The Rollout Edition 1 by The Rollout

Issue Number 1

August 2019

The Rollout On the Farm

A look into the family life of the O’rangers

Noceanics Behind the scenes of the biggest disaster in the history of the A lot of MarbleLympics

drama with the number 16 of ML 2019

Ducks’ Rollback

The history of this year’s MarbleLympic rookie sensations

Undeniable . The Raspberry Racers come in 3rd in the final to win the 2019 MarbleLympics with a 12 point difference. They won medals in 8 of the 16 events, 1x gold, 3x silver and 4x bronze. 2

Undisputed . 3

The Rollout Edition 1

Contents

2. RR POSTER An amazing poster designed by Piney of the Rasbperry Racers after they won the MarbleLympics 2019

6. NOCEANICS Noceanics , Tide fired and a disastrous MarbleLympics finishing 16th place, Valencia interviews the Oceanics and Tide.

8. O’RANGERS

Valencia explores the O’rangers locker room in the aftermath of the MarbleLympics. The O’rangers get candid on training, life before marblesports, and the ‘OOOO’ from the crowd’.

10. ROLLBACK

Stynth’s RollBacks are an abbreviated version of RetRollSpectives that detail the origin story of each team and how they rose to the MarbleLympics. This time he talks the newcomers, the Green Ducks.

12. PUFFBALL

Ask Puffball is an advice colum ball, an important person in community, who won multip championships as a coach. questions about performance, supporting a team in the Ma

14. ABOUT US

In this column, we will introduce explain how this magazine is Us” is brought to you by the company in the world: Wet Con company that built the Seven S

mn with Puffn the marble ple amateur He answers referees and arbleLympics.

e ourselves and made. “About e best building ncrete LLC, the Seas Stadium.”

About The Rollout: Welcome to the home of The Rollout. The Rollout is the world’s premiere magazine for the marble sports industry. This magazine will go in depth on the teams, athletes, and more in this first of it’s kind online magazine. More importantly, The Rollout is staffed by volunteers and fans of the MarbleLympics and marble sports in general.

How to contact:

Email: infotherollout@gmail.com

@therolloutmag

/therollout

NOCEA

Failure and Disaster

How can we even begin to describe a team that had everything to gain at the beginning of this MarbleLympics? Homefield advantage and royalty “We weren’t on our game,” Ocean said, sitting in the Seven Seas locker room. The last event just wrapped and I found myself in the locker room with the home squad, as fans began to carry out signs that read “noceanics :(“ on them. Ocean was nearly in tears. “I don’t know how much more we need to try every year to just come up short, to not perform well. This was our year, we had home field advantage.” The hurt in her voice was heartbreaking. For those that missed it, in all but one event, the Oceanics were consistently in the bottom five of the finishing results. Their best event, balancing, had not even made a dent in their overall standings. Shore sat solemnly on one of the benches and looked at this year’s surfboard. “A long time ago,” he started, “Sea said he hasn’t lost hope. I still haven’t lost hope, nor the glimmer of that trophy that we missed out on this

Year. Regardless of our performance this year, we still hosted the MarbleLympics in the beautiful stadium, and got to compete in front of our biggest supporters. Not everyone gets to do that.” Ocean looked at Shore. The captain maybe lost her meddle, but her heart still with this team. “We have a whole ‘nother

year to train for th again,” Shore rema season starts tomo are we going to d sure we’re going ter the next time prove ourselves? than a water event than a coach more than this fe ing around in your

DISASTE

ANICS

his, all over arked. “Offorrow. What do to make to be betaround, to It’s more t. It’s more firing. It’s eeling rollr stomach.”

Ocean finally piped up, “why not us? Next year…why not us?” One marble who was not thinking, “why not us” was former Oceanics coach Tide, who was removed by the 13th event in this year’s MarbleLympics. “I have nothing against any of the competitors; those Aqua, Sea, Shore, and Ocean gave me all they had to do well, and they just…” he stared out into the ocean, mid-sentence, searching for the right words. “…they just didn’t do well. There are tons of teams that don’t do well that don’t fire their coaches. Look at the Pinkies, heck, even the O’rangers this year only won one gold. I don’t see any of their coaches getting the axe mid-competition.” Tide’s swirls were tight in rage.“ I gave this team everything I had for less than I deserved. I was even a reserve member in 2018 and still the mob mentality in the stadium got me fired unceremoniously, on camera, in front of my family. Let me tell you how uncomfortable it was for me to go out into the stadium afterward, look my young daughter in the eye and tell her why daddy had to leave in the middle of the event,” Tide remarked before pausing again, as the members of the Oceanics began exiting the stadium to head home for the offseason They regard

ed him warmly with nods and it didn ’t appear that they had any ill will toward Tide either. After they left, Tide continued. “It was more embarrassing than being booed in that whole stadium. It was more embarrassing than losing in front of her almost every event. It was more embarrassing than having to answer a phone call from the King asking why we weren’t doing well. I almost didn’t go out there. I almost went home in disgrace.” I looked out into the water, watching the sun set into the horizon. Tide calmed down a bit after rolling for a short distance to settle himself. “I still have tide pride. I still love the Oceanics. The group that just left, they all treated me with dignity and respect even after the firing,” Tide said. I noticed a tear was rolling down his face. “…I’m just hurt right now. But I’ll be back, next year, cheering louder than ever before.” The new logo of the Oceanics for next year. Designed by: TR Design

ER YEAR

O’Rangers and the MarbleLympics – A Family Tradition and Bond

“It’s no surprise we came out and whooped the shine off of the other marbles for collision.”

“Things are pretty different than they were on the farm, y’know?” Mandarin said. We sat in a press box overlooking the empty seats of the stadium. The MarbleLympics had ended for the year, and the brothers, Clementin, Kinnowin, and Tangerin had headed back to the hotel to finish grabbing their luggage. Mandarin had the look of a champion in the glass. “There were so many questions surrounding our performance this year. Why had we done well years prior but it just wasn’t in the cards this

this year? Why weren’t we consistently in the top,” Mandarin said.“Quite simply, we weren’t as prepared for the long marathon of the games. We gave our all in the first heats of a lot of events and then just flamed out. We need to go back to the drawing board, maybe retool the farm a bit to increase our endurance.” The O’rangers, this year, disappointed many adoring fans with widely varying results, placing in the middle of the pack sometimes, and other times, sub top 10.“But we did prove

something this year that not many marbles can say,” Mandarin said with typical O’rangers pride. The O’ranger’s single gold medal performance came in the Collision event, proving that out of all the teams that competed in the 2019 MarbleLympics, they were the toughest. I managed to catch up with the O’rangers just after the collision event. The marbles looked a little worse for wear, but their bruises had come with gold. “Are you all okay?” I asked them when the team sat down in the locker room and they all laughed. “We used to wrangle bulls for a living on the ranch, way before the racing started, and way before any of this other stuff started!” Kinnowin beamed. “We’ve all in one way or another gotten the horns a few times in our shine, but let me tell you what, not one team out there had an answer for our strategies. Finally, something went right.” Indeed, things hadn’t gone right for the fan favorite O’rangers. Clemintin clamined a DNF in funnel spinning, getting stuck on the gate,

“And when we’re back next year, those O’s are going to be for our gold medals, draped around our bodies as we take the trophy back where it belongs, to the good people on the farm and our hometown.”

as well as getting caught in the dirt race earlier in the rounds. Most notably, however, Mandarin got a DNF due to a track defect in the elimination race. “It was infuriating,” Mandarin stated. “I was gonna win that one, and everyone knew it, and here we go down for the race and suddenly I can’t move, and I asked the ref what was gonna be done to compensate, and they gave us two measly points. Just two.” “It’s no surprise we

came out and whooped. the shine off of the other marbles for collision. We were upset. We weren’t doing well, and others counted us out. But jumping from 11th to 6th in the end, ain’t too bad for a couple of brothers from Florida and their supporting sister,” Tangerin said, waxing a bruise. Back in the room with Mandarin, overlooking the stadium, we started talking about the next year, and improvements that the farm needed to better train. “First things first, we’re gonna go grab a bunch of stuff from the Everglades and just toss

it on our rally track to see if we can avoid obstacles. We’ll train rafting and surfing once we get the proper supplies. We got a big ocean to train that on, I can’t see how we won’t do better next year.” Mandarin got serious then. “Let me tell you somethin’. I’ve lived my whole life participating in sport, taking care of bulls, getting dirty on the weekends on the rally track. I have never, ever heard anything as glorious as the stands shouting “OOOOOOOO” at the top of their lungs in the stands. I look up at my people, see them losing their mind at my athleticism on the tracks, and I can’t help but try just a little bit harder.”

The new logo of the Orangers for next year. Designed by: TR Design

RollBack: Green Ducks Mallard found a job at a farm to help Hello all! This is a series adapted the family, which included her dad from my RetRollSpectives, and is and her brother, Billy. Her brothdesigned to solely review the backer Billy also began working at the stories of marble sports athletes. farm, and befriended Quacky, Ducky, This first RollBack will focus on the and Goose, three of the farmhands. Green Ducks, a team new to the 2019 They worked there in the midst MarbleLympics. The Green Ducks of completing their primary eduhail from the British Isles, and have cation, and continued afterwards. been following marble sports since “We became pretty close over the a very young age. The team’s future years,” recalled Ducky. “Mallard and captain, Mallard, won tickets to see Billy became a part of our family, the Tour de Vellis in 2014, and was so much so that lucky enough we felt their loss to witness the with them. And Speeders win grew through the tournament it with them.” for the first time. “I remember “It was insane. when Mallard The Speeders first heard about had so many the MarbleLymfans rooting pics,” said Goose. for them, and “It was one of the I bet that deep few things that down, even got her excited. they were flatA fanmade logo for the Green Ducks Not that taking care tered. I wanted to feel of ducks didn’t get her excited.” “It that excitement again.” Mallard redidn’t get me excited,” Mallard returned to Bermenghank, her homeplied. “But the MarbleLympics did. town, already thinking about book“We all bonded over the Marbleing tickets to other marble sports Lympics in a time where we all event, but tragedy struck. Mallard needed something to enjoy. Workreturned home to find her mother ing on the farm wasn’t easy, eiin the infirmarblery, and two days ther,” Quacky said. “It inspired us later, she was gone. Mallard’s fato become a closer team and family ther had not been working at the than we ever imagined,” Billy added. time, and he used most of the fam“And we all began to wonder what ily’s savings to pay for a funeral. life could be like outside the farm.” He struggled to find a job for years.

As the 2017 MarbleLympics approached, Mallard secretly entered into a bid to get tickets for the tournament. She surprised her friends with the tickets, and the five traveled to Nijellen that summer. They can be seen in some of the events in the Jungle Jumpers fan section. “We didn’t really anticipate that the Jumpers would do as poorly as they did,” Mallard said, chuckling. “We liked their uniforms, though. The green reminded us of the grass from the farm.” “To be fair, they did get a few medals,” Ducky retorted. “I still have a soft spot for them. And I can’t blame them for oversleeping, especially now that I know how exhausting being a MarbleLympian is.” The five friends returned home at the end of the season, and had all pretty much agreed on what they wanted to do: train to become marble sports athletes. They traveled into the city and consulted with Bombay, Mallard’s father. It didn’t take long to get him to quit his miserable job in tourism and get him to coach the five under the team name of the Green Ducks. The British Isles were not well known for marble sports at the time, but the Ducks were able to compete in minor leagues. They became known as the most prominent team in the region within time, and soon began receiving sponsorships, which meant that the members of the team were finally becoming financially stable. The Green Ducks moved to Diondon sometime in 2018, and became the host team of Joshdon Stadium. In late 2018, rumors began to spread that Team Plasma was retiring from the MarbleLympics

“A member of the JMRC, Stynth has been a fan of the MarbleLympics since December 2017. Stynth runs social media for the MarbleLympics, is also a moderator for its subreddit, and also works on establishing canon lore for the series through his RetRollSpectives on the official Marble Sports Blog. Stynth’s RollBacks are an abbreviated version of RetRollSpectives that detail the origin story of each team and how they rose to the MarbleLympics. Other works posted in this column may be subject to personal opinion.” due to not training enough, and that there might be an opening in the 2019 Qualifiers. The Ducks had applied to the waiting list long ago, and only hoped that their request had been processed by then, and had a chance to be approved. On 01 January 2019, the Green Ducks were accepted into the 2019 MarbleLympics Qualifiers. The team qualified on 26 January in third place and is currently appearing in the 2019 MarbleLympics.

The new logo of the Green Ducks for next year. Designed by: TR Design

Crystal I’m new to the MarbleLympics and unsure of which team to root for, they’re all so good! Do you know how to pick the best team, Puffball? Dear undetermined team fan, Personally, I have both a favorite team and another team I root for during the seasons, and I picked them just because of their names! Now, some people may not like to do this, but it is one of many ways to pick a team. Some people pick based purely on statistics. Some people root for the underdog. No matter how you pick, just keep watching, and after a few events I’m sure you’ll have figured out who you roll with!

u/Sidstepbacon I‘ve been practicing the far jump, but I can‘t figure out how to jump further. On what part should I jump of? I can‘t seem to get any more distance . Dear struggling long jumper, While I am not an athlete myself, after consulting the few that I know, I believe I can help. When you’re coming down that ramp for the long jump, roll as fast as you can. You don’t want to launch too early, but push off the very end of the ramp, just make sure not to miss and fall off. Another note would be to avoid veering to either side, as this takes away from the forward distance you make. A few good teams to lookup to during your training would be the Chocolatiers, the Midnight Wisps, the O’rangers, and the Thunderbolts Puffball is a well-respected marble in the marble community. He has commentated on multiple lower level leagues and has coached numerous amateur teams winning trophies when marblesports where not big yet and athletes did not get for competing. In this column he gives all kinds of advice to marbles who sent the questions in via reddit or discord.

Ask Pu u/alpacaisgreat How can I become a marble athlete? Dear aspiring athlete, Multiple people try out each year, and it is a difficult and grueling challenge. Each team has their own qualifications, specific to what their team is known for. I suggest figuring out which team you wish to try out for, what the qualifications entail, and training until you’re the best you can be.

Bacshuma

I am racing in many sand races and can’t seem to keep my momentum and stamina. I often have great starts but can’t keep going and get overtaken before i get to the finish line. How would you be able to fix this? Dear sand roller, After a lengthy interview with a few of the ralliers I’ve come to a pretty good understanding of how the races work. My suggestions to avoid stamina and momentum loss are to try and pace yourself, you don’t have to be in first the entire race. Start out rolling not too fast, but make sure not to get too far away from the front and stuck in back. Marbles that go all out the entire time can easily lose energy and fall behind near the finish line, getting overtaken. My other suggestion would be to watch the walls, rolling into them can take momentum away, and if you hit one with too much momentum you might launch out of the track and fail to finish. And always remember, even if you start the season in dead last, you can finish in first.

uffball

Puffball in 2016 after his team (Water Striders) won the 2016 bug circuit

Clover Hey Puffball, I don’t know where else to ask this, but I always see these referees in every match. I’m unsure of their job though and was hoping you could explain what they do?

Kaiyo Every year my mom and dad bring me to the MarbleLympics, and I always see the Oceanics perform poorly in the water events. I dream of one day becoming their coach and getting them to perform well in what their name would suggest, but I need to practice watersports myself! Do you have any suggestions? Dear water roller, It’s disappointed me greatly so far that the Oceanics have gained a reputation of doing poorly in water events. I suggest taking it slow, but staying strong. Work on your stamina and endurance, do some cardio exercises when you’re not in the water. Work on holding your breath so you don’t pass out. Make sure to keep in mind how you’ll get the team together and train them in these sports as well.

Obsidian

I rooted for the Savage Speedsters in Dear ref wonderer, These Referees the MarbleLympics but I don’t know help keep the order during events. who to root for in the showdown, help! They know every rule by heart, and call out actions that have broken them. Dear showdown fan, I just took a similar journey of picking a showdown team. I rolled through all the data and statistics of the participating teams until finally picking a few that I thought My kids keep sneaking out at would be good to root for. If you want night, no matter what I do to keep to choose based on past statistics, I’d go them from leaving the house! with the Minty Maniacs or Team Momo. Dear parent of sneaky kids, This is com- You could also bet on the newcommon behavior among children as they ers, the Turtle Sliders and the Hornets!

Roslin

reach a certain age. Talk it through with them, maybe take some things away that they like as punishment. Teen marbles are always marbellious, but this behavior can be polished out with hard work.

About Us The staff of The Rollout would love to introduce ourselves. We are a dedicated group of volunteers made up not only of staff, but of many behind the scenes persons who are not listed here. We are some of many, and we all want to say THANK YOU for your support! Without you, we would still be marble fans with a dream.

Matthijs - Creator and Editor-in-Chief of The Rollout. For this first issue, Matthijs has done the majority of the leg work in assembly. Some say he’s created a cult, others say, “we must warn Matthijs about this treachery.” Valencia - Main Editor and Writer. Likes long rolls on the beach, watching the giant sun-marble in the sky set, and interviewing marble athletes. He is known for running around frantically asking, “what’s the scoop?” Mellacus - Discord Moderator and Editor. Not only is his skill as a moderator a very intense power, he also wields a very real ban hammer. No one has seen anyone who has been banned, ever again. Novawolf - Editor from Conception of The Rollout. Novawolf also helped bring this idea to fruition and also edited several articles in this edition (including the cover!). We are still speculating whether or not Novawolf is actually a wolf. Betawolfs - Head Art Director. Everything Beta touches is beautiful. We are not speculating whether or not Beta is a wolf. We are sure she is a wolf. We welcome all wolves who are willing to join. Stynth - Writer From Conception of The Rollout and Column Writer. Stynth is also the author of the RetRollSpectives on the main MarbleLympics website and a master of lore. Stynth is the end and the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega of Lore. PAX - Design Tester. Pax would like you to know that he wants you to have a role in the magazine creation. He just wants to be proud of you and to root for you the whole time. NGO - Design Tester. NGO stands for nuclear Gonzo operation, which, yes, is a reference to the Muppet Show. Poor irradiated Gonzo. NGO has begun a radiation removal treatment while still pursuing the MarbleLympics.

Excellence In Modern Design. We are the Wet Concrete LLC. From houses to skyscrapers to stadiums, we build exquisite pieces of architecture that are marvels of the modern world. You most likely have seen our stunning design at the 2019 MarbleLympics. The Seven Seas Stadium was built with attention to detail, a discerning eye, and a focus on providing the absolute best marble sports experience that the world has seen. We can provide the same look to your home that we provided the world in 2019 -- an affordable, but lush accommodation that will exist past your lifetime. Let us make your dream house...our reality.

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