Swax – Project Marblearth

The Tropical Collage

Our Marble Survival Season 2 competitors reflect on a hard-fought season post-elimination, all the way to the end.

Take Two A visitor to Kinikolu eventually learned one hard lesson—being alone on the beach required an obscure beach or an inconvenient time. On a good day, the sunrise was quite remarkable, however. Yellah was glad that Mellow agreed with them, and was always happy to join them on a stroll across the empty sandsContinue reading “The Rainbow Palette”

Out of the Rolling – Event 14: Send a New Message

Aryp swung the door to their hotel room shut. Their thoughts were backing up in their mind like a clogged drain. If they didn’t do this right now, they were going to explode. From under their bed came a cardboard box filled with “junk.” Next came their cutting mat, and from their bag came scissors,Continue reading “Out of the Rolling – Event 14: Send a New Message”

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.

ML2023 Memo #6: All is Fair in Tug-of-War

During their MFC days, the Pinkies had begun a victory tradition. For each medal earned, they would get an at-table barbecue and follow it with a round of karaoke. It had continued until the 2022 League, where blowing their voices out after every piece of hardware earned quickly became incompatible with the sheer and suddenContinue reading “ML2023 Memo #6: All is Fair in Tug-of-War”

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”

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”

ML2022 Memo #3: Hurdles

Yellow Eye hadn’t understood what Red Eye meant by “keeping an eye out” until they were past the fourth hurdle and glanced to their left. “Pinky Panther had been trailing until then. They didn’t relent, and I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t know what to do,” continued Yellow Eye. “But I knew what they wouldContinue reading “ML2022 Memo #3: Hurdles”

RetRollSpective – Bumblebees

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 flying over to the Bumblebees, the champions of Hubelino Tournament Season 2 and hosts of Marble League 2023. Read on to find out how this team hasContinue reading “RetRollSpective – Bumblebees”