Shining Swarm

The Shining Swarm are a metallic grey team introduced in Marble League 2017. The Shining Swarm had a decent debut season in 2017, winning one gold medal in the infamous Fidget Spinner Collision event and finishing in 7th overall. However, the team were unable to qualify for Marble League 2018 and 2019.

The team competed in the Marble League Showdown 2019 in an attempt to secure one of eight spots for the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers. Unfortunately, they finished in 9th overall and thus failed to qualify, despite having won one bronze medal in the Collision event.

Likely because of the fact that they had participated in one Marble League edition and won one medal so far, the Shining Swarm have a dubious honor of being unknown to the marblebase – many fans tend to forget that the team actually exist.

Team MembersEdit

2017 Team	2018 Team	2019 Team	2020 Team
Sparkle	Sparkle	Sparkle	Sparkle
Shiny	Shiny	Shiny	Shiny
Shimmer	Shimmer	Shimmer	Shimmer
Sterling	Sterling	Sterling	Sterling
	Glimmer	Glimmer	Glimmer

Color	Meaning
	Team Member
	Reserve Member
	Injured

Members TimelineEdit

CoachesEdit

Coach	From	To	Events	G	S	B	Tot.	Honors
Gleam	?	present	4	0	0	1	1

Note: Events include any kind of events (friendlies, other tournaments, ...).

HistoryEdit

The Shining Swarm come from the West African coastal city of Galeem. It is located on a peninsula that juts out from the mountainous mainland, at the mouth of the Silver River. The city is named for the shining waters that surround the city. The team were originally called the Silver Swarm, after the river. They eventually had to change their name so they wouldn't be confused with the Quicksilvers, so they opted for the name of Shining Swarm, inspired by the natural beauty of their homeland which shines in the sunlight.

Prior to their marble sports career, the four original members of the Shining Swarm, Shiny, Sparkle, Shimmer and Sterling, were musicians, and the four formed a band called The MarBeats years ago. The band produced may hits such as "Here Comes The Swarm", "Fidget to Ride", and "I Wanna Be Your Marble". Their most popular song is "Roll Over and Roll Out", whose lyrics reference the growing popularity of regional marble sports tournaments, which is why it resonated with marble sports fans. In 2015, the song was used in a featurette about marble sports tournaments, such as the Surculo, the Ramen Bowl, and the Knikkegen Marble League.

During this time, the four started to gain interest in marble racing, and so decided to form their own marble sports team. They performed their final live concert on a rooftop in Dionlin, performing songs from their Marbly Road album. They returned to Galeem in early 2016 and started training as marble athletes. After the conclusion of Marble League 2016, they applied for participation in the Marble League 2017 Qualifiers and were accepted.

The Shining Swarm's first event in the Qualifiers was Relay Race. Shiny rushed out of the gate, but the team then fell behind and finished 12th. The team learnt to conserve their energy in the long run and began to improve. Their best result at the Qualifiers was in Block Pushing, where they came 4th. They finished the Qualifiers in 5th overall, qualifying for the main competition.

The Shining Swarm had a bad start to Marble League 2017. In the first event, Funnel Race, Shimmer was chosen to represent the team and came in 12th, worse than Sparkle, who had come 6th in the Qualifiers. This was followed by a ninth place finish for Sterling in Event 2, Long Jump. The team stayed in 12th overall and were on track to becoming another bottom-half forgettable team.

However, the next event, Fidget Spinner Collision, marked the moment where the Shining Swarm truly shine. In fact, the team have a huge love for Collision events, which is why they have the Swarm in their name – they literally swarm their opponents in Collision events. They had not prepared for the fidget spinners, but neither had any team as rumor has that they were introduced just before the Qualifiers due to their sudden popularity. The team just made it into the knockout stage, coming second in their group after narrowly beating the Chocolatiers.

In the quarterfinals, the Shining Swarm pulled a tiebreaker win against Mellow Yellow, and followed this up with another tiebreaker win against Team Primary in the semifinals. In the finals, they managed to beat the Limers, who had been dominating the event beforehand. This earned the team their first ever Marble League medal. Even through the craziness of the event and Momomomo's injury, the positivity of the team shone through, and the team rode one of the fidget spinners to celebrate. The gold medal from this event took the team into third place overall.

Unfortunately, the Shining Swarm failed to keep this up in the next event, 5-meter Sprint, where Sparkle finished in second-to-last. The team dropped to 9th place overall, and proceeded to stay within the middle of the standings with a streak of modest finishes. The final three events, however, saw the team shine again, with a strong fifth place finish in Event 10, Archery, a fourth for Sparkle in Event 11, Underwater Race, and another fifth for Shiny in the final event, Sand Rally. The team finished Marble League 2017 in 7th place overall, better than they thought they would.

Such a great performance by the Shining Swarm in their debut season earned them a great deal of respect from the marblebase. This is especially true when it comes to their incredible performance in the aforementioned Fidget Spinner Collision event, which led to their phenomenal podium finish and a gold medal for the team. They sure couldn't have been more proud.

The Shining Swarm's next appearance was in the Marble League 2018 Qualifiers, where they were sorted into Group C, and were joined by Glimmer, who became their reserve member. Unfortunately, they were unable to come above 5th in any of the events, and ended up finishing at the bottom of their group, failing to qualify for Marble League 2018. They went on to attend the main tournament and watched from the stands.

During this time, Shiny, Sparkle, Shimmer, and Sterling reunited as The MarBeats and released one more album called Let it Roll, featuring songs such as "The Long and Shining Road", "Across the Marbleverse", and "Let it Roll", which was the titular song on the album and charted high. The four then officially announced their retirement from the music industry so they could better commit to marble sports.

During the offseason, the Shining Swarm competed in multiple events, the firs being the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race. Shimmer was chosen to represent the team and came 7th. Sparkle then competed in the 100 Meter Water Race, finishing in 19th. Finally, the team competed in the Amazing Maze Marble Race. Unfortunately, the team finished last in their group. This led to many of their fans questioning their decision to leave the music industry. Some of the members of the team agreed, but they had decided to move to something they enjoy, regardless of how well they do. Marble sports also brings out the best in the team.

Undisturbed by their poor performances beforehand, the Shining Swarm entered the Marble League 2019 Qualifiers with high hopes. Unfortunately, they performed poorly and only managed to earn five points in the first three events. Shimmer managed to finish 9th in the final event, Underwater Race, earning 10 points, but it was not enough. The team finished in 19th and failed to qualify for Marble League 2019.

The Shining Swarm prepared for another extended offseason, with several members of the team considering making solo albums. Suddenly, the team came to hear the Marble League Showdown was announced. They were so excited they started rolling back and forth, mainly because Collision would be returning. During this time, the team also became subject of a meme on the official Marble League Twitter account, naming the Shining Swarm their favorite to win Marble League 2019, despite the team not competing. Their meme status was also helped by the fact that fans keep forgetting the team exist. This actually led to an increase in their fans, nicknamed the "Swarmy". As a result, the team received a newfound determination and were ready to "Rise and Shine".

Unfortunately, the Shining Swarm had a poor start to Marble League Showdown 2019, with an eleventh place finish for Sparkle in Sand Rally. However, the next event was revealed to be Collision, and luck had just turned in the team's favor. The team used the same strategy they had used two years ago to edge ahead of the Kobalts into the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, they lost to the Rojo Rollers in the semifinals, but managed to dominate Team Primary in the bronze medal match. The team got onto the podium for the first time in two years.

The Shining Swarm proceeded to keep this up with a fifth place finish for Shiny in the third event, Funnel Race, bringing the team into 5th. However, the team faltered in the final event, Balancing, coming in 10th. They ended the Showdown with 22 points, tied with the Minty Maniacs. Too bad, the Minty Maniacs had a silver medal in their medal tally, and so won the tiebreaker for 8th place.

The Shining Swarm thus failed to qualify for the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers. Even then, the team became more motivated to improve, and their optimism remained constant. In fact, they could bet on their growing popularity with the Marblebase, which would serve as a great boost to their morale as they started training for Marble League Showdown 2020, where they would once again prove their place in the Marble League.^[1]

Marble League 2017 Edit

QualifiersEdit

Event	Participant	Final Result	Placing	Points	Overall Standing
Relay Race	All	11.38 sec.	12th	1	12th
Sand Race	Sterling	26.59 sec.	7th	6	10th
Block Pushing	All	65.1 cm	4th	9	7th
Funnel Spin	Sparkle	0:54.20	6th	7	5th

Main Tournament Edit

Event	Participant	Final Result	Place	Points	Overall Standing
Funnel Race	Shimmer	1:06.10	12th	4	12th
Long Jump	Sterling	68.8 cm	9th	7	12th
Fidget Spinner Collision	All	Winner	1st	25	3rd
5-meter Sprint	Sparkle	8.07 sec.	15th	1	9th
Hurdles	Shiny	9.61 sec.	7th	9	8th
Relay Run	All	12.01 sec.	6th	10	7th
Block Pushing	All	65.6 cm	8th	8	9th
High Jump	Sterling	36.5 cm	8th	8	9th
Steeplechase	All	43.81 sec.	10th	6	9th
Archery	All	35.5 pts	5th	11	8th
Underwater Race	Sparkle	13.60 sec.	4th	12	7th
Sand Rally	Shiny	1:28.12	5th	11	7th

Marble League 2018 Edit

QualifiersEdit

The Shining Swarm failed to qualify for Marble League 2018. They competed in Group C.

Event	Participant	Final Result	Placing	Points	Overall Standing
Curling	All	First Round Loss	5th	4	5th
Snow Race	Sterling	DNF	6th	3	8th
5 Meter Ice Dash	Sparkle	5.23 sec.	8th	1	8th
Halfpipe	All	35.82 sec.	7th	2	8th

Other 2018 Competitions Edit

Shining Swarm took part in three other competitions in 2018: the Marble League 2018 Consolation Race, the 100 Meter Water Race and the Amazing Maze Marble Race.

Event	Participant	Final Result	Place
Marble League 2018 Consolation Race	Shimmer	46.08 sec.	7th
100 Meter Water Race	Sparkle	4:17.14	19th
Amazing Maze Marble Race	All	27 pts	18th

Marble League 2019 Edit

QualifiersEdit

The Shining Swarm failed to qualify for Marble League 2019.

Event	Participant	Final Result	Placing	Points	Overall Standing
Funnel Race	Sparkle	0:54.92	16th	3	16th
Block Pushing	All	89.4 cm	18th	1	20th
Relay Race	All	10.91 sec.	18th	1	19th
Underwater Race	Shimmer	29.62 sec.	9th	10	19th

Marble League Showdown 2019 Edit

The Shining Swarm did not advance to the Marble League 2020 Qualifiers.

Event	Participant	Final Result	Placing	Points	Overall Standing
Sand Rally	Sparkle	2:17.17	11th	1	11th
Collision	All	3rd Place Winner	3rd	12	6th
Funnel Race	Shiny	1:27.28	5th	7	5th
Balancing	All	212 cm	10th	2	9th

ResultsEdit

Marble LeagueEdit Year Events Medals Result Points G S B Tot. 2017 12 1 0 0 1 7th 112 2018 Did not qualify 2019 Did not qualify 2020 Did not qualify

Marble League ShowdownEdit Year Events Medals Result Points G S B Tot. 2019 4 0 0 1 1 9th 22 2020 TBD

Team Members' Individual ScoresEdit

Teammate	Presence	Participated In	Medals Won	Total Individual Points
Shiny	Marble League 2017	Hurdles Sand Race	0 gold medals 0 silver medals 0 bronze medals	20 pts
Sparkle	Marble League 2017	5 Meter Sprint Underwater Race	0 gold medals 0 silver medals 0 bronze medals	13 pts
Shimmer	Marble League 2017	Funnel Spinning	0 gold medals 0 silver medals 0 bronze medals	4 pts
Sterling	Marble League 2017	Long Jump High Jump	0 gold medals 0 silver medals 0 bronze medals	15 pts

Trivia Edit

• The Shining Swarm used to be named the Silver Swarm, but when the Quicksilvers replaced the Gliding Glaciers, the Swarm was renamed to Shining Swarm so that there weren't two team names that mentioned silver.
• The team rode a fidget spinner twice during the Fidget Spinner Collision event, the same event in which the team earned their first and so far only gold medal.
• The @MarbleLeague Twitter, in a retweet of the JMRC's poll of who would win Marble League 2019, responded to the poll by writing "Shining Swarm". This response poked fun at the fact that the team is relatively unknown and often forgotten by the fanbase due to only being in one Marble League and only medaling once in that year.
• The Shining Swarm, or rather their four original team members, were in a band called The MarBeats before they grew interest in marble racing. They had released twelve studio albums throughout their music career.
  • The band name is likely a spoof of the real-life legendary English rock band, The Beatles.

GalleryEdit

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Stynth (1st April 2020). RetRollSpective – Shining Swarm. Marble Sports.

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