In order to capture Marble League glory, you must be prepared for every contingency,
every possible medium, and every possible surface, including the sand moguls.
Hey, everybody. I'm Greg Woods.
Welcome to Event #9 of the 2020 Marble League sponsored by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Here in the Andromedome: an undulating course that will test our marbles in a slightly different way,
as you see King Stardust attempt this downward winding, bumpy pathway.
You've got to absorb the shocks, absorb the impacts, read the course well, and choose your path wisely
if you hope to be the winner of this event, en route to a possible Marble League championship.
Our first heat, and it's the Oceanics out in front. Minty Maniacs holding in second place.
They draw up on them just a little bit,
but the bottom of this course comes at you quickly, and by a tenth of a second,
the captain from the Oceanics hips the captain of the Minty Maniacs.
Oceanics—there's been so much talk after the last event and another disappointment in the water events,
trying to get their heads on straight and make a comeback here.
You wonder how much that's going to be weighing on them
in an event that is very much the opposite of a water event: it's on the dry sand.
Heat two: Crazy Cat's Eyes, Balls of Chaos, Green Ducks, and Team Momo.
And it's Crazy Cat's Eyes out in front. Green Ducks make a move for second place,
but fall all the way back to last.
Momo will get the win in front of Crazy Cat's Eyes.
Momo—they have been trending well of late.
Green Ducks, just getting out of sorts and bumping the wall,
and that completely put them on the wrong trajectory, and they fell to last.
Goes to show you there is no one single pathway that you have to take going down this course.
You have to adapt; you have to move back and forth.
Savage Speeders. Are they going to illustrate that here? A little nudge from the Bumblebees.
Galactic takes second place. Here come the Midnight Wisps.
Oh, and an impact there will give the Bumblebees advancement.
Savage Speeders win the heat, but the Bumblebees just got it done. They were drafting on them.
Here comes Team Galactic, here comes Midnight Wisps. Look at them; they're nearly in last place,
but a great end of the course and a little shoulder there makes sure that the Bumblebees will be moving on.
Hopefully that didn't sting too much.
Thunderbolts, Hazers, Mellow Yellow, and the Hornets.
Hazers out in front, after that fantastic victory in the last event. They're just stretching it.
Nobody is going to challenge him at all.
What a run by Hazy.
Yellow did well to move out of the heat, also,
after a brief challenge there,
but smooth and steady, reading the moguls well,
Hazy comes across the line with plenty of room to spare.
Same for Yellow; got to feel pretty good about that.
There you see 9th through 16th.
Green Ducks' difficulty continues, but Mellow Yellow—they've been on the bottom of the standings—
they've got a great chance here to make up for that.
It's Savage Speeders out in front.
Crazy Cat's Eyes, they're going to lose out to the Oceanics just briefly.
Oh, hard impact shoots the Oceanics to the front and they win the semi-final.
Calculated or unplanned, it worked perfectly.
A little bump there from Mellow Yellow puts them in contention for second place.
Good move back by Crazy Cat's Eyes, but the impact put all of that energy forward, and the Oceanics,
charging forward like a tsunami, get across the line and will move on with the Savage Speeders.
Semi-final B: Hazers, [Team] Momo, Minty Maniacs, and the Bumblebees,
and some difficulty coming on to the course. Minty Maniacs weaving back and forth.
Here comes Momo into second place past the Hazers, but the Hazers get them back at the line.
6/100ths of a second, and the Minty Maniacs are moving to the final along with the Hazers.
Three gold medals between those two teams alone.
It was very close at the line, but the Hazers made the move just in the nick of time.
See how bumpy this course is?
There are the rankings, fifth to eighth. A good finish for Mellow Yellow.
They've got to be happy with that. They're finally going to get some decent points.
Still a good chunk of this Marble League to go.
Oceanics, Savage Speeders, Hazers, and the Minty Maniacs; also some difficulty coming out on the course,
but it's the Oceanics out in front.
But for how long? The Hazers are challenging, Minty Maniacs are challenging, nobody's going to get by.
Redemption for the Oceanics.
It's anybody's race at this point. That slight impact, and nobody could make the move from there.
Oceanics get the gold; Hazers, the silver; and Minty Maniacs, the bronze.
How thrilled are the Oceanics after that?
Only one team ran a sub-eight run and ended up being your silver medalists.
The Oceanics find some redemption, find some gold, and find themselves
on the $5,000 donation to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank,
made possible by Last Week Tonight.
Donation will be made in the Oceanics' name.
Not sure they were expecting that. This gives them a little extra element of Tide Pride.
The O'rangers hold the top spot. Minty Maniacs just edge out Crazy Cat's Eyes for second.
Midnight Wisps fall to fourth.
Still a lot up for grabs here in the Marble League 2020, sponsored by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
