GREEN DUCKS (GDK)


Athletes:

Mallard (Captain)
Billy
Ducky
Quacky
Goose
Bombay (Coach)
Honk (Manager)

Hashtag:

#QuackAttack

Stadium:

Greenstone (Draklin; M1)
Joshdon Stadium (Draklin; ML)

Appearances:

Marble League 2019 (Runner-up); Marbula One Season 1; Marble League 2020; Marbula One Season 2 (3rd Place); Marble League 2021; Marbula One Season 3; Marble League Winter Special; Marble League 2022 (Host)

History:

The Green Ducks hail from a pair of islands off the coast of Europe, the Brace Isles, and have been following marble sports since a very young age. The team’s future captain, Mallard, won tickets to see the Tour de Vellis in 2014 and was lucky enough to witness the Speeders win the tournament for the first time. Mallard returned to Bermenghank, their hometown, already thinking about booking tickets to other marble sports events, but tragedy struck. Mallard returned home to find one of their parents in the infirmarblery, and two days later, they were gone.

Mallard found a job at a farm to help the family, which included their remaining parent and their sibling, Billy. Billy also began working at the farm and befriended Quacky, Ducky, and Goose, three of the farmhands. They worked there while completing their primary education and continued afterward. The five grew closer watching Marble League 2016, as it gave them something to look forward to. As the 2017 Marble League approached, Mallard secretly entered into a bid to get tickets for the tournament. Mallard surprised their friends with the tickets, and the five traveled to Knikkegen that summer. They can be seen in some of the events in the Jungle Jumpers’ fan section.

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 parent. It didn’t take long to get them to quit their job in tourism and get them to coach the five as the Green Ducks. The Brace 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 the city of Draklin 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 Marble League. The Ducks had applied to the waiting list long ago and only hoped that their request had a chance to be approved. On 1 January 2019, the Green Ducks were accepted into the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers. The Green Ducks qualified for their debut Marble League in an astounding fourth place, having led the standings during some of the Qualifiers. 

Fans were no doubt impressed by the team’s showing in Qualifiers, but many wondered if their momentum would last. Leading the standings after six events with a gold and a silver, the Ducks were proving otherwise but faced challenges from the Raspberry Racers and Hazers for the rest of the season. With another gold and silver in tow, the Green Ducks reclaimed the top of the standings after breaking the Rafting record in Event 12. The Elimination Race brought them their final silver of the year, but it was Rezzy who finished ahead of them, winning the event and beginning the Racers’ comeback, one that led them to a Marble League championship over the Green Ducks. With 204 points, five medals, and a second-place finish overall in the 2019 Marble League, the Ducks made history as the most successful rookie team since Marble League 2016, but they were disappointed to not have brought the championship home.

Already qualified for the next Marble League, the Green Ducks were training for the Friendly Round when Bombay received an official letter from JMR. The letter extended an invitation for the team to compete in the first season of Marbula One, an honor for a rookie team. The Ducks accepted the invitation and chose to be represented by Mallard, “Captain Canard” and Billy, “The Kid” in the coming races.

Claiming their first race win for the Green Ducks, Billy looked to Mallard to lead them through the rest of the season. They finished just off the podium in fourth at the Momotorway but struggled to reach the podium again until the ultimate Midnight Bay GP. Mallard found a gap on the inside of turn ten to get by Prim for P2 and ended the race with a silver medal, leading their team to end in sixth overall. Both members took home a medal and finished in the top fifteen individually; Mallard in eighth and Billy in fourteenth. 

In the time between Marbula One and the Marble League, the Green Ducks made headlines in marble sports by starting a youth league in the local area: the Golden Egg. The grand opening of the Golden Egg was held in Bermenghank and was split into two divisions: a youth division for marbles just getting into Marble Sports, and the more prominent junior division for more competitive and experienced young athletes. The preliminary season consisted of twelve teams. 

After the opening stop in Bermenghank, the Green Ducks left the tournament in the hands of Honk, an old friend of Bombay’s, and went back to Draklin to train for the Marble League. A second place, two third places, and a fourth place in the Friendly Round landed the Ducks at the bottom of the table. While typically not the best gauge of how teams will do in the main league, the Green Ducks continued this mediocrity into the Marble League. 

The Ducks finished Marble League 2020 without a medal in their second season. They came close a couple of times, but many near-misses killed their momentum, and thus, the Green Ducks could never find any consistently good results. They peaked at seventh after Funnel Endurance, and bottomed out at dead last after the Sand Mogul Race, but spent most of the Marble League in twelfth where they finished. While their outing was significantly better than the other medal-less team, it was disappointing after a remarkable debut season. 

Their invitation to Marbula One Season 2 was no surprise, and Mallard and Billy once again represented the team. Even without submitting a host bid for Greenstone, the Ducks were excited to go back into competition. The opening half of the season for the Green Ducks was headlined by their incredible qualifying performances. In each of the first six races, they made it to Q3 and started in the top four. Despite often struggling to hold that top-four position, they were consistently gathering large amounts of points, including a medal at the Minty Mania GP. The only blemish in the first half came at the Honeydome when Mallard fell from third on the grid to fourteenth at the finish. 

Right before the winter break, the Green Ducks recorded their best qualifying position in a historic qualifying stretch, their first pole position. Billy would hold on to the lead for most of the race, beating Clementin by almost two and a half seconds. At the halfway point, each member had a medal and the team sat second overall. In addition to that, Billy sat third and Mallard sat tenth in the individual standings. 

There was barely enough time to settle home in the break before the invitation to the Marble League Winter Special came and the team, this time with all five members, traveled east again. After a quick stop at Isle Hyu to raise awareness for the Indigo Stars’ conservation project, they arrived for their first taste of winter competition. They fared better in the special than they did in the 2020 Marble League, but were still medal-less in the five events. Overall, they finished eighth in the special, an improvement from the main event the past summer, but still not as good as they had demonstrated in the past.

After their break turned back into a competition, Mallard, Billy, and Bombay headed off to Lewara to resume the Marbula One season. Compared to their first half, the second half was a disaster and the Raceforest GP was a snapshot of how the rest of the season would go. The low point of the season was when Billy failed to qualify at Palette Park marking the only missed race for the team in the season. Misty Mountain was a bright spot in the second half as Mallard managed to stay calm and focused through all the chaos of DNFs and the restart and gathered a silver medal. The team’s third podium finish moved them back up to second overall but they ended third in the championship. Both athletes finished in the top ten of the individual standings with Mallard in seventh and Billy in tenth. 

Following a successful Marbula One season, the Ducks went back home just in time for the start of the second season of the Golden Egg. Before leaving for the trip around the Isles, the Green Ducks announced that Honk would be brought on into a management role in the organization. Unlike most team managers, Honk did not travel with the team to Felynia for the practice race where Mallard placed nineteenth in a foretaste of the upcoming Marble League. 

Going into the Marble League Qualifiers in 2021, people were unsure if they were going to be the 2019 Ducks or the 2020 Ducks. They started respectably with a fifth in the Wave and Ducky was able to back that up with a second in Funnel Endurance. Halfway through, they sat third overall with enough cushion to survive the eleventh in Relay. After an eighth place in the Sand Rally to finish qualifying, they sat just ahead of the Kobalts and Pinkies and in a transfer spot.

Entering their junior Marble League season last, the Green Ducks immediately reversed course and earned a gold in the second event, rising to third in the standings. This would be the closest the team would get to a championship but among a collection of mediocre finishes, the Green Ducks emulated the Silver Swans in earning three consecutive silver medals during the middle of Marble League 2021. This was enough to give the Green Ducks a chance to contend for the championship in the final event, and in a moment where Billy led the Marblocross pack, they had the opportunity to do so. Falling back to eighth by the race’s end, the team ended their season in eleventh overall with 141 points. As the torch was extinguished in Felynia, it was announced that the Green Ducks were selected to host Marble League 2022.

As they anticipated an invite to Season 3 of Marbula One, Mallard traveled to Doornse Gat to represent the Green Ducks in the ESCAPE2021 Marble Race. They finished fourth among Ocean, Clementin, and Yellow, who claimed the podium. Two months later, they returned to Marbula One alongside Bombay and Billy.

Special thanks to Project Marblearth contributors Roilan Estates and Stynth for helping craft the lore of the Green Ducks.

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