Jawbreakers

The **Jawbreakers** were a former Marble League team introduced in Marble League 2016. They are white with multi-color swirls. Their last known team members were Candy, Sweet, Sugar, and Taffy. The team were known for their early success, finishing 7th overall in their debut season. They qualified for Marble League 2017 by finishing 10th in the Qualifiers, only to finish 13th overall with no medals.

After missing out on three consecutive Marble Leagues, followed up by a last-place finish in Marble League Showdown 2020, the team retired in 2021 and were replaced by the Gliding Glaciers.

## Team Members

### Athletes

Candy, Tidbit, Mouthful and Tongue Twister were the original members of the Jawbreakers. In 2017, Tidbit, Mouthful and Tongue Twister were dismissed for their ill treatment of Candy. They were replaced by Sweet, Sugar, and Taffy, while Candy stayed in the team.

In 2018, Tidbit rejoined the team as the reserve member, while Candy, Sweet, Sugar, and Taffy remained the current members of the Jawbreakers. Candy was elevated to the role of captain in 2019, and the roster remained the same until the team's retirement.

### Coaches

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

## History

### Pre-Marble League

The Jawbreakers, or at least their team captain Candy, come from the city of Jawnair, a South American city located on the southeastern coast. The four original members of the Jawbreakers, Candy, Tidbit, Mouthful and Tongue Twister, were involved in professional marble wrestling. They competed in lucha marbre leagues, including the popular Extreme Lucha Marbre Championship. Here Candy was known as "Royal Candy, the Jawbreaker", and was one of the elite four of the league, along with their original teammates. The four were such fierce rivals for many years, leading to distaste for each other at times.

The four were all famous as individual wrestlers, but made headlines in 2010 when they competed together in an exhibition race as part of the Surculo in Numerun Antigua. The race was a short sand race down the Colina Umerun by teams from other sports leagues to raise money for the preservation of the old city center. Thousands of their fans from across Central and South America had petitioned the ELMC to allow the elite four to compete as a team. After many signatures, the four applied together, using Candy's nickname for their team, the Jawbreakers.

The Jawbreakers finished third in the race despite their lack of synergy. Even more surprising was that the race was won by a group of BASE jumpers who nearly overslept after going out the night before. That team later retired from their sport and joined the Surculo as the Jungle Jumpers. The race showed that the four Jawbreakers team members had more in common than they thought, and so they, determined to beat the Jungle Jumpers, decided to participate in the Surculo.

The Jawbreakers eventually managed to beat their rivals as they won the 2015 Surculo championship. When Marble League 2016 was announced, the Surculo was offered three places for the top three teams. The Jawbreakers accepted the invitation, and were joined by the runners-up, the Rojo Rollers, while the fourth-placed Jungle Jumpers declined the invite as they expressed a desire to compete in the Surculo once more.

### 2016

The Jawbreakers started off Marble League 2016 by coming joint 11th in the first event, Balancing, getting the same score as the Thunderbolts. This was followed by two back-to-back silver medals in the next two events, the Relay Race and Collision, taking them into second overall. A fourth place finish for Candy in Event 4, the Sand Rally, saw the team drop to third overall. Unfortunately, the team didn't do well for the rest of the competition, earning only three more points, one in High Jump and two in Team Pursuit. The team finished in seventh overall.

### 2017

During the offseason, the Jawbreakers underwent a major shakeup when Candy started to accuse their teammates of treating them poorly. Tidbit, Mouthful, and Tongue Twister resented Candy's bossiness and left the team feeling bitter, hoping the team would do poorly. Candy decided to recruit Sugar, Sweet and Taffy from Jawnair's premier wrestling league. The new team competed in the Marble League 2017 Qualifiers. They overall had a mediocre performance, but a first place finish for Sugar in the Sand Race was enough for the team to qualify in 11th place.

The Jawbreakers were optimistic going into Marble League 2017. However, the team had mainly middle of the pack finishes. They didn't manage to get onto the podium, with their closest finish being a fourth place finish for Taffy in Event 8, the High Jump. The Jawbreakers finished the year in 13th place. During the offseason, Tidbit came back to Candy and apologized to them for all their arguments in the past. Much to Tidbit's relief, Candy forgave them and gave them a spot in the team as reserve member.

Hoping to make up for their disappointing performance the previous year, the Jawbreakers competed in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. Seeded into Group A, the team once again had mainly mid-table finishes. Unfortunately, all they could manage were a series of mid to lower table finishes, leading them to finish in sixth overall in their group, failing to qualify for Marble League 2018.

### 2018

After watching Marble League 2018 from the stands, the Jawbreakers took part in the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race, where Taffy came in last. The Jawbreakers continued to falter in the next two offseason event. Sugar DNF'd in the 100 Meter Water Race, and the team came tenth in the Amazing Maze Marble Race, where they were able to finish in second in their group, only to be eliminated in the group runners-up standings.

### 2019

The Jawbreakers were not expected to do well in the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers. They failed to come above 12th in any of the events, and finished in 17th overall, failing to qualify for Marble League 2019. It became clear that the Jawbreakers were not the same as their 2016 team. Former team members had even been wishing bad luck upon the team ever since they left the team.

Once the Marble League Showdown was announced, the Jawbreakers decided to reconcile. They acquired Gummy as their coach and appointed Candy as team captain as they started training for the Marble League Showdown 2019. The team had a strong start to the Showdown, with Candy winning a gold medal in the Sand Rally, their first medal in over two years.

Unfortunately, the Jawbreakers could not keep this new form up and finished every subsequent event within the bottom half. Thankfully though, they were still able to qualify for the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers, finishing fifth overall in the Showdown.

### 2020

In the offseason, reserve member Tidbit recruited former teammate Mouthful as their team manager to help keep team members in line, much to Candy's dismay. During the offseason, Candy pushed the team to the limit in training in an attempt to qualify again. Gummy was present at the training sessions, but Candy acted like a player coach during the training sessions.

The Jawbreakers competed in the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers, but only placed 18th overall after a less than mediocre performance. The team again could only manage bottom half performances, apart from Candy's fourth place finish in Funnel Endurance. They failed to qualify for Marble League 2020 for the third year in a row and were relegated and went on to compete in Marble League Showdown 2020. The recruitment of Mouthful helped to ease the pressure Candy felt to coaching the team. Despite this, training was still intense, with Candy pushing themselves very hard, and would train for upwards of three hours beyond the rest of the team, trying to make up for their disappointment at another qualifying failure. Candy also trained alone for the first half of the Marble League.

Unfortunately, the Jawbreakers' downward spiral continued. They finished in the bottom three for all but one event of Marble League Showdown 2020, a fourth place finish in the Black Hole Funnel, making the team finish in last place overall. They would miss their fourth Marble League in a row after their poor finish meant they would not be competing in the Marble League 2021 Qualifiers.

### Retirement

Rumors about the team's future spread during the offseason. Early in the season Taffy was offered an opportunity to return to the Extreme Lucha Marbre Championship. They consulted with Gummy and Mouthful, but the prospect of another year in the Showdown made them accept the offer and they left the team. Tidbit was promoted to the main team and Caramel was recruited as the new reserve. Caramel had briefly competed in the Surculo where they had met the Jawbreakers.

During the offseason fans started to call for the team to retire from the Marble League. News of the similarly uniformed Gliding Glaciers training for an invitational tournament led to further tensions in the team. Towards the end of the offseason, the team sat down to discuss their future. It became clear that the team no longer enjoyed competing in the Marble League and were looking to pursue other paths. Sugar wanted to get into commentating and returned to the Surculo as a commentator; Sweet had found a love for travel during their years on the team and got a job at Atlas Marbura; Tidbit returned to the ELMC as a coach for younger marbles; Caramel became the manager of the Chocolatiers. Gummy reassured some fans claiming this was more of a hiatus than a retirement and that if the spark of joy returned, the Jawbreakers would return.

Candy did not share the same opinion as the rest of the team and still wanted to compete. They started to search for new team members but struggled to do so. Members of the ELMC refused seeing the trouble that transferring to the league had caused others. Competitors from the Surculo also refused as they already had their own teams. Candy traveled to Felynia in one final attempt to recruit new members. There they ran into Tongue Twister who was in Felynia doing business for the ELMC. Candy begged them to return to the team but Tongue Twister recommended that sometimes it's best to let a good thing end.

Candy left the talk with Tongue Twister very angry, but realized they were correct and Candy opened up to the idea of retiring. They had spent so much time focused on their performance that they had neglected their health, beating themselves up for not living up to their extremely high standards. They still did not want to retire, but they realized it would be beneficial for them to do. About two weeks before the Herbotamia Invitational that the Gliding Glaciers were competing in, Candy announced that the Jawbreakers would not be competing in the Marble League 2021 Qualifiers. Candy returned to Jawnair and didn't spend all their time training for the first time in a long time.

A few weeks later, Mouthful came to Candy with a note from Jelle inviting the Jawbreakers to compete in one last event, the Marble League 2021 Practice Race. The former members of the Jawbreakers discussed and agreed that it was only right for Candy to compete one final time for the team. Candy returned to Felynia for one final race, finishing in 18th, which, for the first time in Candy's career, they were content with. After the race they met up with the rest of the team to celebrate their career. The team would travel to Lewara to attend a party with the Chocolatiers that the Jungle Jumpers had put on.

### Qualifiers

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

### Qualifiers

The Jawbreakers failed to qualify for Marble League 2019.

## Marble League Showdown 2019

*Main article: Marble League Showdown 2019*
The Jawbreakers qualified for the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers.

### Qualifiers

The Jawbreakers failed to qualify for Marble League 2020.

## Marble League Showdown 2020

*Main article: Marble League Showdown 2020*
The Jawbreakers failed to qualify for the Marble League 2021 Qualifiers.

## Trivia

* The Jawbreakers were the first team that debuted in 2016 to retire.
* The Jawbreakers are the only retired team as of 2021 to have participated in multiple Marble Leagues.
* The Jawbreakers are the first of only 2 teams to have qualified for a Marble League after finishing 7th in their previous season, which they did in 2016 and 2017.
	+ They would be followed by the Chocolatiers, who remain the sole active team with this distinction.
* The Jawbreakers also won the very first event of the Marble League Showdown, as Candy captured gold in the first event of the 2019 Marble League Showdown in the Sand Rally.

## References

1. ↑ dionnoib (13th April 2021). Official announcement:. Reddit.
2. ↑ Stynth (27th January 2019). The Teams You’ll Miss In The 2019 Marble League. Jelle's Marble Runs.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stynth (8th August 2020). Offseason Moments – ML2020 Showdown. Jelle's Marble Runs.
4. ↑ Skystrykr (15th March 2019). 2019 MarbleLympics - Team Members. Reddit.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Stynth, Roilan Estates (21st December 2021). RetRollSpective – Jawbreakers. Project Marblearth.