Team Phoenix

**Team Phoenix** were introduced in Hubelino Tournament 2016, and are yellow with red stripes. They were replaced by the Bumblebees for the Hubelino Tournament 2018.

## Team Members

Nix, Nixy, Phee, and Phoeny were the original members of the team before retiring from marble sports after the disbandment of the Hubelino Tournament.

## History

### Pre-Hubelino Tournament

 File:TeamPheonix.png
Team Phoenix come from Spiceno, a town in Herbotamia that is well known for its pepper farms and cuisine based on local spices. Each member of the team came from different sectors across the city: Nix worked in their family's restaurant, Nixy provided technical assistance for computers, Phee was a senior in high school, and Phoeny was searching for their first job. On the weekends they would get together at Hot Spot Park, a local park with a reputation for fitness activities, and race each other. Their interest in analyzing marble sports set them apart from other athletes. This attracted another marble to the team, Phoenix, and they became good friends.

As turf tournaments became more popular, the group of marbles started to discuss these events and try them out. The group were excited about the possibilities this could bring, except for Phoenix who was more interested in individual racing. Nix, Nixy, Phee and Phoeny decided to form a marble sports team called Team Phoenix and started to look for a competition to join.

In 2011, the four marbles were at an open street race and were approached by Minty Flav of the Minty Maniacs. Flav listened to the team talk about their struggles of switching from racing to team events. Two days later, the Minty Maniacs offered Team Phoenix the opportunity to join their competition.

Team Phoenix did not do well in their first competition in 2011, finishing in last place. The marbles still had fun and saw it as an opportunity to learn and adapt. 2012 saw the formal establishment of the Herbotamia Tournament and the competition was moved to the Herbotamia Recreational and Sports Club (HRSC), as well as expanding to include the Ruby Rollers. During this time, Nixy launched blog, the Firebird Sports Diary to document their time in marble racing and it quickly gained a small but loyal following.

The 2012 Herbotamia Tournament went slightly better for the team despite never contending for the win. Team Phoenix won their first gold medal in Halfpipe Crash and they eventually managed to finish in third overall, even beating the Golden Wisps, one of the original members of the competition. Unfortunately, 2013 did not go as well and Team Phoenix finished in last overall. The 2014 Herbotamia Tournament also did not go well which led to the team re-evaluating their training methods. They realized that they needed to go back to having fun together as a group again, and so on their free weekends they pushed each other in training (which Phoenix also attended), discussed tactics and participated in amateur events.

In 2015, the (HRSC) announced it would no longer be able to fund the tournament, leading to despair in the team. Hope was rekindled when Spirit of the Golden Wisps announced they were holding a fund-raising raffle which Team Phoenix promoted on their blog. Many fans responded to this post and the raffle tickets sold out quickly. The 2015 competition was the best one yet for Team Phoenix, finishing in second overall just behind the Ruby Rollers. They were happy for the Rollers as they had become good friends, even attending their victory party.

After the season had finished, the Minty Maniacs announced that they were disbanding due to the lack of funding, leading the other teams to do the same. During this break, the four friends once again took part in local turf tournaments. In 2016, hope returned when Minty Flav relayed the potential for Jelle Bakker to sponsor the tournament, re-branding it as Hubelino Tournament 2016. The teams and Jelle reached an agreement and the date was set and the teams expanded to include the Valiant Violets, the Green Gang and the Bluefastics. Team Phoenix continued to train and push themselves, even holding a friendly match with the Ruby Rollers to help them prepare.

### Hubelino Tournament 2016

 File:TeamPhoenixLogo.png
Hubelino Tournament 2016 started off very poorly for Team Phoenix. They had a run of four bottom half finishes including a last place in the Elimination Maze. At the original halfway mark the team sat in last place overall. Their fortunes seemed to change when they won a gold medal in Event 5, the Quartet Jump, which moved them up to sixth overall. This also saw a boost in the blog's viewership, going from about 200 regular visitors to thousands of views. Unfortunately, Team Phoenix fell back down and finished the original part of the season with three more bottom half finishes, including another last place in the Pursuit Slalom. At the original end of the competition, Team Phoenix were in seventh place overall.

It was decided that the competition should be extended from its original eight events to twelve events. During this time, Team Phoenix began to analyze their failures. They also realized they had nothing to lose and relaxed a bit more. This more relaxed approach helped and the team won two consecutive silver medals in the Halfpipe Dash and the Relay Course. Unfortunately this was not enough to lift them out of seventh place before the pause for Marble League 2017, which Team Phoenix watched from the stands.

Team Phoenix returned to Herbotamia, inspired by what they had witnessed. They won a third consecutive silver in the Block Push and finished the competition with a record-breaking fourth consecutive medal, a bronze, in the Ball Battle, lifting the team to fourth overall. The team were overjoyed, but were starting to think about their future.

### Post-Hubelino Tournament 2016

All of the Hubelino teams were invited to compete in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers but made the decision to decline, stating they wanted to worry less about what they were capable of in competition. While the team had been in Knikkegen, they had met Fantasy where they discussed their friendship with Phoenix. The team kept in contact with Fantasy, and when Fantasy revealed they would be retiring from the Marble Rally, they wanted to offer their spot to somebody who could become a serious championship contender, feeling Phoenix could be that marble, which Team Phoenix agreed with. While they were telling Jelle that they were not accepting their Marble League invite, they proposed that Phoenix be entered into the Marble Rally in Fantasy's place. Jelle accepted and the four marbles moved on to help Phoenix fulfill their dreams in the Marble Rally.

The group built a gym in Spiceno to offer Phoenix a better place to train. However, they also used the streets and nature as racing simulations. All of Phoenix's training was rewarded when they finished first in their group at the Sand Marble Rally 2018 Qualifiers. Phee updated the blog, which had now transitioned to follow Phoenix, celebrating the qualification.

The team established themselves in Knikkegen and often visited the sand hills to train. Phoenix opened the competition with a fourth place finish in Race 1 after a fierce battle with Grasshopper. They then continued with a consistent run, finishing all races and having six top-ten finishes. This was topped off with a race win in the final race to finish second overall. The team returned to Spiceno where fans celebrated across the town.

Unfortunately, shortly after their podium finish, Phoenix was caught up in the Not A Marble controversy surrounding Red Number 3. Someone had quoted Phoenix as making an accusation of cheating towards Red Number 3 after the news broke despite no one giving any interviews. The team contacted Meteor, the marble who had help launch Phoenix's career, who was in Bifornya to reach out to Red Number 3 on their behalf. They also posted on the Firebird Sports Diary denying the accusations.

After the accusations, public appearances were rare with the Practice Race for pre-qualified athletes being the exception where Phoneix finished in third. Unfortunately, Marble Rally 2019 was very different to the previous season with majority bottom half finishes leading to a 19th place finish overall and relegation to the Showdown. The team stated that Phoenix had been under public pressure due to the accusations leading them to struggle to concentrate. During the break, the team continued to work on building the gym and Phoenix entered the Herbotamia Rally 2020 claiming to have recovered their confidence. They had a slow start to the tournament but improved over time, earning a podium spot in a later race.

The team then traveled to Knikkegen to take part in a group practice event. Unfortunately, the JMRC announced that the Showdown and Qualifiers for Marble Rally Season 5 had been cancelled and the competition would be invite-only and Phoenix had not been selected. The team returned to Herbotamia and Phoenix completed the Herbotamia Rally 2020.

The four members of Team Phoenix received an invite to the Herbotamia Reuinion, a frenziedly competition between all former-members of the Hubelino Tournament. The team accepted and competed, but results are unknown due to all marbles in attendance signing an NDA. This event gave the members of Team Phoenix flashbacks to what motivated them and reignited a desire to compete.

This desire to compete was partially fulfilled when the team became aware that the Banana Splits were trying to compete in Midnight Melee but some team members were having schedule conflicts. Team Phoenix reached out to the Banana Splits and offered to support them. Nix stayed behind while Nixy, Phee and Phoeny joined with the Bananas to form the Burning Bananas. While competing, the three marbles competed under new names - Nixy became Ash, Phoeny became Pyro and Phee became Sear. Pyro finished fourth in the opening event, Funnel Endurance, and Sear finished seventh in the Hurdles. At the end of night 1, the Bananas were in fifth overall. On night 2, the team finished ninth in Balancing and fifth in Block Pushing, keeping them in fifth overall. Night 3 saw a bronze medal in the Nature Run and a fifth place for Ash in the Midnight Tower. On night 4, the team finished ninth in Ice Hockey. On the final night, the team could only manage a twelfth at the Midnight Bay Circuit, dropping the team to seventh overall.

The three marbles returned to Herbotamia and to their job as Phoenix's staff. The gym expanded to accept Arecibo, a former member of the Telescopics, and Sarge, an experienced off-road racer, who had both recently joined the Herbotamia Rally. A fifth member was also recruited by Team Phoenix, Fawkes, who had been an a moderator on the blog, to help the team compete in friendly matches across the region.

## Career Events

 2017
 Total

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 EduGJ23 (11th July 2022). RetRollSpective – Team Phoenix. Project Marblearth.