YMMV / Jelle's Marble Runs

• Awesome Music: Pretty much every song used in the Marble League ending ceremonies.
  • The music used during the 2017 Ending Ceremony, particularly when the top three finishers make the podium and the trumpets come in. It sounds triumphant along with the twinkle when the flame is put out.
  • Anton Weber's 'One Explorer's Revelation', the song used in the 2018 closing ceremony is an even more colorful and joyful tone that will make you feel like something great was accomplished.
  • And the ending ceremony for 2019 has an even more triumphant theme, particularly when it shows the silver and gold medalists.
• Badass Decay: Sometimes a team will do well in the previous year and do very poorly the next:
  • Team Momo finished 4th in 2016, 9th in 2017, 12th in 2018 (with the help of Team Primary), and failed to qualify in 2019. They did however qualify for 2020 breaking the decay with a decent 8th place finish, but not before their poor performance in the first Marbula One, and would then place 6th in Marble League 2021.
  • After winning the 2016 Hubelino Marble Race Tournament beating The Ruby Rollers by 15 points, The Green Gang finished dead last in the 2018 tournament.
  • After taking gold in the 2016 Sand Marble Rally, Ghost Plasma would finish the next two years in last and next-to-last. Finally averted in the 2019 season, where Ghost Plasma takes silver after having a clear shot to take gold.
  • The Oceanics became favorites to win the 2019 Marble League after winning bronze the previous year and ML 2019's friendly practice rounds. Yet not only they finished dead last (with a hefty 27 point gap to the Pinkies, the next-to-last team), they are also the only team that failed to get any medal.
  • Also in the 2019 Marble League, The Savage Speeders got gold in both of the first events. However, they haven't been able to keep their lead for too long, finishing 5th overall, and only getting a bronze in The Hubelino Maze. Not to mention placing dead last in the 5m sprint and the Collision events] That said, it ended up getting averted for them in Marbula One where not only do they win the tournament, but Speedy gets the highest point total out of any of the individual racers.
  • The Green Ducks proved to be a very consistent team in their first Marble League finishing second overall; but they started to fall apart the following year with them finishing many events in the bottom, and became one of only two teams without a single medal (the other one being the Hornets).
  • Team Galactic consistently hung around the midtable spots for four years in a row. Then, in 2021, they suddenly completely lost the plot and finished bottom, one of only two teams in the group who didn't even medal.
  • The 2021 Marble League turned out to be a very poor showing for both the Savage Speeders and the O'Rangers. A clutch second place in the final event, the Marblocross, is the only reason the O'rangers finished in the top ten of the final tallies while the Savage Speeders went from potential League Champions to 12th thanks to a 14th place finish in the same event. We won't know for certain if this is just an off year for these teams or if they're entering a decline until the 2022 Marble League, but with the Savage Speeders finishing lower than ever and the O'Rangers infamous decline in the latter half of the 2020 League it's not out of the question for the two most dominant teams to suddenly drop off completely.
  • After a respectable 4th-place debut in the 2017 Marble League, the Midnight Wisps shocked the marble sports world by winning the final two events of the 2018 ML and taking the overall title from the Savage Speeders by a single point. Since then, the Wisps have been in decline; outside of a 4th-place 2020 ML finish, they've been middle of the pack at best, culminating in a relegation to the Showdown and subsequent 9th-place finish in 2021, a last-place team finish in the third season of Marbula One, and being one of the first two teams eliminated from championship contention in 2022.
  • The Hazers fell hard in 2022. After doing well in every Marble League they've been in finishing no lower than sixth, they failed to qualify for the main league for their first time. Then they fail to make it out of the bottom four in the Showdown meaning they won't be able to compete in the 2023 Marble League.
• Base-Breaking Character: The Savage Speeders and O'rangers are very popular teams mainly for being some of the best overall. However that same reason makes them also the most disliked teams for being too good with some even expressing joy when they don't win.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Momomomo's harsh and consistent injuries endeared them to many fans, ESPECIALLY after the Fidget Spinner incident.
• Fandom Rivalry: There are several in-universe examples to be seen;
  • The Limers and The Raspberry Racers have a strong rivalry with their fans.
  • The Oceanics have a one-way rivalry with the O'Rangers. The O'Rangers, however, focus their ire on the Savage Speeders or Mellow Yellow. The Oceanics do have a rivalry with the Turtle Sliders, being another aquatic themed team.
  • The Savage Speeders also have a rivalry with the O'Rangers. And they share a rivalry with Mellow Yellow due to their close finishes in the 2016, 2017, and 2019 games.
  • The Balls Of Chaos and Team Primary are rivals for having similar color schemes.
  • After their close battle for first overall in the 2019 Marble League, the Green Ducks and Raspberry Racers have a competitive rivalry between them.
  • The Bumblebees and Hornets are both rivals as their teams are both based on bees. However this has faded when The Hornets retired with some teammates joining the Bumblebees.
  • The Snowballs and Gliding Glaciers are rivals by being teams based off of ice and snow.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Team Galactic and Team Plasma were very friendly due to both being rooted in the Pokemon fandom, but after Team Plasma was retired and replaced with the Green Ducks, the friendliness did not carry over, and the two teams remain typically-competitive.
    • Brought back in 2022, as Team Plasma were reintroduced for the Marble League Showdown.
  • The Midnight Wisps and Team Momo are on friendly terms, and most of their fans are the same in spite of the injuries suffered by Momomomo after the infamous Fidget Spinner incident. Team Momo fans generally acknowledge that accidents happen in the course of sports, and Midnight Wisp fans take heart in the fact that the Wisps covered Momomomo's bills. As such both teams' fans tend to be hand-shakers in the area of good sportsmanship.
• Growing the Beard: Many fans agree that the series has gotten much better over the years with Jelle and the crew having more experience with editing and the videos looking much more professional; especially in 2019 when they started a Patreon to make it look like an actual sporting event and even providing logos for all the teams.
• Iron Woobie:
  • Team Momo. After losing Momomomo to the Fidget Spinner Collision event in 2017, they bowed out entirely from competing. Momomo and Momomomo (again) both got injured in the 2018 Bobsled race and were ruled out afterwards. They didn't even qualify for 2019. Nevertheless, they have taken their atrocious luck in stride, and have even secured a spot in the 2020 Marble League qualifiers, which they secured qualification after starting in 24th place.
  • For the first few years, the Shining Swarm participated in exactly one Marble League, the debut in 2017. They finished with a single Gold medal in the Fidget Spinner competition, but then bombed out of every qualifier after and missed out until 2020. Despite this, they remained high-spirited and continued to fight for their place no differently. In 2021, their chance came, and they succeeded in finishing 3rd in their group, qualifying for the Marble League for the first time since 2017, which they also repeated in 2022. And then they finished the 2022 Marble League in second overall guaranteeing them qualification for 2023.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Mary is a cube ^Explanation A joke spawning off Mary's abysmal performances in Marbula One season 1, especially comparing them to her teammate Prim's results. Other marbles performing badly has then been called cubes.
  • The Oceanics and water ^Explanation The Oceanics have a track record of losing most water events.
  • In a similar vein, Team Momo and fidget spinners ^{Explanation (spoilers)} Momomomo was injured in a round of Fidget Spinner Collision, and was unable to compete for the rest of the season.
  • Hazers and Midnight Bay ^Explanation The first two seasons of Marbula One had Hazers in relatively good standing by the penultimate race, then failing to maintain it in the final race, which took place in Midnight Bay in both seasons.
  • The Host Curse ^Explanation Host teams were notorious in the Marble League for typically performing badly, with it reaching its peak on 2019 when the Oceanics placed last when hosting. Considered a Discredited Meme nowadays due to Marbula One races only sometimes "cursing" the host racer.
    • There are many other similar curses, one of the most notable being the 3rd Place curse ^Explanation A curse stating that teams who end up in 3rd after a Marble League are doomed to fall from grace.
  • Shining Swarm? Who? ^Explanation Due to them only being present in the Marble League 2017 with average performances, people have pretended that the Shining Swarm didn't exist. Will likely end now that the Shining Swarm qualified handily for 2021.
  • The iconic O'rangers Crowd Chant ("OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...") has naturally been turned into a meme.
  • Team GalacFifth. ^Explanation  Due to Team Galactic's tendency to finish in fifth place in any given event, or sometimes overall.
    • Ascended Meme as of the 2022 Collision event, when Greg made a reference to it. It was then promptly averted as the silver medal Team Galactic won was enough to push them out of reach of the O'Rangers in fifth with one event remaining, guaranteeing them fourth place or higher... and then, just to Yank the Dog's Chain, Team Galactic finished the subsequent and final event in fifth after their racer got stuck on the course.
  • Hazers and Block Pushing ^Explanation The Hazers are notorious for performing poorly in the Block Pushing event.
  • Yellup is gone! ^Explanation In the qualifying race of M1 S2 Aquamaring, Yellup fell off the track due to a defect. Greg Woods’ infamous line has been widely memed.
• Memetic Loser: Several due to their poor performances.
  • The Limers were never really a top-tier team, but they became an absolute joke as of 2019, finishing last in Marble League Showdown, an event where twelve teams fight for eight qualifying spots for the Qualifiers. And in 2020, they finished next-to-last failing to make it for two years straight. Finally managed to qualify in 2021, ahead of regulars the Midnight Wisps, Oceanics and Team Galactic.
  • While the Limers did make the League in their first three years, the Turtle Sliders also failed to qualify for qualifiers in their first two years being one of two teams to do so. And when they were allowed to compete in the qualifiers, they fail once again being the only team other than the newcomers, Solar Flares to fail to make it to the Marble League.
  • The Hornets have gotten this due to finishing last in both Marbula One and the Marble League in the same year.
  • The Rojo Rollers and Kobalts have failed to qualify every year they've competed giving them their bad reputation. Rojo Rollers finally qualified in 2021, but the Kobalts failed yet again. However, the Rojo Rollers were the first to be eliminated from finishing in the Top 3 and their coach was fired after another poor performance in the Sand Rally.
  • Mary of Team Primary gets this for her poor performance in Marbula One, finishing dead last in three races, and finishing 15th only due to an accident from Wospy.
  • The Oceanics. Though they managed to achieve 10th in the 2020 Marble League following their abysmal performance in 2019, they then failed to qualify for both 2021 and 2022, the latter failure resulting in their fans rioting in the stadium at the closure of the qualifiers. Their loser status was cemented even further when they finished dead last in the Marble League Showdown that year too.
• Narm Charm: It's hard to take a sport-based channel that focuses on marbles seriously, but somehow it works and makes for some of the most light-hearted content on YouTube.
• Never Live It Down:
  • The Oceanics' poor performance in the 2019 Marble League, where despite being in their home stadium, they finished last overall and were the only team to not net a single medal.
  • Team Momo became known mostly for their injuries after the Fidget Spinner Collision event that hurt Momomomo.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The Fidget Spinner Collision event in the 2017 Marble League is more known for Momomomo's injury in the preliminaries against the Midnight Wisps than anything else.
• The Scrappy:
  • The first coach of the Oceanics, Tide got a lot of hate during the 2019 Marble League for his bad management of their team, to the point where their fans were celebrating when he got fired during the Elimination Race.
  • Black Hole of Team Galactic has been met with much criticism after leading Team Galactic to a bottom-of-the-group performance at the 2021 qualifiers, in addition to his general mediocrity in years past.
• That One Level: The Dirt Race in the 2019 event had seven teams fail to finish in the preliminary rounds along with three other teams getting stuck during the last race.
• The Woobie:
  • Team Momo hasn't been able to unleash their full potential due to health problems causing their fans to get upset. A few of their teammates have suffered from injuries for both the 2017 and 2018 games. And they failed to qualify for the 2019 games putting an even bigger hole in fans' hearts.
  • Team Mellow Yellow are the first team to be mathematically excluded from winning the 2020 league as a whole, which is notable in and of itself, but what pulls the team into Woobie territory is that they have a medal, and are one of two teams in the bottom 6 to have one.
    • As of the High Jump, which they came third in, Mellow Yellow became the first team at the event to become ineligible to place in the top 3, and are now bottom of the standings despite being the only team in the bottom six with two medals.
    • Thankfully, with a silver medal performance in the marathon, they managed to avoid a last-place finish. Still, eight bottom-three showings (including a record-setting four last-place finishes) across the 16 events meant that even with their three medals, they only ended up 14th overall.
    • Even better, they would end up taking home the win in the next year's Marble League.

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