金球

The **Golden Orbs**, formerly known as the **Golden Wisps**, are a team of gold marbles introduced in Hubelino Tournament 2016. They debuted under their new name in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers before retiring from the Marble League to compete in the Hubelino Tournament 2018.

## Team Members

Fairy, Pixie, Spirit, and Willo were the original members of the team. In 2018, the entire Golden Orbs roster was replaced by Orby, Glorby, Gorby, and Goldby, alongside reserve member Glordby before retiring from marble sports after the disbandment of the Hubelino Tournament.

## History

### Pre-Hubelino Torunament

The Golden Orbs (formally Golden Wisps) are a marble sports team from Herbotamia. The Minty Maniacs started to compete against each other using the environment as a marble sports course. The popularity of these local tournaments spread across the region. Due to the growing popularity, the Minty Maniacs set up an official tournament between themselves, the Black Jacks and the Golden Wisps. The next season, more teams from across the region joined them and officially became the Herbotamia Tournament. During the second year, marble sports started to grow in popularity worldwide.

A featurette about marble sports went viral and brought popularity to the Knikkegen Marble League, which began to grow at the expense of smaller leagues like the Fruit Circuit and the Herbotamia Tournament. The cost of maintaining the tournament without sponsorship started to become a problem, which wasn't helped by the announcement of Marble League 2016. The Minty Maniacs decided to retire, potentially ending the tournament. However, just as they were about to retire, the team were approached by Jelle Bakker, who currently runs the Marble League.

Although Jelle was focused on the Marble League, they missed running a regional competition. Jelle offered the Minty Maniacs a sponsorship to keep the Herbotamia Tournament running. After contacting the other teams, the Minty Maniacs accepted, and the tournament was rebranded as the Hubelino Tournament, with the first competition, the Hubelino Tournament 2016, scheduled to start after Marble League 2016.

### 2016-2017

The Hubelino Tournament differed from the Herbotamia Tournament as it was filmed for the internet, the first time for a regional tournament, so it could reach a wider audience. It also featured artificial Hubelino tracks. However, the lack of in-person audience was kept to preserve the original "friendly round" atmosphere. Eight teams competed in this tournament, including the Minty Maniacs, the Black Jacks, and the Golden Wisps..

 File:GWHT16.png
The Golden Wisps had a strong first half of of Hubelino Tournament 2016. The team made it to the final three in Funnel Spinning and were in Funnel #9 by themselves while their opponents, the Black Jacks and Minty Maniacs, were in the final funnel. Unfortunately when they fell into Funnel #10 they almost immediately fell out and finished in third. The Wisps followed this up with a gold medal in the Catwalk, finishing seven points ahead of the second place Ruby Rollers. They had a minor dip in performance with a seventh place finish in Halfpipe Crash, but followed this up with two mid-table finishes and a third medal, a silver, in Quartet Jump. At the half way mark, the Wisps were in second overall.

 File:GWHT162.png
The second half of the tournament did not go as well. They started with three consecutive bottom half finishes, dropping the team to fifth overall. A slight redemption came when they earned their fourth medal, another bronze, in Event 9, Halfpipe Dash. However, the team filliped between extremes in the final three events, coming last in the Relay Course, winning fifth medal, a gold, in the Block Push, and finishing the competition with another last place in Ball Battle. Despite their inconsistent ending, the Wisps managed to finish the tournament in third overall.

### 2018

 File:GOML18Q.png
After Hubelino Tournament 2016, Jelle offered all eight of the teams a chance to compete in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. The Golden Wisps accepted the offer and were sorted into Group B, changing their name to the Golden Orbs to minimize confusion with the Midnight Wisps.. The Orbs started off with two mid-table finishes in Curling and the Snow Race. Glorby turned around the teams fortunes by coming second in the 5 Meter Ice Dash, putting the team in second in their group. Unfortunately, a last place finish in the final event, the Halfpipe, dropped the team into sixth, making the team miss out on qualification for Marble League 2018.

The team took part in the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race, a race for those who failed to qualify, and finished in eighth. They then entered the 100 Meter Water Race, but finished in the bottom half. During the Amazing Maze Marble Race, it was revealed that the Golden Orbs, along with the Minty Maniacs and Black Jacks, were not going to take part in the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers in favor of Hubelino Tournament 2018.

 File:GOHT18.png
The Golden Orbs returned to Hubelino Tournament 2018 with two fourth finishes in the Swing Wave and the Catwalk. This was followed by two seventh place finishes in the Funnel Race and the Halfpipes putting them in 6th overall at the halfway point, much worse than in 2016. Unfortunately for the Orbs, they continued to have mid-table finishes, with one return to their previous form with a silver medal in Event 6, the Relay Race. Unfortunately, this was not enough to overcome their mediocre performances and they finished the competition in sixth overall.

After Hubelino Tournament 2018, teams such as the Green Gang and the Valiant Violets retired. This along with a lack of ticket sales and interest from the fans, led to the disbandment of the Hubelino Tournament, despite Jelle's best efforts to keep it going.

## Marble League 2018

主条目：Marble League 2018
 File:Orbs.jpg

## Other 2018 Competitions

The Golden Orbs took part in two other competitions in 2018: the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race and the 100 Meter Water Race.

 100 Meter Water Race | Glorby | 4:09.37

## Trivia

* The Golden Wisps were renamed to the Golden Orbs to prevent confusion with the Midnight Wisps. The Golden Orbs returned to the Hubelino Tournament and competed in this tournament under their new name.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Stynth (5th June 2020). RetRollSpective – Minty Maniacs. Marble Sports.
2. ↑ Skystrykr (2nd January 2019). The teams not participating in 2019 MarbleLympics Qualifiers.. Reddit.