Competition is heating up at the 2019 MarbleLympics, and it’s time for a classic: it’s Usain Bolt’s favourite event – the 5 meter sprint!1Excuse me, I’m being informed that Usain Bolt’s favourite event is now… soccer? What the fuck, dude?
This appears to be the simplest event of the tournament, but looks can be deceiving. There’s a surprising amount of skill involved. The key is to maintain as straight a trajectory as possible; colliding with the walls of one’s lane saps precious kinetic energy. Ricocheting confers no advantage here; marbles need good, clean runs.
In this particular instance of the event, excitement abounds. There’s a photo finish right off the bat, with Team Galactic edging out Jungle Jumpers for a spot in the semis by a single millisecond. In the third heat, there’s another photo finish, with the O’Rangers finally showing some life and placing first, ahead of the Hazers by 2 milliseconds.
The semis continue to bring the tension, with Semi Final A keeping the marbles within a length of each other before Mellow Yellow explodes halfway through to take a commanding lead. But at the last second, Hazers catch up and take the top spot by one millisecond. Yet another photo finish! Semi Final B is also a delight, with Crazy Cat’s Eyes out in front for most of the race until the Green Ducks pull ahead and claim victory.
And then we’re down to the finals. Mellow Yellow and Crazy Cat’s Eyes are having nice, clean runs, and it looks like gold and silver are theirs to claim. Hazers are way back in fourth. But then, those crafty cloud orbs find their second wind, and they lurch into second place, leaving Crazy Cat’s Eyes with the bronze.
Good show all around! Next up, the relay race. That one’s always a nailbiter.
Stray thoughts:
- After finishing first in both their heat and their semi final, the Green Ducks finish in a disappointing fourth place in the final, just missing the podium yet again. Still, they’re up to third place in the rankings now.
- What’s going on with the Savage Speeders? They placed dead last in this event! This was a speed-based event!
- The Pinkies just can’t gain any traction, it seems. They’re still last in the overall rankings.
- I’m surprised the Raspberry Racers didn’t put up a bigger fight. They’ve had consistently good performance throughout this tournament.
Complete stats for the 2019 MarbleLympics can be found at the MarbleLympics Wiki.