Marble League 2020 Sponsored by LWT and John Rolliver

[Hooper]

I need a support group of folks whose lives are an empty void now that the 2020 Marble League has broadcast its last event of the season.  I'm left with only my memories and about eleventy-thousand Youtube videos of spherical objects rolling along tracks and through funnels to see me through these dark times. 

Highlights of the final event for me:

a) seeing John Rolliver join the venerable King Stardust for the demo run of one lap of the marathon

b) cheering for valiant Yellup of the last-place-in-the-standings team Mellow Yellow as s/he/it lead the pack through almost the entire final marathon event, only to fall to second place in the last couple laps

Also, kudos to LWT and HBO for sponsoring the League and for their $100,000 to various food banks and the Int. Rescue Committee as part of their sponsorship of the Marble League.  Yeah, yeah, I know, tax write off.  But still - a far better way to fill the sports void than by airing some former comedian whining about pro-athletes and all their support personnel not risking their lives to keep him entertained.

[swanpride]

My favourite thing was seeing the Minties reaching the top three after being a "new" team in the line-up. I wish though they had been pitted less against the Rasberry Racers (which as usual, were carried mostly by Razzie - I fear, though, he got hurt more badly than he let on in this one event).

 

All in all an exciting season which had suspense till the very end. And no, I don't feel sorry for the Orangers, their fans are sooooo annoying. The only thing I would change is the black hole event. That one was a bummer to watch.

[SnideAsides]

I feel like Black Hole Funnel is one of those sports that's a decent idea that just happens to be impossible to follow. Poor Greg Woods having to try to make sense of it.

I was trying to rank the events from favourite to least favourite the other day, and then I realised... all of the other events were really great and exciting, but the actual racing events kind of didn't work for me. I don't know whether it was just because the sand and water was harder to film, or whether it's because we got like four races in a row in the middle of the season there, but give me something like Halfpipe or the High Jump any day.

Also Kongrats to the Kobalts for winning the Marble League Showdown.

[DEL901]

8 hours ago, swanpride said:

My favourite thing was seeing the Minties reaching the top three after being a "new" team in the line-up. I wish though they had been pitted less against the Rasberry Racers (which as usual, were carried mostly by Razzie - I fear, though, he got hurt more badly than he let on in this one event).

 

All in all an exciting season which had suspense till the very end. And no, I don't feel sorry for the Orangers, their fans are sooooo annoying. The only thing I would change is the black hole event. That one was a bummer to watch.

I was rooting for the O’Rangers.   They reminded me of the gum balls I used to eat as a child.   I guess second place isn’t too bad considering how they tanked the marathon.  

And the season isn’t completely over.    They just did the first round of qualifiers for new teams who want to compete in 2021.   

[swanpride]

My favourite is clearly the funnels. It's easy to follow and the one event which stays suspenseful to the very end. The racing events work for me UNLESS they happen under water. It is just too difficult to see who is truly leading there. Everything which involves something getting measured is a little bit difficult, because it is hard to keep track of who did how well, but the halfpipe is my favourite of those events. The high jump is at least easy to follow.

 

 

[SnideAsides]

I've been working my way through the old Marble Leagues, and... given how they do a bunch of events themed on the host team (Black Hole Funnel was the only real one based on Team Galactic this year, but last year they did a whole bunch of water events for the Oceanics and the year before was a full Winter Olympics thing for the Snowballs), I'm kinda wondering what the Crazy Cats' Eyes have in store for next year. It doesn't seem like the sort of team that would be easy to build events around.