Marble Madness! Obscure sports rule in coronavirus pandemic

In this April 9, 2019 image provided by Anton Weber, Jelle setting up a test run for the water race event at Jelle's Marble Amusement Park Marblopolis in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Sports fans are on the hunt for new games to watch during the coronavirus pandemic. Marble racing has quickly gained in popularity on social media. (Anton Weber via AP)

The Olympics are in doubt, but the gold medal for creativity during the lull goes to the crew behind the marble racing craze. The videos from the brothers who run Jelle’s Marble Runs have been around for about a decade but exploded in popularity this week on Twitter. The secret is out — yes, the marbles are out of the bag — and the Jelle’s Marble Runs YouTube channel added about 26,000 subscribers in one day in the wake of one racing video.

Greg Woods has a degree in neuroscience from Drake and went to medical school for a couple of years before he got a master of public health in community and behavioral health at Iowa. He now works for the Alzheimer’s Association and hosts a weekly neuroscience local radio show in Iowa.

Woods is less Bill Nye and more Joe Buck when he calls the action for Jelle’s Marble Runs for hundreds of races. Woods watched on Reddit a marble race — held in the sandhills of the Netherlands, naturally — and wondered what it would be like if someone added commentary. He took out a stick microphone, recorded himself, posted the video on Reddit, and Jelle reached out asking if Woods would like to become the voice of marble racing.

Four years later, that’s Woods welcoming viewers to the latest game with a call of, “Let’s roll!”

Jelle, based in Nijmegen, Netherlands, films the race and sends it to Woods to lay down commentary. Marble fans have scored soundtracks to races and choirs have recorded team chants.

The most popular videos boast between 1 and 2.5 million views, some from celebrities that became enveloped in Marble Mania.

Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz tweeted, “Edge of my seat. Need that comet merch” to a marble race video. New York Giants safety Jabrill Peppers also rooted for Comet, the sensational big blue marble that never runs out of gas. “dk how but that light blue marble cheating.”

The celebration and commiseration for the nearly 700,000 YouTube subscribers and countless more who watch on Reddit and social media is as passionate as the wildest Cameron Crazies or Cheeseheads.

There are teams during the Marbula One season but no real human competitors. The electronic starting gate opens to get the ball rolling and marbles cheer from the stands.

“People get attached to these marbles and they build the storylines and they weave this together through all the competition,” Woods said.

Oh, but fans are fans, and malicious marbles have turned sections of their stadium into a scene straight out of Philadelphia’s ol’ Veterans Stadium. Groups of marbles squared off — or is it “rounded off?” — during a photo finish at the 2019 MarbleLympics qualifiers.

“There’s a fight developing in the fan section now,” Woods said on commentary. “Oh my gosh, Galetic fans are trying to rush out there. Oceanic fans are tied in with it. Let’s try and get things under control.”

And who can forget the time Team Momo had a marble sent to the injured list for damage suffered in an arena that contained four rotating fidget spinners.

“There was a huge collision that actually took a chunk out of one of Team Momo’s marbles,” Woods said. “We had to figure out what was Team Momo going to do after that? Obviously, that’s tough to heal back from and that marble was going to be out of action for a long time. So they drafted a replacement marble and then they had difficulty with that because one of them got sick.”

True story.

Woods can be heard calling every marble twist, turn and tantrum during the Ocho playback on Sunday

“If we can help make the best out of a bad situation, then we are thrilled to be able to do that,” Woods said.

With that it was time for Woods to go and prepare for another thrilling race ahead, this one for all the marbles.

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Republished with permission from the Associated Press.