Constrictors

The **Constrictors** are a bright yellow team with black and red stripes that were introduced to compete in Marble ManiaX.

## History

### Pre-marble racing

The Constrictors are a team known as being "journeymarbles", moving from one competition to another. All of the team members come from the southernmost islands of the Brace Isles - Boa and Eryx from Wyvermouth, Python from Plymsnake and Ana and Conda from near Cornroll. Boa and Python from a young age moved from job to job, including concrete mixer, pearl plucker, marbsheep shepherd, and flea fumigator. Ana and Conda were more well off so didn't have to work.

In 2005, Boa and Conda both ended up working at the Eden Project, an amusement park in Cornroll. Boa was working maintenance on the prize attraction, a giant marble run designed by Jelle Bakker. Conda also worked near the run and the two would talk and race down the course when the park had shut. Conda had always dreamed of competing in marble rallies and by the end of the summer the two marbles had come up with a plan. Ana and Conda would fund a team made of Ana, Conda, Boa and Python to compete in athletics meetups for half a year.

The four marbles hitchhiked to Lemono where they met the Limers. The Limers had just started organizing the Fruit Circuit, but still kept up a summer tradition of hosting sand rallies on the local beaches. The Limers issued a challenge that if anyone could beat Sublime in a race, they would be offered a prize. Conda watched multiple marbles try and fail to beat Sublime before stepping up to the challenge. Knowing they lacked Sublime's speed, Conda decided to play a trick. They slowed down ahead of a chicane, causing Sublime to roll up the walls allowing Conda to get past and win the race. Greg Woods was in attendance at the race and asked if the team could meet them the next day to show off their talent. That next morning, Greg and the Limers watched the four marbles train together. After the training was done, Greg offered the four the opportunity to join the Fruit Circuit.

### Zesty Lemons

2006 saw the four marbles have their debut in the Fruit Circuit, going by the name of the **Zesty Lemons**, using names like Lemon, Lumon, Lamon etc. They competed alongside the likes of the Limers, Yarble Yellers, Passionfruits and the Pomelo Power. In the early years of the Fruit Circuit, the Limers and the Zesty Lemons were much better than the other citrus-themed teams, but were solidly midpack overall. The Lemons competed in the tournament for eight years, with sixth place being their highest finish. The team built a strong connection with the Limers, with the Limers taking time out of their day to train with the Lemons. The team also had to deal with the realities of the lack of funding the Fruit Circuit had, with every team having to help run the Circuit. Sublime was in charge of sponsorships and marketing while Conda, Boa and Ana used their construction skills to assemble setting up fan stands.

By 2014 the Zesty Lemons were getting tired of the Fruit Circuit. Python was more interested in the construction work before each race than training, Boa kept pitching adding their cousin Eryx to the team, Ana and Conda wanted the team to train harder, and the Limers were spending more time with the rising stars of the Circuit like the Raspberry Racers and the O'rangers. Boa, who always had the mentality of moving on, looked into other sports circuits the team could join. They liked the look of the MFC Championship League which featured fewer rallies and more complex events like Triathlon and Archery. Soon the whole team were reading about the competition hosted by the Tiger Eyes.

Boa called up their captain, Jaguar, asking to how they could apply to join the MFC Championship League but Jaguar told them not to bother. The Tiger Eyes were funded by a secret marble sports promoter who was looking to start their own extreme marble sports competition and had got the Tiger Eyes and two other top-tier teams from the MFC to commit to joining their new competition. The Lemons decided to join, with Python declining, leaving the team. The team recruited Eryx to take their place and rebranded as the **Flaming Vogues**.

### Flaming Vogues

The MarbleSports Evolved Championship was a tournament with less of a focus on athletics and more on daredevil challenges. Each event held in different cities such as Hunluen and Polaria saw a team eliminated from the tournament. The top four teams remaining faced off in the Evolution Stadium in Om. The tournament was known for being loud and had non-stop fireworks as well as a parade of marble celebrities at every event.

In the Vogues' first season, the team made it to the final event, an obstacle course full of swinging weights and big balls to bounce across. Unfortunately, Eryx lost out to Felid from the Tiger Eyes.

Issues started to arise in the second season of the tournament. Fireworks would go off before the teams had crossed the finish line. One time this scared the leader so much that there was a pile up in front of the finish line. Boa noticed a flaw in one of the events - in Extreme Relay the lane walls were too short. As the baton was passed on, marbles went through an accelerator and Boa noticed the marbles would fly out of the lanes if the walls weren't fixed. They demonstrated this by getting a ball bearing to go through the accelerator, showing the organizers that the marbles would go into the other lanes. The organizers heightened the walls but suspended Boa for two events for "tampering with equipment". Circumstances like these led the Tiger Eyes to quit after the second season.

With their main competition gone, the Flaming Vogues won Season 3 of the MSE Championship. When they arrived at the podium, they noticed the stands were mostly empty.

During this time, Python had decided to become a rally racer, thinking they were the weak link in the team. They competed using the name Python's Tub and didn't impress in their first outings. Over time they started to improve and traveled to Knikkegen to try out for Sand Marble Rally 2016. They changed their name to Snake's Tub after friends suggested it as a better name. Despite winning a 500-foot race before the season started, beating Ghost Plasma, Snake's Tub's issues persisted. In the main tournament they DNFd four races and only earned eight points in the other two, getting eliminated after Race 6. This was followed by a last place in the Giant Funnel Race and a failure to qualify in the Sand Marble Rally 2017 Qualifiers.

After the rest of the team called Python about their victory not feeling earned, they decided to once again move on to something new.

### Scorpions

The team were looking for something new and came across the Bug Circuit. The Scorpions had previously competed in the tournament when they received a call from the Tiger Eyes. The Tiger Eyes recommended the Flaming Vogues, promising they were worthy successors to the original team. The original Scorpions, who now sat on the managing board of the tournament, accepted and the Flaming Vogues became the second generation of the **Scorpions**. The team went on to win the next three seasons of the Bug Circuit. They also worked at the local menagerie and zoo, looking after horses and birds.

In 2021, Jelle Bakker and their sibling, Dion, were looking to start up an extreme sports tournament like the MarbleSports Evolved Championship in an attempt to engage younger marbles less interested in traditional athletics. They decided to launch Marble ManiaX which would be hosted by the Balls of Chaos. It was reported that Dion had sunk much of his personal wealth into the project. The Balls of Chaos were looking for teams to join the new tournament and the Tiger Eyes recommended the Scorpions. In Fall of 2021 the Bakker brothers and the Balls of Chaos drove to Buzznya to meet the Scorpions - but they had made a mistake and visited the first generation who were on the managing board. They eventually found the second generation team who accepted their offer. This was also the first time they were given the opportunity to choose their own name - the **Constrictors** in honor of Python, the heart of the team.

### Marble ManiaX

The Constrictors arrived in Hunluen with their new coach, Charmer, another cousin of Boa. The team were last to jump in the first event, Extreme Diving. In their first jump one of the marbles managed to land in the 9-point zone. In the end, this was enough to break the tie-breaker in their favor, winning the Constrictors the first event of the competition. Boa, now the captain of the team. claimed jumping off the cliffs of Plymsnake had helped them prepare. The second event, Domino Bowling, showcased Conda's experience as they earned 73 points in their run, enough to earn the team a bronze medal and keep them in first overall.

Python broke the medal streak by coming seventh in the Extreme Funnels after a loss to the Strixes. The team chose them despite their last place in the Giant Funnel Race. Boa finished sixth in the Obstacle Run after an unfortunate collision with a rubber band in the third round. The team sat in third going into the final round, one of the teams able to win the tournament. The final event, the Super Collision, saw their podium rivals the Purple Rockets and the Strixes get eliminated early, meaning the team had to make it to the final to win outright. The Constrictors beat the Black Jacks in the first round but unfortunately lost to the Pinkies in the semifinals. They went on to beat the Balls of Chaos in the third place match, but it was not enough and the Constrictors finished in second overall. During the medal ceremony, they got to thank Jelle for inviting them.

However, after the event the Black Jacks noticed there had been an error in their first place match - it had actually been a tie. All the teams were gathered in the stadium and eventually the Black Jacks started to argue with Dion and the crew, shouting at each other. Boa, unafraid at calling out the staff at the MarbleSports Evolved Championship, stepped in as a mediator. The Black Jacks saw the problem as an issue of fairness while the staff saw it as a financial issue, not being able to take the financial loss on the investment by acknowledging an error and rescoring the whole tournament. They settled on running a tiebreaker and seeing what happened. The Constrictors won the tiebreaker, keeping the initial scoring in place.

By the time all the team's left the stadium it was dark and the Black Jacks rolled alone to their team van. Ana and Python sprinted after them and offered them a place in the Bug Circuit invitational that would be happening in the Spring which they accepted.

Despite their success in Marble ManiaX the team were not invited to compete in Marble League Showdown 2022. They revealed that the Marble League was not their only priority and that they were looking to start academies in Buzznya and the Brace Isles, seeing that as their main legacy.

## Career Events

 2022
 Total

## Trivia

* The team's hashtag, #LetItGrip, was accidentally shown as #LimblessWin in their poster in Marble ManiaX.

## External Links

* Constrictors on the JMR Website
* Constrictors RetRollSpective

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 foucaulf (25th August 2022). RetRollSpective – Constrictors. Project Marblearth.