What a way to close out the first half of the season! People are going to be talking about that final heat for a long time. The Hazers (Roundabout) came out of nowhere on the third leg to capture gold, leaving Team Momo (Marbleo Andretti) and the O’rangers (Lost Marbles) fighting for second place, which Momo took by mere millimeters.
While it was no surprise to see the league-leading O’rangers in the final, the other three teams who made it were a surprise, having all under-performed to this point in the season. Rounding out the surprise trio, along with Team Momo and the Hazers, were the Hornets (KnuckleBalz), who had some fantastic races to make it into the final. Despite the fourth place finish, this was clearly the highlight in an otherwise disappointing first half for KnuckleBalz.
The big news in League standings is that just one week after dropping out of first place, Mr. McBalls continued their free fall, and with a meager 9 points dropped not one, but two places, out of medal contention and into fourth place, while Marbleo Andretti (25 points) and Lost Marbles (22 points) vaulted into second and third place, respectively. Dingleberry Ballz (Alan Grubbe) finished with the fourth most points of the week, and is now just 7 points behind Mr. McBalls for fourth place. Heads Will Roll put in another solid week (15 points), and remains at the top of the leader board.
At the lower end of the table, Roundabout and the Master Balldrafter swapped spots, due to the aforementioned Hazers gold, but it will still be a hard slog for Roundabout to climb the leaderboard in the second half. Even after the top notch week, Roundabout is nearly 40 points away from Dingleberry Ballz in fifth place. KnuckleBalz sits in last place, and is the only team not to break 100 points in the first half.
Some final questions as we head into the second half of the season tonight: Can anyone catch Heads Will Roll? Will Mr. McBalls continue their slide from gold hopefuls just a few weeks ago down into obscurity? What’s going to happen in the middle of the table, where just 19 points separate second and fifth place. Is Roundabout for real? Was Mellow Yellow the worst draft pick ever?
Stay tuned for the second half of Steam’s Xtreme Marble League to have these, and more, questions answered.
After losing pole position in the league with a lackluster performance (9 points) in Week 6, Mr. McBalls looked to bounce back in Week 7...but bounce back those balls did not. A mere 5 points left Manager JoBo with no answers and nothing to do but scratch his balls. It also left his team a mere 4 points ahead of the resurgent team of Marbleo Andretti, whose 30 points tied for tops in the league with Dingleberry Balls, and vaulted his team into third place, ahead of the Lost Marbles, who despite a solid 19 points this week are still waiting for the Oceanics to do something positive. While the Lost Marbles’ O’rangers top all individual teams with 105 points (better alone than The Master Balldrafter, Roundabout, and Kunckleballz), their other team, the Oceanics, have managed just 30 points, just 1 point better than the league’s biggest disappointment by far, the 1st overall draft pick Mellow Yellow (The Master Balldrafter, who may need to rethink that team name next season).
Back at the top of the table, Heads Will Role had another solid showing with 20 points, which makes at least four straight weeks with 20 or more points. Dingleberry Ballz remained in 5th place overall, but their 30 points put them within striking distance of a medal position when all is said and done. Just 17 points now separate Dingleberry Ballz from the 2nd place team (Mr. McBalls). A few more weeks of stellar rolling could have the league saying “Where’d those Ballz come from?”
The Master Balldrafter moved up a spot into 6th place and created a little separation from Roundabout and Knuckleballz, but it’s looking more nad more likely with each passing week that perhaps the only way to make things interesting on the lower end of the table will be by making side bets throughout the remainder of the season. (League Commissioner Gordon is accepting bets, with only a small commission.) But lets not count these balls out of the fight yet. There are still 9 weeks remaining to turn things around.
Next up: Triathlon. Thursday at 9:00.