Super Scooby

Super Scooby on the podium at Gardonia in 2020

Super Scooby is a marble competing in McDolphin Marble Racing. He is known for his pace, which has lead him to (as of round 8 2020) 4 race wins, 2 more than any other competitor. He won the first ever race of McDolphin Marble Racing in Marbletopia 2019 along with round 5 of that season. However, no points between his wins resulted in fourth overall while fellow Mystery Lander and the other multiple winner Shaggy took the title. He won the first round of 2020 and then proceeded to score at least 1 point in each of the races up until round 9 (at least), as well as winning in the second Mystery Land race in the heavy rain and finishing second in Gardonia, which has lead him to a 14 point lead currently over Spinball Whizzer. He is clear with many red streaks inside and was born in Mystery Land in 1996

## Early Life and Career

Super Scooby was born in the Scoobytown suburb of Barklow, Scooby District, Mystery Land on the 26th December 1996. His official name was Sam Scooby but was always known as Super Scooby by his friends and was a gifted sportsmarble. His parents owned a building company but were amateur "marbles" players. Marbles was a simple team game first played in the 1800s in Mystery Land where each team would try to enter a hole in the ground first. The first team to get a marble in wins, even if they were knocked in by another marble. Super Scooby also played Marbles for his school until, when he was 12, a hard hit from a large Ghoulschoole (a school in Ghoulshire) marble injured him and ended his time playing Marbles. However, Scooby soon found a new favourite sport- Racing. He joined his school's athletics team but quickly discovered that he was not so cut out for sprints. He did excel in medium length races but it wasn't until he was 15 that he found what he was cut out for- Run Racing. His school bought some basic run and became one of the first in the country to have some.

In late 2012, the Mystery Land Sports Council revealed a new racing series held in Loungeland run privately by 4 teams named after different Mystery Land counties. There was Shaggy (Shaggyshire), Warning Light (Hauntshire), Fred (Fred County) and Scooby (Scooby District). The system was a run with eliminations every race, last place being taken out until one remains. The early tournaments featured Frankfurter (Fred), Emerald (Shaggy), Flame (Scooby) and Marbly McMarbleface (Warning Light) along with a similar cat eye (Hamburger, Gem, Spark and Marbla) but soon the teams opened applications for extra members who would be alternated with the originals. Tournaments in Mystery Land, Loungeland and Marblevaniya were set up in different areas as well as national tournaments, from which marbles could be taken by a team. Super Scooby very quickly reached the national tournament and proceeded to win 5 times consecutively, leading to his signing to the Scooby team. Shaggy and Warning Light of MMR also joined their teams. Scooby started poorly with a 6th out of 8 but then won the next tournament and in the end won 12 before the races ended. He grew a big rivalry with Shaggy as well as late arriving teammate Red Rallier, who was called Super Scooby 2. Still, Scooby proved that he was a master of run races despite making his debut at the age of 17!

When, in 2015, the tournaments were stopped, Scooby was slightly less productive, although he did race with Shaggy, Red Rallier, Warning Light, Pearl, Frankfurter and Kit Kat in a couple of mini championships in 2016 and 17, as well as taking part in a couple of one-off eliminations, including a revival of the Mystery Land Eliminations. Still, 2019 in particular was very unproductive. That was until he was invited to the McDolphin Marble Racing championship July 2019...

## MMR Career

### 2019-20

Super Scooby went into the 2019-20 season as one of the favourites for the title. Due to being in the first 5 to be announced, Super Scooby was given the number 1 for the season.

Super Scooby immediately performed, starting 5th in round 1 and taking the win thanks to blockage stopping 7th to 20th initially, Jenny running to wide a line around the pan and contact with Fritz (and maybe thanks to a collision with Green Turtle and Goldfish, the latter falling to 15th) to take the win in Marbletopia. He inevitably took the championship lead with 25 points.

The next three races were not so kind to Super Scooby. A poor starting position for round 2 in Phoebe City resulted in a 15th place finish, while Goldfish won and took the new Marble of the Day while the whole grid getting away lead to Super Scooby fall from 7th to 20th behind Goldfish in 19th in Radiator Raceway, dropping him down into 5th. A third consecutive non-score in round 4 at Loungeland's Pine Forest Circuit dropped him into 7th in the standings with just two races to go.

Round 5 was make-or-break for Super Scooby. A non-score or poor finish would almost certainly drop him both lower down in the standings and out of title contention while a top 3 finish could put him right behind the leaders or even ahead with one to go. A back-of-the-pack start for him and Goldfish didn't look promising but they leaped to first and second, with the Mystery Lander taking first in the country (Cat Land) that had only recently become separate from Mystery Land and only 50km from his home town.

Heading into the season Finale, Super Scooby was just 8 points behind championship leader Red Rallier and 7 behind Shaggy with 25 points for a win, 18 for second, 15 for third, 12 for fourth and 10 for fifth, those the positions Scooby needed to be able to win (assuming that Rallier finished 9th or lower in the case of 5th). Scooby in the end could not deliver, finishing 7th, one behind Red Rallier with Shaggy winning and Goldfish third, who relegated Scooby to 4th. Frankfurter took 5th over Creamy and Warning Light, proving that the Mystery Land Elimination racers were clearly very strong. However, Scooby was relatively disappointed with his finish. He said:

"I know that it's my fault that I missed the podium. I was not experienced in consistently aiming high. In elimination tournaments all you need to do is finish above last whereas here you need a top 10 finish to score and a top 5 to really do well. I trained hard with Shaggy, Red and Warning Light over the break between rounds 3 and 4 and we all improved. It helped my consistent good finishes. Had I done better in Loungeland I could have challenged the podium even with 7th but my poor consistency ruined it."

He also stated that he planned to train hard with Kit Kat, Green Turtle, Goldfish and maybe a few others over the off-season to try and focus on their weaknesses.

### 2020

Heading into the second MMR season, the talk was about whether Red Rallier would come back at Shaggy, whether a rookie could make a shock challenge or whether Super Scooby and Goldfish could mount a serious title challenge. The top 10 from the previous season were already qualified so Scooby did not need to qualify in a race and he could focus more on training for the long season ahead.

Round one again saw Super Scooby perform exceptionally. He was swamped from his P4 starting space but a brilliantly timed nudge off the back of Rose Petal curved him tighter towards Shaggy and straight into the hole, leading rookies Koopa Troopa, Cyclone and Spinball Whizzer to the line.

In round 2, Scooby started far back in the order and in the wet could only manage 12th, which now offered a point. He fell to third, however, behind double-podiuming Koopa Troopa and race winner Goldfish, although behind her by just 1 point. the next 2 races saw Scooby finish in 6th and 8th, keeping him in third, first falling behind Warning Light but passing Goldfish then passing Warning Light but losing out to Spinball Whizzer, and remained (just about) within 25 points of Koopa Troopa. However, an injury for Koopa in round 4 practice hurt his challenge and allowed Spinball to close in. In round 5 Scooby lead early on and nearly beat Spinball but a poor last pan dropped him down to fifth behind Goldfish, Rose Petal and Kit Kat. He closed to within 6 points of Koopa but was 23 points back from Spinball Whizzer, the new leader. Another 5th place in his first home race allowed him past Koopa and just 12 points behind Spinball but not safe from Koopa or Cyclone and Warning Light, with Goldfish, Shaggy and Red Rallier still looking threatening.

Round 7, the day after Round 6, was very wet. The track surface was coated in many risky puddles that could cause the marbles to aquaplane off. The race was delayed by 20 minutes to allow the surface to dry, only for the rain to start back up before some of the marbles had even entered the first pan. Frankfurter from 5th took the lead over Scooby from 4th. A pile-up at the hairpin didn't phase them, those two alone leading the race into the second and final pan. Scooby got behind, hit the dry line that the leader Frankfurter created and took the lead and the win at home. Frankfurter took second from Deep Blue, Frank clearly quick in the wet as his first 2020 podium also coming in similar conditions. Scooby took the lead in the championship by 12 points from Spinball Whizzer with Koopa Troopa in third. However, his win was tarnished by some of his fans invading the track after the race to celebrate. Scooby said that he was not happy about it and that he hoped that in the future his fans would be more considerate.

Round 8 in Gardonia saw Scooby take second from down near the back, with Diamond taking a shock win and Spinball Whizzer third. So far, Scooby had proven that he had improved his consistency massively and now had a 14-point lead with 112 points, the only marble yet to reach 3 digits.

## Racer Analysis

Super Scooby is an undeniably quick racer who uses superior race-craft to beat his opponents on-track. However, his small size makes him easy to push out of the way and has often lost out because of this. He is not as quick around a pan as Shaggy, Spinball, Koopa and Cyclone in general but uses his size to his advantage sometimes, sneaking into the backs of larger racers to curve him tighter and allowing him to beat his faster counterparts. His consistency cost him a title shot in 2019 but in 2020 has appeared much more consistent, having scored in every race, a feat only achieved by him and Shaggy. This has allowed him to be a serious contender for the title despite not being the fastest of all.

## Trivia

* Super Scooby was named after the cartoon dog "Scooby Doo", a program that Phoebe and Zac liked in 2012 when they first got their marble run. Super Scooby was called Super because he often won the races.
* So far, Super Scooby is the only marble to win multiple races each season.
* Despite having the most wins, Super Scooby is only tied with Goldfish for most podiums due to Goldfish's multiple 2nds and 3rds.
* Super Scooby has a big on-run rivalry with Shaggy although they are good friends off-run