Ghost Plasma

Ghost Plasma
Color	Slightly transparent red/orange
Active years	2016 - Present
Marble Rally
Seasons	5 (first in 2016)
Races	41
Best Result	1st (2016)
Wins	1
Podiums	7
Career Points	359 points

Ghost Plasma is a red-orange and white marble who competes in the Marble Rally. They were the first Sand Marble Rally champion. They originally come from Fantum.

History

2016

Ghost Plasma had a strong start to Sand Marble Rally 2016 with two consecutive podium finishes in 2nd place in the first two races. They claimed their first and only race win so far in Race 4, which was enough to affirm their status as title contender for the season. Their non-points finish in Race 6 notwithstanding, Ghost Plasma continued their supremacy in the Sand Marble Rally by staying at the top of the standings for the rest of the season. They finished 7th in the last race, which was enough to secure their championship title with 194 points. They were also 21 points ahead of Big Pearl, which was the largest points margin until Red Number 3 broke that record in 2018.

Ghost Plasma on the top step of the podium, winning the 2016 championship.

2017

Despite being the defending champion, Ghost Plasma was required to attend the Qualifiers for Sand Marble Rally 2017. They finished third in their group, behind Crazy Cat's Eye and Lollipop, and thus qualified for the season. As the reigning champion, Ghost Plasma was a heavily favored title contender.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case at all. In fact, Ghost Plasma started the season poorly, with a mediocre 13th-place finish in the first race, followed by five consecutive races without scoring any points. They had four consecutive DNFs. As of Race 6, Ghost Plasma was last in the standings with only 3 points.

In the second half of the season, Ghost Plasma began to improve, even to the point where they overtook Comet in the points standings by finishing 6th in Race 10. With their third-place finish in Race 11, Ghost Plasma was 19th in the standings and 17 points ahead of Comet. But the next two races would be the unmaking of the reigning champion.

Not only was Ghost Plasma no longer eligible for the championship title, they also failed to gain any points in Race 12. The double points from the Final Race of the season would have been something Ghost Plasma could capitalize on, but they failed to do so and finished 13th. At the end of the season, Ghost Plasma was back at the bottom of the ladder in the points standings with a measly 54 points.

2018

Due to Ghost Plasma's underperformance in the last season, Ghost Plasma once again had to participate in the Qualifiers for Sand Marble Rally 2018. They finished third in their qualifier race, behind Big Pearl and Deep Ocean, which was enough for them to qualify for the A Division. Ghost Plasma was determined to redeem themselves after their performance drop in the last season, which saw them go from the inaugural champion to dead last.

This season turned out to be another tough one for Ghost Plasma. Outside of their podium finish in Race 5 and their other top half finish of the season earlier in Race 3, Ghost Plasma's overall performance in this season was terrible. They finished every other race within the bottom half. They even DNFd in Race 6. Ghost Plasma ended the season in 19th place with 35 points.

During this time Ghost Plasma had become a franchise with the launch of their Marble League team, Team Plasma. Unfortunately they failed to qualify for Marble League 2018. Most of the franchise's resources went to preparing Ghost Plasma for Sand Marble Rally 2018, leading to a drop in morale and lack of training for Team Plasma who decided to retire before Marble League 2019.

2019

The Plasma franchise was in poor shape going into 2019. However, the retirement of Team Plasma meant more resources, funding and training for Ghost Plasma as they prepared for Marble Rally 2019. Due to their unsuccessful previous season, Ghost Plasma had to participate in the Wildcard Race to qualify for Marble Rally 2019. They finished second behind Reflektor, earning them a spot in the A League. Given that they had two underwhelming seasons in a row, there was already fear that Ghost Plasma would once again finish the season in the bottom half of the standings, if not last place as they did in 2017.

Surprisingly, 2019 proved to be a return to form for Ghost Plasma as speed and remarkable consistency made up their season. They were able to finish every race but one within the top half, including one podium finish at 3rd place in Race 6. This made them end the season in 2nd place with 76 points. They also prequalified for Marble Rally 2020.

2020

Ghost Plasma was invited to take part in Marble Rally 2020 after the Qualifiers were cancelled.

Racer analysis and profile

An overview concerning Round 4 of the 2016 SMR Championship. Notice the incredibly tight field congestion behind Ghost Plasma, who is currently in second.

Ghost Plasma's great success comes from their ability to defend their track position. Especially evident in their 2016 Race 4 victory, Ghost Plasma's expertise at dominating in the front row thwarted any attempts to overtake them, blocking off all conventional lanes of attack and canceling clean drafts/slingshots as well. While not the fastest or most technically gifted, Ghost Plasma is a very intelligent racer, using splits and unrimmed curves to their advantage by always taking the fastest route, and they also use their body to physically push off others attempting to either pass cleanly or push them off the track themselves. While their form has not fully recovered from the bombed 2017 and 2018 season, they have shown an immense amount of their former self, using both splits and great defense to gather 7 straight top 10s, a podium and a 2nd place table finish to top it off.

Marble Rally results

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos	Points
2016	R1 2	R2 2	R3 4	R4 1	R5 15	R6 24	R7 5	R8 5	R9 2	R10 9	R11 14	R12 7		1st	194
2017	R1 13	R2 DNF	R3 DNF	R4 DNF	R5 DNF	R6 16	R7 9	R8 16	R9 4	R10 6	R11 3	R12 17	F‡ 13	20th	54
2018	R1 13	R2 18	R3 10	R4 18	R5 2	R6 DNF	R7 20	R8 11						19th	35
2019	R1 8	R2 4	R3 9	R4 4	R5 4	R6 3	R7 7	R8 14						2nd	76
2020	R1 9													9th*	7*

* - Season is still in progress

^‡ - Double points

Trivia

• Ghost Plasma is the inaugural Marble Rally champion.
  • However, Ghost Plasma is also the only Marble Rally champion who had to qualify for the next season.
• Ghost Plasma has had a significant drop in performance from the champion in 2016 to dead last in 2017. The reason why is unknown.
• Ghost Plasma is one of only five marbles to participate in all Marble Rally races held to date, along with Comet, Dragon's Egg, Slimer and Summer Sky.