Golden Orbs

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 Tournament

The Golden Orbs (formerly Golden Wisps) are a marble sports team from Chlorotopia in Herbotamia. Spirit and Willo worked in Spirit Jewelry, a jewelers in the Rockbrite District of Chlorotopia. The shop was owned by Spirit and Willo was the sales representative. While working together, the two marbles got to know each other well and they realized they both loved marble sports. On the weekends, the two marbles would practice together at the Herbotamia Recreational and Sports Club (HRSC).

Fairy was competing in local turf tournaments at the time and was looking for teammates. Somebody told them that there were two good marbles that worked in a jewelers and so Fairy visited the shop. Willo was amazed that someone would approach them about competing in marble sports. They called Spirit and organized to call back Fairy later that day after work. After hours of discussion, Fairy convinced Spirit and Willo to form a new team called the Golden Wisps, a combination of "Golden" from the jewels of the shop (they also represent glory) and "Wisps", a suggestion by mythology-fan Fairy, inspired by the Willow Wisps from Harva. Pixie, Fairy's sibling, was also interested and filled the final spot in the team.

Pixie reminded Fairy that the Minty Maniacs had been looking for a rival for their local tournaments. A week later, the two teams faced each other in a turf tournament. They continued these small one-off tournaments once a month for the rest of 2009, competing on public roads, parks, or whatever they could use to design an event. They were occasionally joined by other teams but never permanently. Small groups of marbles would stop to watch these tournaments. One day, the members of the Black Jacks stopped by and saw the Wisps and Maniacs competing and they were intrigued. They asked the two teams if they could compete and both teams agree, with the Black Jacks officially joining the tournaments in 2010.

After the Black Jacks joined, the teams started to keep scores with the results adding cumulatively over time. The Minty Maniacs won the first of these completions, followed by the Wisps in second and the Black Jacks in third. The new tournament became a source of frequent discussion among local athletes and the rising interest lead to the next expansion in 2011 when Team Phoenix joined the other three teams. The Minty Maniacs won the 2011 tournament again, with the Black Jacks in second and the Golden Wisps in third.

With the tournament growing, the teams realized that it wasn't ideal to keep going in an amateur setting. Spirit and Willo organized a meeting with the directors of the HRSC and proposed the creation of a new regional cup: the Herbotamia Tournament. After a week of discussions, both parties came to an agreement and started to plan the first edition of the Herbotamia Tournament for 2012. The HRSC provided all the equipment such as referees, locker rooms and medical equipment, but not money. They decided to not have any audience to keep costs low, with the remaining costs being split between what each marble could offer. Spirit and their shop sponsored the medals and the trophy. The tournament received another new team, the Ruby Rollers, and mild media coverage, but it still kept a relatively low-profile. The Black Jacks won the first edition of the competition, with the Minty Maniacs in second and Team Phoenix in third, just beating out the Golden Wisps.

In 2013, with fewer worries about logistics, the Wisps had time to prepare and train and by the halfway point had a gold and a silver. At that time, a reporter asked the teams if they could show the tournament in a featurette. The teams ultimately declined, not thinking it would be beneficial for the tournament. The Wisps continued to do well in the 2013 Tournament, podiuming in all of the remaining events and winning the tournament - Spirit continues to display the trophy in the shop. While celebrating their victory, the Wisps saw the featurette they had turned down. They were happy to see marble sports being promoted but realized they had missed a big opportunity.

The administrative board of the HRSC announced they could no longer support the tournament and that they would need sponsors for the 2015 tournament. Spirit's shop did not make enough money to back it, but they had an idea to hold a raffle to raise funds. Spirit raffled a necklace raising enough money to run the season. The Wisps could not repeat their victory in 2014, finishing second behind the Minty Maniacs. 2015 was the first year the original trio falling behind with the Ruby Rollers coming out victorious in front of Team Phoenix.

With the lack of money still being a concern and their first time missing the podium, 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 was running 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. The sponsorship provided all new track parts and pioneering video broadcasting, as well as expanding the tournament to more teams, with the Bluefastics, Valiant Violets and the Green Gang joining the roster, but kept the lack of in-person spectators. The first competition, the Hubelino Tournament 2016, was scheduled to start after Marble League 2016.

### 2016-2017

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. Just before the half way mark the Wisps were in second overall and confidence was high.

The second half of the tournament did not go as well. The Wisps 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 flipped between extremes in the final three events, coming last in the Relay Course, winning a fifth medal, a gold, in the Block Push, and finishing the competition with another last place in Ball Battle. During this time, the Golden Wisps, along with the other Hubelnio teams, attended Marble League 2017 as spectators. Despite their inconsistent ending, the Wisps managed to finish the tournament in third overall.

### 2018

After Hubelino Tournament 2016, Jelle offered all eight of the teams a chance to compete in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. The team were keen to participate but the four members were concerned this would be too big of a step up for them, feeling like they weren't cut-out for high-end competition, as well as wanting more time for personal matters like Spirit's shop. The original four decided to retire and seek out a new team to represent the Golden team.

The original members of the Golden Wisps visited the HRSC and came across a group of five younger marbles who represented the club in regional tournaments: Orby, Glorby, Gorby, Goldby and Glordby. Spirit noticed that they took part in intense workouts and found that Orby, the loudest and most outspoken member, was constantly talking to their coach and teammates, oozing passion for marble sports. Spirit proposed that the five marbles take the old team's place, which they were overjoyed to do.

The old team worked with the new team, preparing them for the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. In this time, the Golden Wisps changed their name to the Golden Orbs to minimize confusion with the Midnight Wisps. They let the Midnight Wisps keep their name as the Wisps came from their culture. The five new members and Spirit, acting as the team's mentor, arrived in Hailfern for the competition. Glordby was selected to take part in the draw and the Orbs were sorted into Group B, alongside the Midnight Wisps. They spent the last few days before the qualifiers studying the events and training.

The Orbs started off with two mid-table finishes in Curling and the Snow Race. Glorby turned around the team's fortunes by coming second in the 5 Meter Ice Dash, putting the team in second in their group. Unfortunately, Orby misunderstood the final event, the Halfpipe - they thought it was like the Hubelino version of the event and so rushes to finish line, unaware that the aim was to spend as long as possible in the halfpipe. The team came in last which dropped the team into sixth, making the team miss out on qualification for Marble League 2018. Orby was upset and apologized for their mistake. The rest of the team were supportive, and Wispy of the Midnight Wisps also left the team a supportive message. The team watched Marble League 2018 from the stands, rooting for fellow Herbotamia team, the Minty Maniacs, as well as the Midnight Wisps.

The team later 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, which had recently been confirmed as taking place by Jelle. The Orbs held a meeting and the original roster decided not to return, due to their other commitments such as Spirit and Willo's jewelry shop, and it was decided the new team would continue in their place. The new team were happy to stay off focusing on the Marble League and gain experience. Both the old and new squad again worked together to prepare. Glordby would sit out the competition due to the four-member limit.

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 sixth 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. This event included a spectacular comeback in their heat against the Bluefastics. Unfortunately, this medal was not enough to overcome their mediocre performances and they finished the competition in sixth overall. Upon reflection, the team realized that individual events were a weak point for the team. The team took the rest of 2018 as a vacation before starting to train for the next Hubelino Tournament.

### Post-2018

The Golden Orbs spent a lot of time training for the new Hubelino Tournament season, even forgoing a potential chance to compete in the Marble League after the retirement of Team Plasma. Unfortunately, the next tournament never came. Low viewership and and other factors meant the Hubelino Tournament was cancelled. The top two teams from Hubelino Tournament 2018 were invited to compete in the new Marble League Showdown 2019, but nothing similar came up for the Golden Orbs and the team were forced into a hiatus. The original four members stepped down from sporting activities and overseeing the new team, giving full permission to the new team to keep using their name.

The new team could not let a year go by without competing so the team started to compete sporadically in turf tournaments and also competed in the Herbotamia Rally. The HRSC noticed the team's difficulties and opened its facilities to their old athletes.

In September 2020, all the former Hubelino teams were reunited at the Herbotamia Reunion, organised by the Minty Maniacs and the old team members. The results of the competition are unknown due to all members signing an NDA before competing.

The positive response to event such as the Herbotamia Reunion led to local businesses feeling incentivized to sponsor new tournament in 2021, the Herbotamia Marble Sports Cup, giving the team an opportunity to compete in a full season once again. Under the guidance of Orby, who was now the team captain, the Golden Orbs won the inaugural competition over the Firefighters and Cyber Charge.

The team still thinks about trying to return to the Marble League and so keeps training hard in case that opportunity arises. Spirit hasn't ruled out returning as manager if that happened as Willo, now co-manager of the Jewelers, could run the shop.

## 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

## Results

 2018 | 8
 Total

## Career Events

 2017
 2018
 Total

## 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.
* The Golden Orbs are the only Marble League team that debuted in 2018 that are currently not active in the Marble League.

## References

1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 EduGJ23 (4th July 2022). RetRollSpective – Golden Orbs. Project Marblearth.