黑杰克

The current Black Jacks logo, designed by Tim Ritz.

The **Black Jacks** are an all-black playing card-inspired team which were introduced in Hubelino Tournament 2016. They returned in 2021 to participate in Marble ManiaX, and will return to the Marble League in the 2022 Showdown.

## Team Members

Jack of Clubs, Jack of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts, and Jack of Spades were the original members of the team. In 2018, they shortened their names to Club, Diamond, Heart, and Spade. Ace was also added to the team the same year. When the team returned in 2021, they kept the same roster and names. Heart became team captain upon the team's return.

## History

### Pre-Hubelino Tournament

The Black Jacks are a marble sports team from Herbotamia. The Minty Maniacs started to compete against each other using the environment as a marble sports course. The popularity of these local tournaments spread across the region. Due to the growing popularity, the Minty Maniacs set up an official tournament between themselves, the Black Jacks and the Golden Wisps. The next season, more teams from across the region joined them and officially became the Herbotamia Tournament. During the second year, marble sports started to grow in popularity worldwide.

A featurette about marble sports went viral and brought popularity to the Knikkegen Marble League, which began to grow at the expense of smaller leagues like the Fruit Circuit and the Herbotamia Tournament. The cost of maintaining the tournament without sponsorship started to become a problem, which wasn't helped by the announcement of Marble League 2016. 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 currently runs 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, with the first competition, the Hubelino Tournament 2016, scheduled to start after Marble League 2016.

### 2016-2017

The Hubelino Tournament differed from the Herbotamia Tournament as it was filmed for the internet, the first time for a regional tournament, so it could reach a wider audience. It also featured artificial Hubelino tracks. However, the lack of in-person audience was kept to preserve the original "friendly round" atmosphere. Eight teams competed in this tournament, including the Minty Maniacs, the Black Jacks, and the Golden Wisps..

 File:BJacksHT16Funnel.png
The Black Jacks had a strong start to the tournament. They had a shaky start to the first event, the Funnel Spinning. They were the first team to fall to Funnel #5 (halfway down the course). After battling all the way down to the wire, they found themselves in the final funnel with the Minty Maniacs and the Golden Wisps. The Wisps fell first and the Jacks eventually forced the Maniacs down second, giving the Black Jacks the first gold medal of the season.

The team continued their strong performance by finishing third in the next two events, the Catwalk and the Halfpipe Crash. The next event, the Elimination Maze, was an event of survive and advance and the Jacks did just that. They managed to make it to the last round with the Ruby Rollers before losing the final. A second place finish was their fourth podium in a row.

 File:BJacksHT16Comb.png
Although they avoided toppling any towers in the next event, Quartet Jump, the Black Jacks struggled for the first time in the tournament, as this was the first event that the Jacks did not finish on the podium. They finished in last place but managed to stay in first overall. The next two events were equally poor as they finished in 7th and 8th in Pursuit Slalom and Swing Wave respectively. They had squandered their lead and now sat in fourth overall.

The Combination Race was initially supposed to be the final event of the tournament and the Jacks returned to form. They claimed their second silver medal of the season and fifth medal overall, moving up to third overall.

After much demand, the tournament returned with the Halfpipe Dash. Unfortunately they could not return to their previous form, finishing in the bottom half in three out of four of the final events. After their strong start to the competition, a string of poor results meant they finished in fifth overall.

### 2018

 File:BJacksML18Q.png
After Hubelino Tournament 2016, Jelle offered all eight of the teams a chance to compete in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers. The Black Jacks accepted the offer and were sorted into Group C. Unfortunately the Black Jacks could only finish mid-table throughout, their best finish being 4th in Curling. They finished 6th in their group, missing out on qualification by six points. The team took part in the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race, a race for those who failed to qualify, and finished in sixth. They then entered the 100 Meter Water Race, finishing in the top ten. However, during the Amazing Maze Marble Race, it was revealed that the Black Jacks, along with the Minty Maniacs and Golden Orbs, were not going to take part in the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers in favor of Hubelino Tournament 2018.

The Black Jacks again had a strong start to Hubelino Tournament 2018. They improved on their 2016 performance in Swing Wave and finished in second behind newcomers the Bumblebees. They followed this up with a last place finish in the Catwalk but quickly returned to form by coming first in the Funnel Race and second in the Halfpipes. Once again, the Black Jacks led the Hubelino Tournament.

 File:BJacksHT18Funnels.png
The team kept their winning streak going by starting the second half of the tournament by winning their third silver medal in Block Bumping. However, just like in 2016, the Black Jacks had a second half slump. They finished the tournament with three bottom half finishes, including a last place finish in the final event, the Big Tower, where they DNFd and were the first team eliminated. Despite their poor second half, the Black Jacks managed to hold on to the podium and finished in third overall, one point ahead of the fourth place Bluefastics.

After Hubelino Tournament 2018, teams such as the Green Gang and the Valiant Violets retired. This along with a lack of ticket sales and interest from the fans, led to the disbandment of the Hubelino Tournament, despite Jelle's best efforts to keep it going.

### 2021-2022

On 6 December 2021, it was revealed that the Black Jacks will come out of retirement by taking part in the extreme marble sports tournament, Marble ManiaX.

The team finished second in Event 1: Extreme Diving, tying with the Purple Rockets and losing out on the top step in a tiebreaker with the Constrictors.

Unfortunately the team had rather lackluster finishes in the final four events, earning no medals. The Black Jacks would finish seventh in their return to marble sorts. Only beating out the host team, Balls of Chaos.

This was the worst finish in the Marble ManiaX tournament by any new or returning team.

## Marble League 2018

主条目：Marble League 2018
The Black Jacks were a team from the Hubelino Tournament that entered Marble League 2018. The Black Jacks did not make it into the Marble League and came in 6th in group C.

## Other 2018 Competitions

The Black Jacks took part in two other competitions in 2018: the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race and the 100 Meter Water Race.

 100 Meter Water Race | Heart | 4:01.94

## Marble ManiaX

主条目：Marble ManiaX

\* With the tie between the Purple Rockets and the Black Jacks declared unbroken, both teams received 7 points each, equivalent to the average of 6 points (bronze) and 8 points (silver), following the official scoring system.

## Results

 2018 | 8
 Total

 Total

## Gallery

BlackJacks.pngThe team during the Block Push (2016)Blackjacks.jpegTeam reveal for Marble ManiaX
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Stynth (5th June 2020). RetRollSpective – Minty Maniacs. Marble Sports.
2. ↑ Skystrykr (2nd January 2019). The teams not participating in 2019 MarbleLympics Qualifiers.. Reddit.
3. ↑ @Jellesmarbles (6th December 2021). “The Black Jacks return to Marble Sports!”