紫火箭

The current Purple Rockets logo, designed by Tim Ritz.

The **Purple Rockets** are a purple team with white stripes which were introduced to compete in Marble ManiaX.

The team set the record for Diving in 2014, holding it for seven years until it was finally broken during Marble League 2021 by the Shining Swarm. Their record was officially recognized despite having never competed in the Marble League beforehand.

The team also used to compete in the Stardust Classic alongside teams like the Solar Flares and Team Galactic. They finished third behind the aforementioned Team Galactic and Stargazers in the 2020 Stardust Classic Reunion.

The team won the first edition of Marble ManiaX in 2021, even though they finished last the final event. This made them the first team in JMR history to win a tournament without winning a gold medal.

In August 2022, they were announced as one of the expansion teams of the Marble League, making their debut in the Marble League Showdown 2022.

## History

### Pre-Marble ManiaX

The Purple Rockets are a marble sports team from Sheetersburg. The five members, Orbit, Sulfur, Dwarf, Saucer, and Blast, met at Sheetersburg University at the astrophotography club where they bonded over their love of marble sports. On an astrophotography trip into some woods, Orbit made a maze in the snow and the competed in races against each other, bonding the group together as a team.

After graduating in 2013, the team started to train. They had been taken in by a former professor, Rocket, who started to coach the team. They competed in an exhibition tournament in Sheetersburg in the winter, winning three out of four events. Later that year, the team were invited to compete in the 2014 Stardust Classic in Polaria. Sulfur made it to the finals of the Sprint and ended up in a photo finish with Radiance from the Solar Flares. Timing and scoring declared the race a tie and so a race-off was held which Sulfur won, earning the team the first gold medal of the competition. The team didn't win another medal until Event 4, Diving, where they set a record of 11.76 which stood until 2021 when the Shining Swarm broke the record during Marble League 2021. The team earned one more medal, a bronze in Black Hole Funnel, finishing the tournament in third overall. The team returned to Sheetersburg and spent the winter teaching local students astronomy and building a training facility.

The Purple Rockets returned for the 2015 Stardust Classic where Saucer won a bronze medal in the first event, the Dirt Race. Orbit won a gold medal in the Hurdles and the team won gold in the Relay Run and Block Pushing. This domination meant they had won the tournament before the final event. Before the final event, Royal Stardust invited the team to host the final event at the team's training track, the Rocket Ring, which they accepted. Dwarf competed and won another silver medal, putting the team 33 points ahead of second place.

Unfortunately, the Stardust Classic disbanded after 2015 when several teams withdrew from the competition and Royal Stardust became busy monitoring the region of Polaria. The disheartened Purple Rockets disbanded and pursued careers in the space field. Orbit became an astrophysicist, helping to design the International Space Marble, Dwarf became a Team Galactic superfan, cheering them on from the stands in every event and often being one of the sign-bearers, Sulfur became a rocket designer, and Saucer and Blast joined coach Rocket as astronomy professors at Sheetersburg University and helped run the astrophotography club. The five marbles rarely saw each other during this time.

After Marble League 2020, Orbit saw Cosmo announce the Stardust Classic Reunion on CMM, inviting previous competitors to take part. The five members of the team met on a Nyoom Meetings video call and they decided to attend the Reunion. Orbit and Sulfur earned the team their first medal, a gold, in the second event, the Black Hole Funnel. A silver medal in the fourth and final event, the Starlit Speedway Grand Prix was enough for the Purple Rockets to finish third overall.

Following the Reunion, the team wanted more competition and started to look for somewhere to compete. Saucer and Blast decided to return to their jobs at the university instead. Orbit found a local youth league called the Marble Sports Games, and managed to reserve a spot based on the team's impressive Stardust Classic performances. During this time, two marbles from Rocketvok, Smokey and Smoggy (two marbles with the same name as members of the Hazers), contacted Coach Rocket and were admitted to the team.

The Purple Rockets' debut in the tournament, hosted at the Blueberry Bowl, was not as successful as hoped. They managed to earn a silver in Balancing and the Marble Marathon and a bronze in Speed Skating, but this did not outweigh all of the other poor performances, leading the team to finish in last place. The team returned to Sheetersburg to train and meet up with Saucer and Blast and keep up with their astrophotography hobby.

The next season of the Marble Sports Games was hosted by the Valiant Vanillas in Vanillsinki. Unfortunately, the Rockets failed to qualify and entered the B-League. The team won three consecutive silver medals, finishing the B-League in second overall. After the games, they took a vacation, visiting Hunluen, Rocketvok and Meteorine.

The following season of the Marble Sports Games saw the Purple Rockets again miss out on qualifying. Their time in the B-League went poorly, just missing relegation after a string of mediocre events, finishing in eighth overall. Smokey and Smoggy decided to leave the team after the B-League, stating they had lost the spark of competition. The remaining members of the team returned to Sheetersburg and met up with Saucer and Blast and decided to take a break from training and spend time together as friends. They decided to watch Marble League 2021, all supporting Team Galactic, showing up for every event. Saucer and Blast realized they missed being part of a team and they decided to rejoin the Purple Rockets.

Royal Stardust decided to host the 2021 Stardust Classic, having enjoyed the Reunion, and decided to make it an annual tradition. Team Galactic were busy training for Marbula One Season 3 so Stardust needed an alternative venue. They asked the Purple Rockets if they would be interested in hosting the tournament, which they accepted. The mayor of Sheetersburg, Shuttle, offered to renovate the team's training facility, turning it into a large-scale stadium called the Space Station. The team reached out to Shuttle and offered them the chance to be the team's manager which they accepted.

The Purple Rockets invited multiple former teams to compete including the Stargazers, the Supernovas, the Asteroids, the Crazy Comets, the Blood Moons and the Shadow Riders. They also invited new team, the Eclipses. The Purple Rockets had a strong start, winning gold in Balancing. Unfortunately, they performed poorly in the next events, falling to last with three events remaining. Saucer won a bronze in the Sand Rally, a step in the right direction, followed by a second bronze in the Collision Course, lifting the team to sixth overall. Dwarf finished fourth in the final event, the Rocket Ring GP, making the team finish in fifth overall.

The team returned to the Marble Sports Games where they hoped to once again qualify, flying to Burnsville for the fourth edition of the tournament. While training for the event, Coach Rocket received an invitation to compete in Marble ManiaX. The team hoped that the time since the last tournament would help them qualify by letting them rebuild chemistry as a team, but they once again failed to qualify. The B-League was happening at the same time as Marble ManiaX and so the team would have to balance both. They claimed that their love of competing would help them do both.

### Marble ManiaX

The Purple Rockets started the B-League with a bronze in the Heat Wave. The team arrived in Hunluen for the first event of Marble ManiaX, Extreme Diving. The team managed to score 63 points, enough for second place which they shared with the Black Jacks who also got 63 points, the first podium-tie in JMR history. Sulfur quickly flew back to Bunsville for the next event of the B-League, Track and Field, which they did not do well in. Sulfu, however, did well in the second event of Marble ManiaX, Domino Bowling, earning another silver medal for the team. Blast competed in the third event of the B-League, finishing in the top half in Funnel Spinning, while Dwarf finished fourth in Extreme Funnels, taking the team into first overall.

The final event of the B-League, the Gravitrax Slalom, saw the Rockets win a silver medal, finishing sixth overall and ensuring they advanced to the Qualifiers for the fifth season of the Marble Sports Games. The team returned to Hunluen for the fourth event of Marble ManiaX, the Obstacle Run. Despite doing poorly in the first round, Saucer managed to earn the Rockets' third silver medal in four events. Their road to victory had one more obstacle: Super Collision. Unfortunately, the team stumbled and lost their heat to the Balls of Chaos, finishing in last place, putting their victory in jeopardy. Thankfully, the Constrictors were eliminated in the semi-finals, securing overall victory for the Purple Rockets, the first time a team had one a JMR competition without any gold medals.

## Marble ManiaX

主条目：Marble ManiaX

Ⅰ With the tie between the Black Jacks and the Purple Rockets declared unbroken, both teams received 7 points each, equivalent to the average of 6 points (bronze) and 8 points (silver), following the official scoring system.

## Career Events

 2022
 Total

## Gallery

Purplerockets.jpegTeam reveal for Marble ManiaX
## References

1. ↑ Stynth, The Emperor (30th June 2021). RetRollSpective – Solar Flares. Project Marblearth.
2. ↑ Jelle's Marble Runs (24th August 2021). Marble Race: Marble League 2021 - E12 Diving.
3. ↑ @Jellesmarbles (6th December 2021). “Blasting off to the city of Hunluen to do some serious extreme sports are the Purple Rockets!”
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 theemperor42 (14th July 2022). RetRollSpective – Purple Rockets. Project Marblearth.