Speedy Sloths

The Speedy Sloths are a team from the McDolphin Team Cup. They made their debut in the inaugural season, 2020.

History
The Speedy Sloths hail from the rainforest village of Costa Rico on Yo Island and two members, Buttercup and Slothy, were regarded as royalty! However, them and the other village residents, all the same type of marble as the 6 members, were all very slow, steady and relaxed. However, this changed when Sidwiggy set a land speed record for Yo Island in the usually unconventional Patchésa Rainforest in April 2015. The village sprung to attention and soon Sidwiggy would be competing in athletics competitions planetwide.

When asked about his record in 2015, Sidwiggy replied “I still don’t know how I did it. Me and Slothetta, my sister, were having an, I guess, a friendly sibling disagreement over who was faster. We got our brothers Stanley and Simon to time us but after my roll they looked pretty astonished. I asked them what was up and Stanley was like ‘bro, I think that you just broke a land speed record!’ I assumed that he was joking because we were known for being calm and slow, but Simon got out his book and Buttercup, my mum, figured out the maths and by using the distance that I travelled and the speed I must have been rolling at she proved that I was Yo Island’s fastest marble! It was unbelievable.”

Sid’s record was later beaten by a marble known as Cyclone, who represents Phoebe in the McDolphin Team Cup.

Still, despite losing the record, the sloth family got enough recognition and were soon beginning to work together to enter the now defunct Tropicania Athletics Games. This was a non-points based tournament held every other year in one of the continent Tropicania’s countries. This was made up of 16 teams of marbles in events such as relay, sprint, long jump and distance races, along with ones such as tightrope and swimming. The Sloths, who started to compete in 2016 excelled at the team events and surprisingly, the water-related ones too. In 2018, the final year that the TAC, the sloths were very successful, getting gold in 4 out of 14 events and medalling in 3 others, as well as Sid setting a Tropicania Record in the 100 marblemetre sprint and Slothy setting one in swimming. Had the series been points-based, the Speedy Sloths would have won by 5 points from both the Seahorses and Cool Chameleons, who were bitter rivals. Other notable teams in the Games were the Green Turtles, Sea Turtles, Green Jungles, Carnival Crew (who joined the International Athletics Cup in 2017), Electric Eels, Octopi, Jellyfish and Marine Team. However, true to their character, the sloths chose not to start rivalries, even after Ocelot and Kapok (Green Jungles) confronted the team after a controversial moment in the tenth event, long distance, where Buttercup turned tightly into a corner to try and sneak by fourth place holder Cheeky of the Moody team, not realising that Kapok was where she had turned to, and subsequently caused the Green Jungle member to spin off and finish in a lapped 8th, making a good comeback, but not good enough to match the Sloth’s third place, inherited after Twister of the Chameleons crashed off heavily, although Buttercup delayed the podium to check on the injured marble.

In 2020, when the Earth announced sport cancellations and lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the McDolphin Marble Sport Committee decided to set up a new marble championship featuring different events and 16 teams. There was also a beach tournament lined up but postponed due to Covid-19 and that featured teams so the confirmed competitors would be offered spots. However, there was one issue. The Beach tournament had 20 teams but the Coronavirus Tournament, later named the McDolphin Team Cup, had to have 16 due to the nature of the events, with sprint-based events requiring a number that divides by 16. That meant that 20 teams would have to compete for 16 spots. The Tropicania Athletics Cup was in trouble right around that point and was not able to afford to pay all of the teams and so decided to end the tournament under the conditions that at least 5 of their teams would compete in both the beach racing and the Team Cup. The MMSC quickly confirmed the teams who would compete one by one until 12 out of 16 spots had been filled. Of those teams, 4 had competed in the Tropicania Games (Green Turtles, Green Jungles, Team McDolphin and Marine Team), meaning that at least one out of the remaining spots would go to the remaining 6 beach racing Tropicania teams. The Cool Chameleons were the first to be confirmed, although Twister would be replaced by new captain Colourful. Then came the Seahorses and Electric Eels, leaving one spot open.

With just two weeks to go until the tournament started, the Speedy Sloths were watching TV when the news headline that they had feared came on. The newsreader that night was Steven Marbleman and he said this:

“The final spot on the McDolphin Team Cup line-up has been given to Coral Kingdom’s Sea Turtles team!”

The six were distraught. Despite dominating their second TAC season they would not be in the MTC. Slothy had said:

“We had really enjoyed are time in the TAC and had committed to our athletic career. We were hoping to get into the MTC but I guess the Sea Turtles were the team who the (McDolphin Marble Sports) committee wanted. Maybe it was because they were more competitive and their rivalry with the Green Turtles would be very interesting. It’s our nature to be kind to everyone and to not make unnecessary enemies so perhaps the committee thought that we are too relaxed and not interesting enough. If so, we can be offended so don’t push us too far.”

Seven days until the MTC begins, the Speedy Sloths gain VIM tickets to the tournament’s opening event, the tightrope. Six days and the crew fly out to Coral Kingdom. Five days and they are having their picture taken for the tournament!

When the team arrived at Reef Beach Airport, they were immediately collected by a group of marbles in a marble-car, not a very common thing, especially not a limousine. Slothetta recalled:

“When we entered the airport, the first thing we noticed was the extreme air conditioning, the second was a group of important-looking marbles wearing MMSC uniforms coming towards us. They escorted us to their car while we were pretty confused, we hadn’t booked a limo to take us 5 minutes down the road to ‘Coral’s Cheerful Motel’! When we got in the car, they told us what was happening. Simon asked what was going and one of them said ‘We are escorting you to your accommodation’. Buttercup told them that it was just down the road but that same official replied ‘There’s been a change of plan. You’re staying in the CK Stadium Hotel on floor 7’. Then we asked why and he said ‘The Sea Turtles have had to pull out for mental reasons and you are going to be competing in their place’. Needless to say, we were more than exited!”

The next day, the Speedy Sloths had their photos taken for the updated version of the McDolphin Team Cup promotional poster and headed over to the stadium for some training, where they met some old friends. Stanley, wearing his special reserve kit, said “it was nice to meet some old friends from the Tropicania Games, especially the Cool Chameleons, who had to replace Twister although he was there coaching them”.

However, there were fears about the team, who had not done as much training for the events as some of the other teams. They were particularly worried about Team McDolphin, who were made up of three MMR racers Super Scooby, Cyclone and Blue Flame as well as reserve MMR racer Pinky. Eventually, it was Monday and thus marble day. The Sloths took up their position as team 13 (the accolade that none of the other new teams had wanted for superstitious reasons) proudly and joyfully. They watched as their predecessors Team McDolphin destroyed the record made by the Colgate Club earlier on by 16cm. Slothy knew that their record would be tough to beat and told the team, which he was captain of, to just focus on working together and aiming for the top half. So it came as a surprise to many that the team who nearly didn’t make it into the tournament beat the Colgate Club’s score by 3cm to take provisional second, with Slothetta reaching the end of the beam. In the end, they would be beaten by another three centimetres by the Electric Eels but took home a much-deserved podium.

Next event would be less kind to the team, with Slothetta finishing 12th in the Time Trials, the team dropping down to 5th place overall.

Event three of 2020 was the swimming race. The team elected to put Slothy in and keep Sidwiggy fresh for the 100 marble-metre sprint. It was a choice that payed off, Slothy winning three out of the four races he made it to and missing out by a fraction of a second to Friday of the Green Turtles in the finals. Despite missing gold, Slothy and the team were in good spirits, especially due to them closing in on Team McDolphin, with Zac getting narrowly eliminated in the first round. The team rose to third overall, behind McDolphin and the Turtles.

Following the minor disappointment of the swimming final, the Speedy Sloths were determined to come back strong and win gold in the Speed Sprint. Sidwiggy was the obvious choice considering he was once the fastest marble in land speed. Things started well with a strong victory in his heat but in the semi finals things almost came undone. Octopus of the Octopi was quick out of the blocks and lead initially before Crisp of Team McDolphin took the lead. Sidwiggy knew that there was less that half a second left for him to take second and advance to the final but instead of giving up, he used all the momentum he already had as well as an extra push to get right up alongside Octopus and overtook just millimetres before the line. That meant that Sid was off to the finals. And how things changed from the semis for the team! From a narrow advancement to a dominant victory and a new record, Sidwiggy had won gold for the Speedy Sloths. In an interview, Sid said:

“I can’t believe it! I never thought that I would be standing on the podium at all, let alone on the top step, individually! I have to thank the rest of the team for their hard work. We have trained so hard and they have all really helped me get into the zone for this.”

After the event, the Octopi launched an official protest to the stewards, saying that Octopus had beaten Sid in the Semi-Finals and that he should be relegated to fifth. Their protest was overturned and the Speedy Sloths were able to keep first place. They leaped up to second and just six points behind Team McDolphin, who had claimed third.

Event 5 was less successful for the team, with Slothetta and Sid taking 7th after being forced into a tiebreaker in the heats against the Green Jungles, although the team remained in 2nd with a decent gap to 3rd, the Green Turtles although they lost points to McDolphin. Then, in her first appearance as an individual, Buttercup took bronze in the Sand Race 3 months later, putting the team just 5 points behind Team McDolphin, the highest any team had got since Event 1, where only one lot of points had been handed out.

Unfortunately, things took a downward turn for the team in the Double Dash, as Slothy and Buttercup could only manage 10th after a terrible last turn for Buttercup denied the team a potential (but unlikely) victory over the Electric Eels. They were just 1 place behind McDolphin but Marine Team, who were creeping up in 3rd beforehand and just 2 points behind the Sloths, won the event and shot to the championship lead by 6 points over McDolphin and 11 over the Sloths. Sloths could still win if they took a top-4 finish and Marine Team finished lower down but overall, it looked likely that the Speedy Sloths would end in 2nd or 3rd, with very little threat from the Green Turtles and Carnival Crew.

Stats
Debut: McDolphin Team Cup 2020 Medals: 4

Gold: 1

Silver: 1

Bronze: 2