolled up in a Rolls-Roldo limousine. The reunion lasted for a long time, as some of the family members, including Navelin, Sevillin, and Valencin, were still there by the time Stynth stopped by on their world tour! 

“Family is everything, ya know?” A distant cousin of the O’Marbles, Hamlin, said. “They’ve been training out at the stadium for a while now, gotta reel ‘em in for family time sometimes.”

The O’rangers had indeed been working on upgrading their stadium, the Mandaring. Named in honor of the O’Marbles family leader and acting team manager, the stadium had been heavily considered to host the 2021 Marble League, and rightfully so: it was newly constructed, triple-tiered, and had a built-in fan section for O’rangers fans to yell to the stars.

 “It’s been hard not to think about how close we’ve been to…a lot of things this year,” Coach Rango admitted. “But we have to keep going. Feeling bad for ourselves isn’t going to change the past, and it could hurt our future.”

            “No matter whether we win or lose, we’re still the O’rangers,” asserted Kinnowin. “We still had an incredible season. I’m looking forward to where we roll next, but all that matters right now is harvesting these oranges!”

        The Mandaring was home to a top-notch training facility, as well, where the O’rangers spent fair portions of their days’ training after harvesting oranges as a family. 

    “We were down after the end of this season, but I can’t focus on that right now. While my family is harvesting oranges, I’m looking forward to harvesting the Racer’s Championship in Marbula One,” Orangin smirked. “The fans have no idea what’s coming. Just you wait.”

Upon being re-invited to Marbula One Season 2, the O’rangers once again chose Clementin and Orangin to represent them. Clementin started the opening Grand Prix of Minty Mania with a poor result of thirteenth-place. After being selected to host the second Grand Prix of the season again, Orangin sadly could not deliver the result that they needed on their home turf again, tying the O’rangers for last with Team Galactic, the Minty Maniacs, and the Savage Speeders. Following a fourth-place qualifying at the Honeydome, the team finally scored, with Clementin placing ninth. Orangin placed tenth at the Aquamaring, leaving the team in sixteenth place in the overall standings.

After another poor qualifying for Orangin at the Tumult Turnpike, and the now-infamous “Pinball” moment on lap 2, they managed to claw back into the top ten and finish in ninth. At the Arctic Circuit, the O’rangers finally got their long-awaited medal, with a silver. 

“Let the OOOOOOOs reign!” Clementin said celebrating after the event. 

At the end of the first half of Marbula One, the O’Marbles traveled back to their farm to train at the Mandaring. Acting as Manager of the team now, Mandarin set up a press conference in Orlango while the rest of the team was training. The press conference had an astounding turn-out, as the booth was overflowing with passionate O’rangers fans.

I think we’re in the middle of our glory days. We haven’t missed a podium since 2019, and while we didn’t seal the deal in Marble League 2020, and it’s not looking like we’re going to make the podium in Marbula One, I’m proud to be a fan of the O’rangers.” Term, a longtime O’rangers fan said at the conference. “The O’rangers have the most dedicated and passionate fan base in all of JMR. A lot of people like to say they’re obnoxious, but I think their love for the team and dedication just outshine the other fanbases.” Term remarked on the Amalanta Falcons billboard. “Sometimes they just go…a bit overboard.” 

Another O’rangers fan, Melanie, said; “ I remember [when I first saw the O’rangers] and the moment I saw that bright orange, I instantly fell in love.” They remarked upon how they fell in love with the team. “A particularly fond memory I have? There are many…One of course was Marble League 2017, where we outran the Savage Speeders in the final three events. That was fantastic. Then of course there was breaking the High Jump record…I could go on and on.”

After the press conference, Mandarin received the invite for the Marble League Winter Special. The team accepted hastily and spent long days and nights training in the Mandaring. The O’rangers had to deny the invitation to the Fruit Circuit Reunion, which was scheduled to happen at the same time as the Winter Special.

To start the season, it appeared that the O’rangers would be moving on to the semifinals in the Ice Dash until Smoggy from the Hazers drafted by at the last second. Clementin, furious with themselves, finished ninth. 

“It was so heartbreaking. I thought I had ‘em, but I fell apart at the end.” Clementin said after the event. Kinnowin followed this up with a seventh-place finish at the Snowboard Cross. After an eleventh-place finish in Speed Skating, the team sat in eleventh place overall, but they would rise seven spots in the standings after breaking the track record at the Bobsled, securing gold.

“OOOOOOOOOOOOO!” They all shouted in unison as they stood triumphantly on the top step of the podium. That marked the fifth Marble League Record the O’rangers had broken since the start of the 2020 Marble League, adding on to their Halfpipe, Newton’s Cradle, Relay Race, and High Jump records. 

The O’rangers entered the final event, Ice Hockey, with a chance to win it all. After knocking out the Pinkies and Minty Maniacs, they faced the Raspberry Racers in the semi-finals. Sadly, they could not muster the energy to beat the Racers and were relegated to the third-place match. This meant that the O’rangers would not win the Marble League Winter Special, but instead settled for runners-up overall following their bronze in hockey.

“I believe the team seems to be doing rather well.” JackJack, another O’rangers fan, said in an interview with CMM reporters after Ice Hockey concluded. “Their recent performances in Marble League 2020 and the Winter Special have been excellent, with two runner-up finishes. Now, they’ve got to get over the top of the hill and lock down a tournament win.”

Returning to Orlango to train for the second half of Marbula One, the team spent days in and out of the Mandaring, hoping that Clementin and Orangin could keep their podium streak alive in Marbula One. Orangin managed to finish ninth at the Raceforest, a notoriously difficult track that saw two yellow and two blue flags waved.

Clementin managed to finish well at the Momotorway, though, and placed fourth. Clementin had now cracked into the top ten of the Racer’s Championship.

“WOOOOO!” Tangerin said after the event. “That’s our darling!” 

Orangin finally qualified well at Palette Park, with a fifth-place qualifier. With a seventh-place finish, Orangin clocked in their best result of the season so far. 

At Misty Mountain, however, things took a turn for the worse for Clementin. After all the commotion and chaos caused by the three yellow (and red) flags, Clementin stalled on the final lap of the race and did not finish. The O’rangers hit the bottom half of the standings again.

The team was cautiously optimistic on the flight to Vellis. Clementin had had success at the Savage Speedway before, and the team hoped they could do it again. Sadly, however, Clementin could only muster an 11th place finish this time, and the O’rangers were knocked out of podium contention.

The final stop on the Marbula One agenda was Helarve; home of the Midnight Wisps. Orangin was chosen to represent in the finale this time. 

“There’s been a lot of pressure on me recently,” Orangin said before the qualifiers. “From being promoted to one of the main team members, struggling in the first half of Marbula One, and now racing in the finale, I hope I can deliver.”

Orangin did indeed deliver another solid result, notching in six solid points with an eighth-place finish at the finale. The O’rangers would use this to squeak past Balls of Chaos and finish the season in tenth place.

“Sure, it may not have been the season we were looking for…” Clementin remarked. “But a top-half finish is still a top-half finish. Plus, it felt kind of nice to be in the midpack for once. We got too many nosebleeds from being so high up all the time…” they said with a smirk.

The team returned to Orlango, expecting disappointment from their fans. However, they didn’t find any. The residents all seemed to be at peace with everything, which “warmed our hearts,” Coach Rango said. The team had prepared a feast back at their farm to celebrate another successful season, as well as to the good times ahead.

“While we are athletes, we still are a family.” Tangerin, the new reserve member, said. “And family is what holds us all together, and makes us stronger as a team.” Orangin echoed Tangerin’s sentiments: “I think being a family has helped us bond in team events, and gives us just that extra push that we need. I hope we can continue the momentum in team events in Marble League 2021.”

The O’Marbles had a daily routine set up during the offseason. They woke up every morning with a batch of pancakes, then they headed out into the fields to harvest oranges. After that, they spent two to three hours training in the Mandaring. And to end their busy day, they watched a movie as a family, which was normally a Marble Cinematic Universe Movie. Orangin normally hogged the remote, (they responded to such allegations with ‘Hehe, I shall neither confirm nor deny this’) so they picked their favorite often (Captain Marble).

“We’ll be training harder than ever as the season approaches,” Kinnowin said. “But we still have to play to our strengths. Like we did in 2017 and 2018, taking a deep breath, and conserving our energy worked well. Last year, we did the exact opposite and fell flat on our faces at the end. We can’t do that again. We’re coming for the crown.”

The O’Marbles held one final get-together on their farm before the flight to Felynia, featuring a guest appearance from the MarBeats. The farm was filled to the brim with O’rangers fans who had come to wish the team good luck.

“It’s heartwarming to see the fanbase supporting the team again,” Hamlin said with a warm orange cider; a new drink the O’rangers were manufacturing on their farm now. “They’ll do good. I just know they will.”

The team boarded a long flight to Felynia for the Marble League Practice Race, where the team would select Kinnowin to represent them. Kinnowin crossed the line in a respectable seventh place for the team, continuing their traditionally strong sand performances.

“It felt good, particularly considering there were 28 competitors here as compared to the normal 16. I’m confident for the Marble League.” Kinnowin said.

In RetRollSpective, the O’rangers have not always been the champions that most of the fans perceive them to be. Regardless, the team’s history of comebacks and consistency has assured its place in Marble League and Marbula One history as one of their most persistent competitors, and therefore, one of their best. Whether or not the O’rangers win another Marble League, they have already made their mark on the tournament, and will always be remembered for their accomplishments. Best of luck to the O’rangers in the future, keep on rolling!

Credits

• Writers: The Emperor, Stynth
• Editor: Jacob723, Smacg13
• Artists: Betawolfs, Jack Ironhide, JackJack
• Graphic Designers: Baron, MSPN, Novawolf, Spex, Tim Ritz
• Photographers: JackJack, Jelle’s Marble Runs
• Release: 09/07/2021