Tag Archives: Savage Speeders

High Stakes, High Rollers

You see it on every sign and screen at the Kinikolu Resort and Sportsplex: “THE PARTY NEVER ENDS.” Over the past two months, the Marble Survival 100 Tournament host site has lived up to that promise.

Each week, a new obstacle course at the Survival Stadium rises out of a cloud of artificial fog. An athlete from each Marble League team then races day after day to avoid elimination. Those who remain have survived getting battered by rams, smacked four ways by fidget spinners or treated as playthings by the Bell Carousel.

Their reward for this gauntlet will be more than a championship trophy: it will be publicity. Online or on the airwaves, the Elite Eight’s faces are plastered on marketing throughout Marblearth. In the tournament’s first weeks, fans and passersby in Kinikolu could still catch an athlete on the sidewalk or having fun. Now those remaining are hard to access, marbles who seem more like myth on the outside.

As the excitement grows, who is stepping up to the moment while staying true to themselves? The stories over one week, when ten marble survivors turned to eight, tell the tale.

Hearts Aflutter and Minds Abuzz

Fragmented rose-pink clouds decorated the orange-yellow sky. A thin morning haze hung over the city streets down below. The moon had disappeared beneath the horizon and the sun, burning the wispy edges of the clouds with its light, had emerged in its place.

The cycle of the heavens was beginning anew, and a new day was breaking over Buzznya.

ML2023 Memo #5: Running Fast, Running Past

On Snowy’s bedroom wall hung two individual golds.  The first they’d earned during S1’s Short Circuit GP. There they’d learned that to stand alone on the top step of the podium was an incomparable experience.  The second was from the 2022 Showdown’s Sand Rally, the final event, before which the Snowballs had been sixteenth andContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #5: Running Fast, Running Past”

ML2023 Memo #4: The Weight of Victory

To lose the battle but win the war. It was an expression that Stinger had once heard, though they were long past remembering the context for it. As it had been explained to them, it meant to give away something of relatively minor importance but ultimately emerge the victor in a given conflict.  If defeatContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #4: The Weight of Victory”

ML2023 Memo #3: Riding a Fine Line

Following Razzy’s injury, Ruzzy had stepped in as the Raspberry Racers’ finalist in Marble League 2020’s Hurdles. Pit against three athletes who had prepared months in advance for the event, the odds were stacked against the reserve who had been watching from the stands just moments ago. Yet in an incredible upset, they’d claimed theContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #3: Riding a Fine Line”

Star Love

There’s something in the stars who we look up to as marble sports fans. What makes them so special to write about?

M1S4 Memo #10: Three Stories Around the Square

Rapidly always loved to watch Speedy race. They’d always favored exhilarating sharp turns and aggressive chases, clawing for positions until the very end. Even after all this time, they still ran every race like it was their first – like they still had something to prove.  A lot had happened since that first race. BackContinue reading “M1S4 Memo #10: Three Stories Around the Square”

Going All In

In Marbula One, champions don’t boil down to just their best racer. Teams that were once broken can learn to lift each other up.

M1S4 Memo #4: Second Chances at Greenstone

Draklin was full of memories. Not necessarily all bad ones, but they still rung fresh. The silver lining, aside from their newly acquired bronze, was that they’d managed to duck away from the post-race press conference. Cloudy, now alone, let the race settle in their mind, flicking the corners of their notes. The pages wereContinue reading “M1S4 Memo #4: Second Chances at Greenstone”

M1S4 Memo #3: Fear and Fanmarbling in Rosaka

The flowers reminded Misty of home. “Home” was a secret they would keep to themselves for the rest of eternity, something reporters never quite understood even after all these years. They were all smiles today, a sharp turnaround from last week. They’d already shown their true colors anyway, Misty mused. The right thing to doContinue reading “M1S4 Memo #3: Fear and Fanmarbling in Rosaka”