McDolphin Marble Racing 2021

McDolphin Marble Racing 2021 will be the 3rd season of McDolphin Marble Racing and will be held from February 2021 to December 2021 (subject to changes) over a potential 15 races. Spinball Whizzer is the reigning champion with the whole of the top ten from the 2020 season automatically qualified, while the bottom half from 2020, the non-qualified marbles who competed in 2019 and a selection of the non-qualified marbles who made their debut in the 2020 qualifiers will compete qualifying races in February 2021. There is a plan for a 4-7 race B-League for all the marbles who fail to qualify

Retirements/Withdrawals
No marbles retired from marble racing in between 2020 and 2021.

It was revealed that only 20 marbles would be competing in the 2021 qualifiers, meaning that 5 marbles who competed in 2020 or it's qualifiers would have to withdraw from the qualifiers. These marbles chose not to compete in the 2021 qualifiers:


 * Blue Flame
 * Cat Eye
 * Lilac Laser (formerly Ductape)
 * Flame
 * Marbly McMarbleface

Of these, Blue Flame and Cat Eye chose not to contend in the MMR 2021 B-League, seeking to pursue success in other marble sporting competitions, namely the International Street Race Cup and MMR 2 (the junior category for MMR in which marbles can gain license points to join MMR qualifiers)

Rookies/Newcomers
No marbles were accepted into the MMR 2021 qualifiers.

Three marbles were hired to join the reserve team for MMR due to earning enough license points to get a Tier 1 Racing License. They were:


 * Golden Starlight (champion of MMR 2)
 * Grass Snake (runner up in MMR 2)
 * Bauble (champion of the special celebrations tournament, made up of the winners of the occasion races such as the Christmas Race)

Training
The 30 marbles who would compete in the 2021 qualifiers would compete in the mandatory pre-qualifiers training weeks, where the racers would have 3 days at 2 different locations to train alongside other competitors. They would first attend Marblevaniya's Sofa Valley Circuit as the run is known for having the majority of the track features seen on the provisional calendar. They would then travel to Coral Kingdom, location of the qualifiers and round 1 of the tournament, where they could practice the run or have a trial of the new circuit track, which would be the design of a couple of race tracks in the season. All marbles were allowed to train in their free time as much as they can and in any legal way possible. There would also be two separate training days after the qualifiers for marbles who qualified and B-League competitors to train with each other before the season opener.

Qualifiers
The top 10 marbles from MMR 2020 were guaranteed a spot in the 2021 season and would compete in an extra race before the first qualifier.

The marbles who hoped to qualify for MMR 2021 were split into 5 groups of 4 partially based on 2020 placements and partially randomly. Marbles who competed in 2020 and finished in 11th to 15th place would face one marble from 16th to 20th in 2020 and two who failed to qualify. The top two from each group qualified. The qualifiers took place on the [TBA] February 2021.

These are the marbles who qualified and how they made the grid.

Calendar
The provisional calendar for MMR 2020 started in Coral Kingdom and ended in Yo Island on Rainbow Run like in 2020 but races in Crisp Country and Bathroni were added and would take place on looped circuit tracks. This is the provisional and mostly dateless calendar.