巧克力

The current Chocolatiers logo, designed by Tim Ritz.

**巧克力** 是一个在 Marble League 2016 中首次亮相的队伍。队员有 Cocoa, Choc, Mocha, 和 Bonbon 。Fudge 于 2018 年作为替补队圆加入了巧克力队。

虽然说巧克力是从 Marble League 2016 就开始参赛的元老队伍，还四次进入了 ML 正赛，但是，他们中庸的表现让他们无缘关注度。不过，他们也因为过于中庸的表现 —— 他们从未在 ML 中登上一次领奖台，也从未在任何一项小赛事中获得倒一 —— 而在 ML 中知名。（国区可能更加是因为飞哥的巧克力巧克力巧克力）总的来说，在 ML 中，巧克力已经获得了 2 枚金牌，4 枚银牌和2 枚铜牌。

在 2021 弹珠联赛中，巧克力赢得了三枚奖牌，并以第七收官，这是他们在 ML 中所获得的最好成绩。

## 队伍成圆

### 运动圆

 File:DSC01556.JPG
Choc, Cocoa, Mocha, Bonbon 是巧克力队的四位元老。 Fudge 在 2018 年加入了巧克力队。 Cocoa 于 2019 年当选队长，而 Choc 在 2020 年将 Cocoa 取而代之。

 Mocha | Mocha
 Bonbon | Bonbon

### Coaches

Note: Events include any kind of events (friendlies, other tournaments, ...).

## History

### Pre-Marble League

The Chocolatiers come from villages around Mount Bonsel in South America, which are famous for their chocolate-based confections. It is the site of the world's biggest chocolate festival, held at the mountaintop village of Bonsel, known by tourists as the "Sweetest Place on Marblearth". The five original members of the Chocolatiers first met each other in a Bonsel chocolate festival in 2012.

Prior to their marble sports career, the five members were local confectioners working in towns around the base of Mount Bonsel. Choc is from Giradel, Cocoa hails from Lindel, Mocha comes from Toblel, and Fudge is from Ferrel. Bonbon hails from Bonsel, which is why they were involved in organizing the festival. Before the festival in 2012, Bonbon invited Cocoa, Choc, Mocha, and Fudge to take part in a festival project to create the longest chocolate bar. Over the course of ten days, the confectioners worked day and night to make the bar.

The project turned out to be a huge success as the chocolate bar ended up breaking the world record, leading the confectioners to throw a world record ceremony and reception. The ceremony was attended by marbles from across the South American region. There were also many celebrities that attended, including former Extreme Lucha Marbre Championship wrestler Candy, who had been competing in the Surculo as a member of their own team, the Jawbreakers, for the last two years.

 File:Jawboys.png
Candy was the guest speaker of the night, congratulating the confectioners on their most recent achievement. After the ceremony ended, Candy approached Bonbon and the other friends. They all proceeded to have a long talk throughout the night. Candy shared their experience and story of success in the ELMC and the Surculo to the confectioners, while Bonbon revealed to Candy how they and the friends had made their record-breaking chocolate bar. This was the night that changed the lives of the five confectioners forever.

The next week, the five met up once more in a gymnasium, trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers of the chocolate bar. While others were still talking, Cocoa rolled away from the group and started charging at the chocolate bar, leaping off a ramp and jumping over the bar. The four others, after seeing what Cocoa had just done, decided to do the same after measuring the bar. Each four of them landed on the bar, and Fudge, who was the last to jump, accidentally snapped the bar in half. This eventually led them to form a new marble sports team: the Chocolatiers.

Fudge initially declined to join the team and stayed in Ferrel due to their embarrassment from the chocolate bar incident. Cocoa, Choc, Mocha, and Bonbon applied for participation in the 2013 Surculo championship just before the deadline. The Chocolatiers did not impress early on, finishing in the bottom half of the standings. In an attempt to improve, the team hired Praline as their coach early in the season, but felt that they were not prepared enough.

After the 2013 Surculo ended, the Chocolatiers hired Truffle to replace Praline, whom they had sacked. The results were impressive. The team went on to do really well in the 2014 Surculo, earning them a spot in the elite league by finishing sixth. The Chocolatiers went on to keep their momentum into the 2015 Surculo, dominating the first half of the season with a string of consecutive podium finishes. Unfortunately, the team had a harder time in the second half, and eventually finished fifth overall.

The Chocolatiers had heard of the Marble League from the Jawbreakers, with whom they had remained friendly. Candy had told the Chocolatiers a rumor that the top three teams from the 2015 Surculo would be offered a participation spot in Marble League 2016. This meant that the Jawbreakers, the Rojo Rollers, and the Quicksilvers would be invited. However, the Quicksilvers declined, as did the fourth-placed Jungle Jumpers. The Chocolatiers, who never thought they would ever get invited, were given a participation spot in Marble League 2016, which they accepted.

### 2016

 File:CTML16.png
The Chocolatiers had a poor start to Marble League 2016, coming 14th in the first event, Balancing. They followed this up with a better 5th-place finish in Event 2, the Relay Race. This was followed by five events where they finished in the bottom half, dropping the team to 14th overall. A glimmer of revitalization came for the team when in Event 8, 10 Meter Sprint, Choc earned the team their first ever Marble League medal, a silver. The team came 5th in two of the four remaining events, Team Pursuit and Quartet Diving, but failed to earn any points in the other two events. The Chocolatiers finished their first Marble League season in a mediocre thirteenth place overall. Cocoa admitted that their team were not prepared for the level of competition.

The Chocolatiers returned to their homes and started to look for a place to build a training facility. They found a place at the foot of Mount Bonsel, just outside of Ferrel and, in late 2016, they started to construct the Cocoa Arena. The construction was supervised by Fudge, and it was finished midway through 2017. While they waited for construction to finish, the team trained in Jawnair in a separate facility to the Jawbreakers.

### 2017

 File:CTML171.png
The Chocolatiers traveled to Knikkegen to take part in the Marble League 2017 Qualifiers. They had a string of mid-table results, except for the Sand Race, where Bonbon finished second-to-last. Nonetheless, the team still qualified for Marble League 2017 in 9th overall, having tried to conserve their energy for the main tournament.

The Chocolatiers started off Marble League 2017 well, with Mocha finishing sixth in the first event, the Funnel Race. Cocoa built on this momentum and drove it into their jump during Event 2, the Long Jump. Scoring a distance of 71.3 cm, they won the event, earning the team their first gold medal and taking them to the top of the standings. The team spent the rest of the first half of the season with mid-table results, keeping them within the top half of the standings. By the end of Event 6, the Relay Run, the team were in 5th overall.

 File:CTML172.png
Unfortunately, the Chocolatiers could not keep this up in the second half. They only scored three top-half finishes in three of the remaining events. They managed to earn a silver medal in Event 10, Archery. This put the team into 4th overall, but it wasn't enough for them to keep their position in the standings. Bonbon only managed to save the team from falling further down the standings, while also redeeming themselves from their poor performance earlier in the Qualifiers, with a fourth-place finish in the final event, the Sand Rally. The Chocolatiers concluded Marble League 2017 in 8th overall.

After observing the Chocolatiers' poor performances in the second half of the season, critics started to refer to the team as the "Choke-latiers". Needless to say, the team were not very happy about it. They returned home without much fanfare as they started to train for the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. During one of their training sessions, the team also contacted Fudge, who accepted the request to join the team as reserve member.

### 2018

 File:CTML18Q.png
The Chocolatiers were seeded in Group A for the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers, along with fellow Surculo competitors, including the Jawbreakers. Also in the group were one of their customers: the Minty Maniacs, who hail from Herbotamia. Despite starting strong with a fourth-place finish in the first event, Curling, the Chocolatiers could not achieve good results in the remainder of the events. The team finished in 7th, failing to qualify for Marble League 2018, along with all other Surculo teams, including the Jungle Jumpers, who competed in Group B.

While watching Marble League 2018 from the stands, the Chocolatiers decided they could not afford doing nothing else. As a result, they decided to help run the concessions in the Arctic Circle. There, they were able to sell their homemade chocolate bars and chocolate beverages to fans watching the tournament, allowing them to earn enough money to publicize the Bonsel Chocolate Festival.

 File:CTML18CR.png
The Chocolatiers also took part in several offseason events, starting with the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race, where Cocoa had an encouraging performance by finishing second after having led much of the race. Choc was supposed to participate in the 100 Meter Water Race, but they were unable to attend as they got caught up with the preparations for the year's Bonsel Chocolate Festival, which was held at the same time as the race. The team took part in the Amazing Maze Marble Race, where they were eliminated in the group stage.

### 2019

 File:CTML19Q.png
Fans remained doubtful that the Chocolatiers would qualify for Marble League 2019. Much to their surprise, the team had a strong start to the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers. Mocha repeated their success two years earlier in the first event, Funnel Race, by finishing fourth. This was followed by two disappointing fifteenth-place finishes, and the team dropped to 14th overall. Fortunately, Cocoa was able to turn this around with a fourth-place finish in the final event, Underwater Race. As a result, the Chocolatiers qualified for the main tournament in twelfth place. In the gap between the Qualifiers and Marble League 2019, the Chocolatiers released a new mint chocolate ice cream flavor named "Mint Chocolate Condition", which was released under the Marble League brand.

Just like in 2017, the Chocolatiers had a great start to Marble League 2019. Choc was able to speed past most of their opponents in Event 1, the Underwater Race, winning the team a bronze medal. Unfortunately, the team had a bad performance in the next two events, dropping them to eleventh. Thankfully, they started to turn things around with a ninth-place finish in Event 4, the Gravitrax Slalom, and a sixth-place finish in Event 5, the 5 Meter Sprint. However, they again stumbled in the next two events with two bottom half finishes. The team dropped to 12th overall.

 File:CTML19.png
Then came the next event, the Summer Biathlon. The Chocolatiers chose Bonbon to represent them in the event. Using their experience from the Sand Rally event two years earlier, Bonbon managed to make it to the final, where they nearly overtook Hop of the Jungle Jumpers at the finish line, only to miss out on first place in a photo finish, with Hop beating them by just three-thousandths of a second. This earned the team another medal of the season, a silver, and the team rose to 10th overall at the halfway mark of the season.

However, the Chocolatiers had a poor second half, much like in 2017. Mocha finished sixth in Event 9, the Hurdles Race, but the team fell to twelfth place in the standings. This was followed by another "Choke-latiers" streak with three poor finishes, including a DNF for Cocoa in the Dirt Race. The Chocolatiers did start to rise again, but it was too late. A string of mixed results in the final four events, including a fourth-place finish in Event 15, Collison, could only bring the Chocolatiers to finish Marble League 2019 in 12th overall.

### 2020

 File:CTML20 Q.png
In early 2020, the Chocolatiers announced a change in their roster. Cocoa relinquished the role of team captain and handed it over to Choc. When questioned about it, Cocoa denied rumors relating this team captain change to their inability to handle the pressure from their former role. However, this decision did not pay off when in the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers the Chocolatiers had a string of mid-table finishes and failed to qualify, their second time doing so.

## Marble League 2016

主条目：Marble League 2016
 File:Chocolatiers.png

### Qualifiers

The Chocolatiers qualified for Marble League 2017.

### Qualifiers

The Chocolatiers failed to qualify for Marble League 2018. They competed in Group A.

## Other 2018 Competitions

The Chocolatiers took part in two other competitions in 2018: the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race and the Amazing Maze Marble Race. Choc was going to represent the team in the 100 Meter Water Race, but the team were caught up with a meeting. As a result, the team did not attend the event.

 Amazing Maze Marble Race | All

## Marble League 2019

主条目：Marble League 2019
 File:Chocolatiers Logo.png
 File:Chocolatiers Pim Logo.jpg
### Qualifiers

The Chocolatiers qualified for Marble League 2019 after failing to qualify the previous year.

### Qualifiers

The Chocolatiers failed to qualify for Marble League 2020.

## Marble League Showdown 2020

主条目：Marble League Showdown 2020
The Chocolatiers placed 3rd overall, securing a spot in the Marble League 2021 Qualifiers.

## 2020/21 Offseason

### Qualifiers

The Chocolatiers competed in Group B and qualified for Marble League 2021.

## Trivia

* The Chocolatiers are the first team to change their captain. Cocoa was captain in 2019 and was replaced with Choc in 2020.
* The original Chocolatiers hashtag, #TopDeck, is a reference to the Cadbury chocolate bar of the same name.

## Gallery

ChocolatiersTP.jpgTeam Profile 2020ChocolatiersTP21.pngTeam Profile 2021
## References

1. ↑ Skystrykr (15th March 2019). 2019 MarbleLympics - Team Members. Reddit.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Stynth (10th June 2020). RetRollSpective – Chocolatiers. Marble Sports.