No idea what teams we’re gonna see but either way I’m excited!

And my rojo roller is orange…

Maybe yall can see it if I misplaced one but I’m pretty sure they’re all in the right spot

Another thing that’s not a huge deal but something for you guys to look out for is that my Gliding Glacier has a chunk missing, reminiscent of Momomo’s injury back in the day

So instead of just including the original Hublenio teams, they went with the 3 Hublenio teams that are in the Marble League, and 5 other ML teams with the same general colors as the original Hublenio teams. That activity took more work, and makes it way less interesting, but alright.

If anyone doesn't see the connections: Oceanics - Bluefastics Rojo Rollers - Ruby Rollers Team Momo - The Green Gang Team Primary - Team Phenoix/Golden Orbs Wolfpack - Valiant Violets

Marble Ninja Warrior: I want to see how the marbles navigate strangely constructed obstacles.

The Real Marble Athletes Of JMR: I want to see who’s dating and who’s fighting who in the Marble League Village.

After my post the other day, I realized that he only said the Golden Orbs would not be in. Well, turns out it’s only ML teams like I said. There are only going to be ML teams in the tournament. Of course, yesterday you guys did not like it, and I don’t too, but I don’t want any hate to the JMR team.

I’m getting word that the JMR team used Marble League teams for the Hubelino Tournament. And that their will be no Hubelino teams. No criticism to the JMR team, but were you expecting this?

Also for those interested, the final results of Iron Marble but the scores don't reset will be coming this weekend

It's a weird thought to put to words now that we've been on this side of Marble ManiaX for four years, and remember it mainly for the large gaggle of things that went wrong. The delays, the re-uploads, and whatever happened with Collision are all that everyone thinks of when Marble ManiaX is brought up these days. That, and wondering when the Constrictors are going to get invited to the Marble League.

But before all of that happened, I and I think much of the community viewed Marble ManiaX much more favorably. During the pre-season announcement hype cycle one could say I was almost giddy with excitement in a way I haven't really felt for any of the non-"Big 3" tournaments since then. And I'm here to talk about what I think made a big difference for Marble ManiaX: the teams.

Put simply, not only was it exciting to see new teams get revealed for Marble ManiaX, but seeing old teams mixed in with them as well, that sold me hard on the tournament at the time, and it's a magical combination that we haven't had since. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to all new teams. I like the milk teams from Last Marble Standing, and boy did I get invested in the Freak Marbles. But there was something special about seeing the initial reveal the extreme sports tournament would be hosted by the Balls of Chaos of all teams. That told us everything we needed to know about the theming (and about what ensued I suppose but that's not quite relevant to my point). Then came the reveal of the Shining Swarm and Pinkies, and I thought it was super cool that two teams who at the time were rarely in the spotlight would get to shine for a bit in the off-season. Added to that mix were the Black Jacks coming out of retirement and the Purple Rockets leaping out of the pages of Marblearth lore. Finally, three completely new teams in the Constrictors, Strixes, and Noxious Ivy rounded out the lineup. Between loving the idea of a BOC-hosted event, being a Pinkies fan for no good reason, and picking up Strixes fandom thanks to my obsession with owls, I was in a prime hype mode. The new (and returning) teams all had good (or at least interesting) theming, and the presence of some less-prominent old hats meant there was a balance of not being overwhelmed by too many new faces but also not having a bunch mainstays that we see too much of. Dare I say, it was a perfect off-season team lineup?

So why am I now taking up the mantle of "maybe the only person saying nice things about Marble ManiaX in 2026"? I know it was a bit of a mess and we all talked the issues to death at the time. The simple answer is over the course of the last year or two of JMR videos and finding myself having lukewarm interest in them, I found myself missing the idea of Marble ManiaX, and it was in fact the Hubelino comeback last fall that put it into perspective for me.

I wasn't around for the first two Hubelino Tournaments, so for me the retrospective viewing experience was similar to watching Marble ManiaX: some familiar faces amongst a bunch of strangers, battling it out in events that held similarities to Marble League events but with their own thematic twist that set the series apart. On the whole the events were fabulous: Big Tower forever lives in my heart. I like the Bumblebees and I don't think there's a single weak team design in the lot. So you can imagine my excitement when Hubelino Season 3 got announced, and you can probably also imagine my disappointment when it was announced that none of the old Hubelino teams would be making a return. And here we finally arrive at the whole purpose of me writing this: the 32 ML teams are wearing out their welcome for me.

Just looking back at the calendar since the beginning of 2025, it's not hard to see why: Marble League All-Stars, 2024 Showdown, Survival Season 2, Marble League 2025, Hubelino, Marbula One, Impact Marble Racing, Iron Marble, and now the Collision Underleague all feature some lineup of the same favorite characters over and over again. Each series individually having its particular lineup of teams doesn't affect its quality, but after all of these in a row I am more than ready for some different faces. Put another way, if every new Star Wars spinoff featured the same cast for some reason over and over again, I'd be getting very tired of those characters even if every show was the best thing since Empire Strikes Back (and they really are not, but that's irrelevant to this discussion).

To be clear, the teams issue hasn't been the deal breaker for most of these. I'm never going to not tune into a Marble League or Marbula One. Impact Marble Racing was unique and quite fun to watch and I'm enjoying the Collision Underleague just by virtue of it being so completely different in construction to every other series on the channel. All-Stars and the subsequent 2024 Showdown were more a problem of event fatigue rather than team fatigue for me, and Survival is the same issue but twenty times worse. Hubelino is actually the only one where my enjoyment was sapped mostly because of the teams present, hence why it was the catalyst to me writing this piece.

I can speculate reasonable explanations for why we haven't seen any other teams in these series. For Impact Marble Racing, marketing the new toy line being the reason is a safe bet, and I don't feel the need to argue against that. For Hubelino maybe they couldn't find all of the larger 22-mm marbles and didn't have 16-mm versions of some of the older teams. It's an unfortunate reason but I suppose I'd prefer it to deliberately choosing to not bring back the classic Hubelino teams, which I maintain is a weird choice. I feel like a series like Survival/Iron Marble or especially the Collision Underleague could easily slot in some old Hubelino teams and/or Marble ManiaX teams. I don't think we need to have all 32 ML teams in the Survival tournaments, but upwards of 40 marbles in those obstacle courses would at least be more watchable than the comical chaos of Marble Indy 500 (which was beautiful as one time thing though, I will never hate on Marble Indy 500). And I don't know if everyone will show up in Collision but thus far I haven't seen any semblance of a format that would prevent other teams from taking part (and again, I don't think we need all 32 mainline teams there either). I personally would find random collision matches between the Golden Orbs and Solar Flares or big obstacle runs where the Green Gang duels the Balls of Chaos an exciting and fresh prospect.

Wow, I didn't expect I'd have so much to say when the basic thesis is just "I'm tired of seeing the same grip of teams in absolutely everything". I don't know how much of it is the teams and how much is just too many series that don't otherwise interest me anyway, but given I think I could've enjoyed Impact and Hubelino more I think it's at least a small part of the issue. I don't typically count Sand Marble Rally as one of my favorites, but when it comes I feel like it will be a breath of fresh air just from the cast change. Does anyone else feel this way? I haven't seen much discourse about this, so I'm curious.

Final two dates for the Impact Marble Tournament as well as the start of the Iron Marble Tournament!

Did I win the collect 32team%

Shoutout to both the Raspberry Racers and the Snowballs for their consistency across both events, and a special shoutout to Snowdrift for being a Snowballs marble other than Snowy to be doing well!

Congrats to the Minty Maniacs as well for having fairly consistent results across all members, without one marble carrying the team!

Speaking of carrying the team, props to Diego, sitting in Sixth, while their teammate Bingo is sitting tied for last, being the only non-eliminated marble yet to cross the finish line.

Here are the teams that didn't compete in MCU

• Jungle Jumpers

• Thunderbolts

• Rojo Rollers

• Crazy Cat's Eyes

• Hazers

• Indigo Stars

• Solar Flares

• Wolfpack

So, if there were episodes 7 and 8, who will compete with who and why? Here is mine:

JNG vs WLF: Bad teams at M1

TBL vs ROJ: Good 2016, but fell off a cliff since then

CCE vs HAZ: M1 S6

SFL vs IND: Teams that don't have a lot of fans

First off, Apologies for the delay in this update. Im aware its less than twelve hours to event 8. It has taken time to collate and organise data. As such, you will all be treated to a triple feature of events 5, 6, and 7.

Event 5 saw the loss of the Snowballs, Solar Flares, Thunderbolts and Bumblebees. As per fate in this series, the leading team gets eliminated, R.I.P. Snowballs. This leads to the, as always, inevitable rise of the Savage Speeders, who lead the team standings to this day. Fun is Cancelled. Congrats to Bolt - for *almost* making the top 50. Diego also strives for excellence.

Event 6 saw the loss of the Minty Maniacs and the Gliding Glaciers, no big loss. Ever since Event 1, the Glaciers have been Gliding into mediocrity. The Maniacs, on the other hand, have done decently over all. A remarkably consistent team. I believe this is due to the fact that Minty Mint is nowhere to be seen. Diego and the Speeders remain on top, with Dash, the Aura Farming, arriving from nowhere.

Event 7 saw the loss of the Pinkies and the Limers, teams who were in 3rd and 2nd respectively (when will this stop happening). Despite a serious pep-talk, both teams failed to win in the eleventh hour. Despite this, Sublime did put in a fair effort, pretty much doing Snowy levels of carrying. The Pinkies, on the other hand, were more closely spaced and consistent among members. Yellim still remains the lowest ranked marble still in the competition, despite having two less races than Montoya.

Going into the final event, the Speeders have a dominant lead in the team standings, but both the Indigo Stars and the Turtle Sliders are prepared to fight. For the individual standings, depending on how scoring occurs, i believe Diego is safe for a Guaranteed Podium. Despite the Speeders having 3 marbles in the top 10, i believe Dash and Diego have the opportunity to stop this cancellation of fun. They have the chance to do the unthinkable, and stop the Speeders.

I am putting my faith in you, Diego. Do something an Indigo Stars marble has never done before. Do something worth remembering. (Go Go, Indigo)

With a new year comes a brand new JMR event... sort of. The Iron Marble is basically the Marble Survival series taken to the next level. The main differences being that it's a team event - something I know was highly desired for this kind of challenge - and there's a very real risk of catching tetanus. With 128 marbles competing... which I think might be a record in any individual event... it's going to be impossible to keep up with every single one. So, for the sake of my sanity, I'll be covering the good, the bad, and the noteworthy.

SNOWBALLS

Starting the tournament with a bang. You'd think snow and rusty metal wouldn't go too well together, but as usual, Snowy is out there showing why they're the goat. If there is one thing I am pleased to say about the Snowballs in recent years, though, it's that they genuinely feel like a team now. We all remember when "The Snowballs" really just meant Snowy. Nowadays, everyone is genuinely putting in the effort. All the tension of the past seems to have gone, at least from what I can see. All the Snowballs put in pretty decent performances across the four rounds, albeit not quite as good as our main man... err, marble. I think this might make them potential favourites going into the next round, but really, who can say? These events are always so unpredictable, after all.

GREEN DUCKS

With the Hazers finally securing a victory in Marbula One after years of trying, the Green Ducks can now probably take their title of the most successful team that have yet to win a major event. Right away, Billy understands the assignment, and puts up a tense but well-earned victory ahead of Gogo, Rezzy and Scorch. Sometimes it's hard to keep track of everything going on in the clutter and all the balls flying around, but survival tournaments like these can have some really fun clashes if you keep your eye on them. The rest of the team? Eeeeeeeeh, they still need to lock in. Mallard did OK, but I almost feel like Ducky and Quacky thought they could go on autopilot after Billy's win. Risky move, guys. This is a team event now. You need to support each other. You're supposed to be one of the best teams in JMR history. How are the LIMERS ahead of you!?

BUMBLEBEES

Sometimes it pays to be consistent... or at the very least semi-consistent. I mentioned Rezzy and Scorch earlier, and in truth, the Raspberry Racers and Solar Flares were both rather consistent throughout, ultimately nabbing enough points to finish second and third respectively. Shout-out to them. But sometimes you do need to step away from the norm, especially if the norm is getting you the lowest spots possible. After two races, the Bumblebees were in a pretty precarious position, still technically safe, but in 23rd place with only 21 points, they were in a position that could have been easily passible. Enter Honey stage right with an incredible run in the first round, nearly a full second ahead of second place Eve. This put them up a full 13 spots, which would have been enough to qualify even if Hive had collapsed. Heck, if anything, I think seeing Honey do so well may have given the team a morale boost or something. At least, that's what it looked like to me. Guess we'll find out next time.

KOBALTS

GEEZ! Are you TRYING to give your fanbase a heart attack!? Last year, you had THE ultimate Cinderella story of the Marble League, fresh off the back of a top eight finish in MS2 I should add, which means you're entering Iron Marble as one of the favourites... and THIS is what you have to show for it!? What happened? Did Azure clone themselves and sneak back onto the team and replace three of your members? All I can realistically say is THANK SMOKEY that Meepo came in clutch. Seriously, though, I know they were the marble that ultimately lead you to that unlikely victory, but you can't keep relying on them to do everything. Whilst I'm here, I also wanna shout out the Rojo Rollers for also managing to recover from a rocky start... although they at least had the decency to do it over two rounds instead of waiting for the last possible moment.

INDIGO STARS

Y'know, I'm well aware I SHOULD be talking about the Gliding Glaciers for this segment - and I will give them a shout-out. Congratulations on winning the first event and all that. You did well. The problem is that I don't really have a lot to talk about because they were consistent, but didn't really stand out in the same way as the Indigo Stars did. Sure, the Glaciers FINISHED the event on top, but the Stars HELD the top spot for longer. They've really been gaining momentum lately after their solid M1 performance. 6th place from Indie, 5th place from Diego, and a brilliant second place from Gogo. They could have easily won the whole event if Bingo hadn't had that unfortunate crash-out. The Crazy Chevron giveth, and The Crazy Chevron taketh away. If things keep up like this, however, I get the feeling this may not be the last time I talk about the Stars.

TEAM PLASMA

Oh no, Team Plasma did poorly in a survival tournament. Who could have possibly seen that coming? Everyone. Everyone who's watched the Marble Survival tournaments saw this coming. They have been notoriously bad at this, and considering they were one half of the amazing 2023 League's Elimination finale, I can't understand why. Somehow, Team Plasma are trending DOWNWARDS, and the last event they finished in 31st! The team just seemed lethargic throughout, barely crawling over the finish line in all four races and they could have easily had a DNF had Rima not been so sporting. What's next? 33rd out of 32 teams? At this rate nothing would surprise me short of them actually winning.

TEAM GALACTIC

Oh, Red Number 3 on a fidget spinner! What in Jelle's name HAPPENED!? You were doing so well! You started with a top half finish, then improved upon that with a top quarter finish! You were in seventh place at the halfway point! 46 points! Just twelve behind first, and a sizable distance from the cutoff point! All Astron and Pulsar needed to do was get points! Astron and Pulsar proceeded to score back-to-back DNFs and crash down to 30th spot. THEY COULDN'T EVEN GET POINT SINGULAR!! Have you been taking notes from the Indigo Stars' disastrous 2025 League qualifiers!? Geesh, I swear I didn't think I'd get this mad...

BLACK JACKS

From a third place in the first Marble League they qualified for and a championship win in the revival of the tournament they made their grand debut in... to this. The Black Jacks looked to be doing so well, but a massive blockade stopped Heart dead in their tracks just inches away from the finish line in that first race, and the team never really recovered afterwards. Diamond did to their credit manage to get a decent score, but a second DNF from Spade sealed their rusty fate. They're going to have nightmares about giant ball-bearings for a while now, aren't they?

TEAM MOMO

This is definitely a sad time to be a Momo fan... and to be honest, I think deep down, we're ALL Momo fans. They have always been the crowd favourites, a team I genuinely think you'd have to put in a deliberate effort to hate. But ever since their Winter League successes, things have been going down the toilet. Hubelino? A disaster? The 2025 League? A disaster. Marbula One? A disaster... so why not add THIS to the list! And, y'know what, I don't like pointing fingers, but I blame Momo here. You wanted to be different. You wanted to go in Round 2 and not be part of the captain round just to carry the naming scheme. And look where it got you! You literally would have made it through if you'd at least finished the race. Sure, you'd have been in 28th place, but you only needed ONE point to jump the Kobalts and you couldn't even do that! Guys, seriously... DO SOMETHING! You're not the Balls of Chaos or the Limers or the Purple Rockets or any team that's genuinely fun to dump on... we can't keep going on with these poor performances.

Oh how the mighty have fallen! Due to an unfortunate DNF from Rizzy (L Rizz), the previous leaders have been eliminated, leaving the Snowballs to begin their rein.

Also welcome to Montoya, who is already doing better than Bingo (wishing them a speedy recovery).

Snowdrift remains on top of the individual standings, but is closely tied with Diego and Rapidly, with Glimmer not far behind.

Rozzy was executed through the means of order 66.

Well, here we are. The semi-finals of Iron Marble have come and gone. Four more races have been run, and if I've got my information correct, the last two teams have been eliminated, leaving the top eight to battle it out for glory. So, who did stuff this round? Who succeeded? Who failed? And who did something noteworthy? Let's find out.

TURTLE SLIDERS

OK, so, the Turtle Sliders might be having just a liiiiiitle bit too much fun here. The second-highest ranked team still in the competition, they started the event as they left in - in the priority lane, and with Crush nabbing a VERY comfortable win in the first race. They were nearly a full six seconds ahead of Sea, to put this in context. This win was not only via the largest margin of any team in this event, but also in the quickest time of this event too. I still don't like how the rounds are called "events". It feels confusing. Really, these last few "events" have been great for the Sliders... with one small outlier. Unfortunately, Squirt got themselves in a bit of a pickle, and whilst their ninth place didn't threaten the Sliders here, it DID drop them down to second place overall, probably not helped by the Crazy Chevron denying Dash a second win for the team. As I understand, Event 8, the final, is going to come down to "score as many points as you can". Even the slightest of weaknesses could be a detriment.

OCEANICS

Like the Sliders, the Oceanics had a great event with some really high scores throughout, with one notable outlier landing in the bottom half. Unlike the Sliders, Siren ended up in sixth place, a reasonably respectable score all things considering. It's not dead last, lets put it that way. This left the Oceanics with an overall results set of 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th, just enough to win the event overall by just a single point over the Savage Speeders. You get a sense as to how the Oceanics managed to win the first Marble Survival 100 tournament, and suffice to say this MORE than makes up for their terrible Season 2 run. It's now a question of whether or not they can keep it together and reclaim their title. It's certainly possible.

CHOCOLATIERS

The Chocolatiers are through to the final eight. That's legit a sentence that feels wrong to say... but I can't deny that this is an event they've really locked down on. It was a pretty consistent enough run, with two fifth place finishes, before Choc decided to really boil hot and cruise to victory in the third race, over three seconds ahead of Swifty. This guaranteed the Chocolatiers a place in the final event before the last race and they could have easily won the whole event... if Cocoa hadn't melted under the pressure and gotten stuck relatively high up the course. A second place finish converted to a measly seventh in the blink of an eye. Guys, you've FINALLY done better than mid in an event. Don't ruin it all now!

SAVAGE SPEEDERS

So, with the collapse this round of a certain team, the Savage Speeders are one of only two Marble League champions to reach the final event, and dare I say it, the more interesting of the two overall... I mean, really, what are Mellow Yellow actually doing? There's a reason I've not talked about them much since that one race win. That's gonna get the fanbase on me. Where was I? Oh yeah... basically, I can sum up the Speeders' run here as basically the same as the Oceanics. The same scoring results and everything for the most part, just in different races. The only difference is that whilst the Oceanics' lowest result was 6th, the Speeders' was 7th. A small difference, but a significant one nonetheless. To be honest, I've rarely heard anyone even talk about the Speeders. I would have at least expected cries of "FUN IS GETTING CANCELED!" and whatnot... and if you are one of those people, I just wanna say "c'mon, the Speeders have been struggling to do anything relevant for the last few years, let them have something". It's always been said that the Speeders should never be counted out unless it's impossible for them to win. Let's see if they can finally break the cycle and get their mojo back.

ROJO ROLLERS

Awww, you were SO close! If I've been calculating things correctly, the Rojo Rollers are the only team of the final eight that have yet to actually win a race across all of Iron Marble. And they were literally inches away. I think that has to be one of the smallest gaps between first and second I've seen in quite some time. Heck, Rojo Cuatro was in the lead... but, of course, the bane of everyone's existence in this tournament strikes again. Heck, it wasn't even that big of a hit from the Crazy Chevron - certainly not the wallop that knocked Dash into next week - but it was enough to stall the Rollers' representative just enough to cost them the win. Still, I shouldn't really complain too much since it did bring them up to 4th... but even so, a win ahead of the final event would have been nice.

LIMERS

Normality has finally been restored. For the past few events, the Limers have been having shockingly great runs, with a couple of wins to their names, and even an overall event victory. Heck, they even managed to convincingly defeat their long-time rivals. That's amazing. The best word to describe this particular event? "Classic". A last place finish, a last place overall and then a brutal DNF thanks to the side spring deciding that the Limers had clearly done enough... it was basically like "OK, Lemonlime, great work making the top 10, but you've outstayed your welcome now - into the audience you go!" This meant that the Limers achieved something no other team has for the entire tournament - a guaranteed elimination before the final race. What happened to Limelime was just throwing a wounded marble into a bucket of salt. It's like I said in another post; some days, the Limers will put on an amazing performance out of nowhere to really shake up the competition and put them in positions just like this... and then, on other days, they'll just be the Limers.

PINKIES

Ladies and gentlemen, trans, NBs and marbles of all ages, it's official... we won't be having a successful title defense in this event. I mean, I know technically Marble Survival and Iron Marble are different, but I still like the idea of the Pinkies being considered the defending champions. Unfortunately, this was just one step too far. It all went wrong right from the get-go, which left Pinky Toe effectively trying to fit a square peg into the triangle hole - like, what are the odds of getting double-teamed by two ball bearings? They simply never recovered after this. 8th place from Panther, 7th place from Rosa, and despite a much needed team talk, Pinky Winky just couldn't get it together and got another 7th. I think everyone knew the Pinkies were going to be out the moment we saw Winky crawl across the line, long before we saw the official results. But this shouldn't retract from the fact that this was a great overall run by the Pinkies. Again, even four years after the fact, it doesn't feel right in saying all this, but it really does showcase just how far the Pinkies have come from their haphazard beginnings. Peace out, Pinkies. Do the 10th anniversary of the Marble League proud.

I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who's followed along with my analysis/review of all runs of the Iron Marble. Honestly, I'm surprised I made it this far considering the tournament fell during a pretty busy time at work, but here we are. I'm not completely sure how I'll go about reviewing the final, but I suspect all eight remaining teams will be covered. Until next time...

This was uploaded to the youtube community section today yet I haven't seen any discussion here of it yet

Well, this isn't completely overdue and now entirely irrelevant. The final event of Iron Marble ended two weeks ago, and I really should have had this up by now. BUUUUUUUT, in my defence, the JMR wiki has yet to write an article on Event 8, so technically, I'm still in time to do this, right? OK, OK, lets go through this.

OCEANICS

The Oceanics are, among other things, known for their victory in the first Marble Survival. They entered Season 2 with high expectations, only to crash out earlier than may have been expected. I think it's safe to say that the team have redeemed themselves... not completely, but hey, third place is still really good. Another great showing by Sea to make use of the priority lane managed to nab a first win without too much hassle, and they also managed to get two second places and a third. They could have easily won had things gone a little better in Race 2, where unfortunately Ocean came up short and could only manage sixth. Hey, remember when everyone was mocking Ounce for being useless? Well, Ounce got one of those aforementioned second places as a reserve addition! Where's the haters now!? Meanwhile, Ocean will likely be considered as "just unlucky" because we can't have nice things. Still, good going, Oceanics.

HAZERS

The Hazers have spent pretty much the entire tournament doing just enough to make it through, and right at the final stretch, they suddenly decide to lock in. This is the sort of thing I'd expect to see from the Savage Speeders, not the Hazers. Yet they came out strong in the end whilst the Speeders, frankly, just collapsed. Seriously, at no point in the final five races did the Speeders finish above the Hazers. Their best finish was in third place... and the only reason that fell through was because Cloudly had already crossed the finish line two days before anyone else even came close! Then in the next race, Smoggy decided to pull off ANOTHER, much narrower victory for the Hazers because apparently the Rojo Rollers just aren't allowed to win any Iron Marble Races, and with Swifty deciding to stop and chat with a ball bearing, that was just the icing on the cake. Again, the Hazers had great results throughout. It was just that first race being only slightly less than stellar that cost them. Still a very good result for a team that wasn't really well suited for this sort of tournament... and they did it all without a single DNF to boot.

MELLOW YELLOW

Oh, so NOW you decide to do something again? Took you long enough. Again, though, I still find it very hard to actually talk about Mellow Yellow. It's not like they had a bad run in this particular event - far from it. Again, they were pretty consistent across all five races with only one subpar finish, and Yellim managed to just pip Nereid to the post in Race 4. It's just when that's basically what every team in the top four - effectively decided before the final race, I should add - did the exact same thing, it's kinda hard for Mellow Yellow to stand out among everyone else, especially as they just missed the podium... although, now that I think about it, I think Yellim's narrow victory actually COST the Oceanics the overall title... yeah, it did, because otherwise the Oceanics would be tied with the Stars and then won on countback! Maybe that is Mellow Yellow's biggest legacy here, as well as the fact that they're genuinely THE most consistent team in these Marble Survival tournaments - 2nd, 2nd and now 4th, which if that's the worst you've done, that's still pretty good going. The only other team to have finished in the top eight of all three events is, surprisingly, the Chocolatiers. I completely forgot this was the one event they weren't completely mid in. Good for you, then.

TURTLE SLIDERS

Pfffffttt-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

(Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By)

TURTLE SLIDERS TAKE 2

What the shell was that!? WHAT!? THE SHELL!? WAS THAT!? You were having a great run at this whole thing! The last half had been going BRILLIANTLY! TWO Event wins, and a third place in the previous one. You were going into the final event as one of the favourites, and WHAT DO YOU DO!? You do what EVERY potential frontrunner has done this season! Collapse! Collapse HARD at that! All five finishes were in the bottom half, with one being a DNF. You finished bottom of the pile! Heck, even the Rojo Rollers finished higher than you, and they failed to finish TWICE! I can't even be mad, because this is absolutely hilarious. If this whole event has taught me anything, it's that the track is cursed. Do NOT, by any means, shape or form, be consistently great across numerous rounds, because Iron Marble WILL make sure you have an absolute travesty of a run later down the line and toss you out. And as for you, Sliders, I really REALLY hope, for your fans if nothing else, that this isn't a sign of things to come. I REALLY hope you're not going to lead the 26 Marble League qualifiers, only to jump off the track in the final event and plummet from first to last, missing the League for the 6th-7th time, whatever it is. There, I said the thing, am I cool now?

INDIGO STARS

It finally happened. As unlikely as it may have seemed all those years ago, we've finally got there. The Indigo Stars have found something that seemed destined to always be out of their grasp - genuine success. No, I'm not counting Showdown victories, that only makes you the best of the worst. This time, it's the best of the very best. And for what it's worth, the Indigo Stars have had a pretty solid run throughout. Not perfect, of course - they weren't far off crashing out after the second event - but enough to get them this far, where they once again put on a strong performance. Just like the Oceanics, Hazers and Mellow Yellow, they performed consistently within the top four. UNLIKE the other teams, they never fell into the lower quarter - third, second, fourth and third again. After the fourth race, this put them in 3rd place overall, which would have been respectable on its own. But this was the final event, and this time, all the stops were being pulled out, for the surprise "fifth round". And this is where what I can only describe as the ultimate redemption story plays out, as the Stars are forced to send in Bingo. Bingo had been in their initial line-up, but both of their races had been cut short with some infamously brutal DNFs, forcing them to the sidelines. I don't know what people were expecting given these circumstances, but I suspect nobody expected them to clear the finish line over six seconds ahead of the next competitor. That victory was just enough to tip the scales fully in the Stars' favour. Bingo had achieved redemption AND conquered its gremlins all in one. The course may have won the battle, but Bingo won the war. And, ultimately, it couldn't have happened to a more appropriate marble. Bingo was the perfect end to the Indigo Stars' amazing run, and once again, massive congratulations. You've managed to achieve what the Green Ducks, the very team you were in the shadow of since 2019, have never managed. You should be proud.

FINAL COVERAGE TALLY

Five Times: Oceanics

Four Times: Indigo Stars, Pinkies, Turtle Sliders

Three Times: Limers, Savage Speeders, Shining Swarm

Twice: Bumblebees, Chocolatiers, Gliding Glaciers, Green Ducks, Hazers, Kobalts, Mellow Yellow, Rojo Rollers, Snowballs, Solar Flares, Thunderbolts, Wolfpack

Once: Balls of Chaos, Black Jacks, Crazy Cat's Eyes, Jungle Jumpers, Midnight Wisps, Minty Maniacs, O'Rangers, Purple Rockets, Raspberry Racers, Team Galactic, Team Momo, Team Plasma, Team Primary

(10 million simulations)

One of my favorite parts of Iron Marble has been seeing marbles compete individually who I otherwise would only really see in team events, but I wonder, should the reserves get in on the action?

Welcome back! Apologies for the delay in this, I did spend the extra time to some quality of life changes to this series! I have added the position and positional changes columns to make it easier to gauge individual performances and to make comparisons!

Similar to the Raspberry Racers last week, the Shining Swarm have since been launched into Orbit (RIP Shimmer) and we have lost another previous top contender. Snowballs remain on Thin Ice on top of the standings.

The Limers continue to do things the Limers have never done before and sit provisionally in 3rd for the team standings and sit in 1st with Sublime for the individual standings, followed by Diego and Snowdrift.

Due to Montoya not sucking, Shelly now remains the lowest ranked marble still in contention, 71 points behind the leader.

The Choclatiers have also decided to stop sucking, and have climbed an accumulative total of 87 spots in the individual standings!

Please let me know what other QoL changes you would like to see with this series to make it more visually pleasant and more readable in general!