MELLOW YELLOW (MYL)


Athletes:

Yellow (Captain)
Yellah
Yelley
Yellup
Yellim
Mellow (Coach)
Giallo (Manager)

Hashtag:

#KeepItMellow

Stadium:

Mellow Meadows (Amalanta; M1)

Appearances:

Marble League 2016 (Runner-up); Marble League 2017 (3rd Place); Marble League 2018; Marble League 2019; Marbula One Season 1; Marble League 2020; Marbula One Season 2; Marble League 2021 (Champion); Marbula One Season 3

History:

Perhaps it comes as no surprise given their name, but the team members of Mellow Yellow all met while working for The Non-Descript Soda Company in Amalanta. Yellow, Yellah, Yelley, and Yellup had all been working at the company for about ten years each, and they were taste-testing their Non-Descript Yellow Soda when they first met each other. After a long night of meetings and a lot of empty cans of soda, the four realized that they were miserable at their corporate jobs, and decided to quit. 

The four left the city and headed out west, where taxes were much cheaper. They moved into an apartment in Marblopolis, a city renowned for individual marble racing, and tried to find new jobs. They struggled to make ends meet for months until receiving an invitation from Greg Woods to join their troupe of Fruit Circuit races.

The Fruit Circuit deal involved minimal training for the four athletes, who donned the team name “Mellow Yellow” to avoid copyright-related issues while staying true to their origin story. After training was completed, the team entered the fray in the Fruit Circuit. Races were once per week and had a cumulative score throughout multiple seasons.

As the years passed, Mellow Yellow became a consistent force, usually placing in the top five. When the Fruit Circuit shut down for good in 2016, due to a sufficient lack of funding, Mellow Yellow ended the competition in second place overall. With that came a new beginning for the team.

Mellow Yellow prequalified for Marble League 2016 due to their second-place finish in the Fruit Circuit, joining the tournament with the Limers, O’rangers, and Greg Woods in tow to commentate. The team immediately started the season strong with a silver medal in Balancing and earned their first gold medal in the Sand Rally. They rose to the top of the standings, tied with Rojo Rollers in both points and medals.

Yellow finished third in the Water Race, netting their team a bronze medal, their third medal of the season, and the entire team earned a gold medal in the Quartet Diving event, putting the team in a three-way tie for second place, with just one event to go. Not even half a length behind the Savage Speeders in the grand final of Hurdles, they won a silver medal. Had they won the event, they would have won the Marble League 2016 Championship.

The team still secured an impressive second place with 41 points and a prequalification for Marble League 2017, but even the team was surprised at how close they were, between their finish in the final event and the fact that they were tied with the Thunderbolts in points. They were in a daze.

Marble League 2017 came up quickly for the team, but Mellow Yellow still earned a gold medal after a third of the events were complete, in the 5 Meter Sprint. After taking the lead, they slipped in the standings until the eighth event, when Yellah earned a gold medal in the High Jump and set a new Marble League Record, reaching a height of 38 cm. The team rose to second overall when they earned a silver medal in the next event, Steeplechase, but the team ultimately lost its focus, picking up just six points over the last three events. Thankfully for Mellow Yellow, their one-point lead over the Midnight Wisps in fourth place allowed the team to finish Marble League 2017 in third place, and prequalify a second time for the next season.

The team acquired Yellim in time for the 2018 Marble League Friendly Round, which saw the four prequalified teams compete in an exhibition tournament before the 2018 Marble League championship. Mellow Yellow placed second in all three events and finished second overall. Things were looking good for the team in yellow, but the Mellow Yellow we saw in the 2018 Marble League was so jarring that it almost looked like a different team competing. The team earned no medals throughout the entire tournament, and the closest they came was in the final event when Yellow placed fourth in the Sand Mogul Race. Luckily for Mellow Yellow, they secured double-digits in three of the four final events and finished the 2018 Marble League in fifteenth place, well above the Pinkies, and tied with the Limers in points, but behind them in the medal count.

Mellow Yellow had an extremely busy offseason, and much of it was spent rebuilding the team. The team returned home not to Marbopolis, but to Amalanta, where they visited their families and began working on a stadium and training facility in coordination with their new coach, Mellow.

The team was not entirely sure whether it could afford the time off from training to go to the two offseason practice events, but their coach insisted that they show their faces, albeit to less-than-impressive results. Additionally, the team had submitted a hosting bid for the next season, but their bid was denied in favor of the Oceanics’ Seven Seas Stadium.

Coach Mellow worked hard on restoring their team’s confidence, despite any bleak outlooks. This mindset was key in Marble League 2019 Qualifiers when Yellup placed dead last in the first event, Funnel Spinning. The team rose from their performance to qualify in a decisive transfer position, with 38 points to their name. They would live to see another day after all.

The Mellow Yellow we saw from the beginning of 2019 was beginning to return to form, itching to reclaim relevance in a tournament that was looking to newer competitors to win. Mellow Yellow had one goal, and it was not to win: it was to earn the fans’ respect. Rising to fourth place in the standings after the first half, with one gold in tow. They jumped ahead of the Savage Speeders for the first time in two years and, of the original Marble League teams competing, was only tracking Team Galactic in third. For the first time since Marble League 2017, Mellow Yellow was competing.

Despite a difficult second half (save for bronze in Collision), Mellow Yellow held on with 146 points and kept their fourth place after Marble League 2019. For the first time in the team’s history, after four long years, they had finally beaten the Savage Speeders by more than half a length, capping off one of the most impressive redemption seasons in Marble League history.

Although the team’s hosting bid for the 2020 Marble League was turned down, Mellow Yellow was invited to compete in the first season of Marbula One. The team accepted the invitation, and on 25 November 2019, they were confirmed as the eleventh team. On the same day, they announced that Yellow, “The Big Cheese”, and Yellup, “The Golden One”, would represent Mellow Yellow in the tournament.

After Marbula One concluded and Mellow Yellow got a decent tenth place, buoyed by a bronze, the team fully felt that their 2018 drudgery was behind them. The Qualifiers proved to be another relatively decent performance, with a fifth-place overall finish and 46 points to boot.

Sadly, their enthusiasm was wildly misplaced. The team finished last in the first event of Marble League 2020 and then amassed only six points after four events. Things looked like picking up after Yelley got bronze in the Long Jump, moving the team off the bottom spot, but they fell apart again. As the second half rolled on, Mellow Yellow consistently fluctuated in and out of last place, dueling with teams like the Hornets and the Green Ducks to stay out of the basement. A bronze in High Jump was impressive, and with a decent eighth in Collision, the team may not have been able to get anywhere near the podium but were still capable of climbing off 16th place. 

The Marble League would draw to a close with the final event, the Marathon, and Mellow Yellow was still in the basement. Tensions were high, and every team was going to go full steam ahead. Coming in fourth in the qualifying round and then getting a season-high of second in the overall Marathon, a silver medal from Yellup moved the team over the Hornets and Balls of Chaos into fourteenth place. Mellow Yellow had escaped from the bottom spot once again. 

Accepting their invitation to Season 2 of Marbula One, Mellow Yellow was unable to get their track, Mellow Meadows, ready in time for the start of the season, but hoped they would do well. Unfortunately, the team had a difficult start to the season, accentuated by a disastrous DNQ at the Aquamaring. Yellup was lined up for the race, but, unexpectedly, the athlete gained such air on the ramp, that they jumped off the track entirely. 

The first half of Marbula One was over, with Mellow Yellow third from bottom in the standings. But this did not mean there were no more JMR competitions to come during the break, as a special five-event invite-only Marble League Winter Special was commissioned. However, it came as a shock to the team when they were not included in the invitation list. 

The Limers were another team that had finished poorly in recent tournaments and were also not invited to the competition. However, the team had already been making plans of a different type: a Fruit Circuit Reunion. This would be a five-event racing competition featuring sixteen teams, each of them Fruit Circuit alumni, all competing at different racetracks hosted by different competitors. Whilst at the event, Yellow discussed their experience.

Initially, it seemed as if Mellow Yellow would have yet another middle-of-the-road performance. After pulling off a shock gold medal performance at the Jalapeños’ Chilli Pepper Cross, Mellow Yellow was suddenly fired into second, exactly equal with the legendary Grape Nuts. Everything rested on the final race.

It was to be held at the beautiful Rambutan Run, a marathon course taking the competitors across the Silver Lychees’ hometown of Lycinder, finishing at the town hall. In the final lap, Yellup charged down Honeydew of the Watermelon Wanderers and made a move into the same turn where they had the incident on the first lap, claiming first place in the race and championship.

Once the midseason break had finished, Yellow ended up in pole position at the Momotorway after doing a great job defending from Yellow Eye in Q3. Yellow led many laps, but it wasn’t exactly a simple task to keep the previous year’s winner at this track, Clutter, and one of the best marbles in Marbula One, Yellow Eye, behind them, and they would slip down to third. 

Mellow Yellow’s good run would continue at Palette Park, where Yellup would score pole position making Mellow Yellow the first team to earn back-to-back poles in Marbula One. However, their luck would run out in the race, with Yellup finishing eleventh. In the end, they finished fifteenth overall, with Yellow finishing 22nd and Yellup in 33rd in the individual standings.

After the disappointing finish, rather than returning home, Mellow Yellow would make their way to the outskirts of Knikkegen, where Marble Rally events usually take place. At the start of the Practice Race, held to the south in the outskirts of Felynia, Yelley jumped out to the lead, and led for the first part of the race, as they were challenged by Indie of the Indigo Stars. However, rather than hitting the outside wall and going straight over the bridge, Yelley went past the wall and straight off the bridge. In the end, they finished 26th above Pinky Rosa and Bolt, setting low but not insurmountable expectations for Qualifiers.

Those low expectations were put to rest when Mellow Yellow earned two golds, qualifying for Marble League 2021 second in Group A. Earning a bronze and silver in the first half, Mellow Yellow looked about as consistent as they had in 2020, with two consecutive last-place finishes fronted by other mid-field results. A disappointing 13th from Yellup in Triathlon put the team at eleventh overall, heading into what would become one of the strongest surges from any team in JMR history. 

Consecutive golds in Steeplechase and the Sand Moguls, followed by a silver in Diving, led Mellow Yellow to claim the lead in the standings with four events to go. And as they stumbled through the next three events, they allowed ten other teams a chance at winning the Marble League 2021 Championship. But Yellup, starting third-from-last in the racing order for Marblocross, was back. Rising towards the lead, they were eventually passed by Minty Fresh in the final laps and by Kinnowin in the final stretch, but clinched the championship with a bronze in the race. With 162 points and six medals, everyone was happy for Mellow Yellow, who had finally won it all.

From their Marble League 2021 Championship, Mellow Yellow was invited to compete in the ESCAPE2021 Marble Race. Sending Yellup alone to Doornse Gat, they exacted revenge on the O’rangers for Marblocross at the finish line, passing Clementin to win the race. Shortly afterwards, they received an invitation to compete in Season 3 of Marbula One. Coach Mellow submitted Yellow and Yellup to compete in the coming races, including their home circuit for the first time.

Special thanks to Project Marblearth contributors ElrQ, Vector, and Stynth for helping craft the lore of Mellow Yellow.

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