We’re back at the Andromedome, and as we’ve moved into the actual dog days, we’re moving into a two events per week format. So that means slightly less clogging up the airways on my end as we cover two events as the Minty Maniacs and O’rangers seemingly square off for marble supremacy. So this week’s Rolldown is two events, 4 and 5 on the docket. First off, a new event, and the first-ever duo event, it’s the Newton’s Cradle!

Event 4: Newton’s Cradle
Two marbles compete per team. The striker rolls down a meter-high track to strike the stationary Newton’s cradle. Thanks to conservation of momentum and energy, the sphere at the other end will be raised. The skipper is on that end of the cradle and, once struck by the end sphere of the cradle, travels up a ramped track. Farthest distance wins.

Team order is the inverse of the standings, which means after King Stardust and servant’s demonstration (of 73 cm) we start with…

Mellow Yellow (Striker-Yellah; Skipper-Yellow)
A strong launch without Yellah going skyward, but Yellow seemed to oscillate on the track. We’ll see how much it costs them. 89.10 cm

Oceanics (Striker-Sea; Skipper-Shore) There’s little to talk about the strikers unless something insane happens, but a straight path by Shore means that the Oceanics move into the extremely provisional lead. 95.40 cm

Thunderbolts (Striker-Thunder; Skipper-Lightning) Lightning got some air off the cradle meaning it wasn’t an entirely true path, though maybe less extreme than Yellow’s. 91.65 cm

Team Galactic (Striker-Starry; Skipper-Pulsar) Still some air, but much less vertical than Lightning leading to a very solid run in the early going. We still have no idea how it’ll hold. 106.55 cm is plenty enough for the current lead.

Hornets (Striker-Stinger; Skipper-Hive) Just by the sound it seemed a lot less drastic than Team Galactic’s. Stinger did get sent back a bit but considering it was at an angle could it have been less momentum in the positive? 90.75 cm

Savage Speeders (Striker-Speedy; Skipper-Rapidly) Two of the best solo marbles, let’s see about working as a pair. It sounded pretty good, and Rapidly made a decent way up the track towards that 1 meter mark, taking 2nd for the time being. 99.80 cm

Team Momo (Striker-Momo; Skipper-Momomo) No way Momomomo was going to so anything with this kind of collisions, right? It was a clean impact, but maybe not a powerful enough one. Some oscillation on the skipper run as well, so it’s in the midpack, 3rd for now but I have to imagine it’ll get bumped a bit. 96.50 cm

Bumblebees (Striker-Bumble; Skipper-Swax) I just got the joke behind Swax! Because I’m dumb. Swax got a clean run towards that 100 cm mark which would be close between them and the Speeders. 100.20 cm is good enough to pip the Speeders by 4 mm.

Hazers (Striker-Foggy; Skipper-Misty) Definitely a strong impact and a square one, since Foggy didn’t bounce off either of the walls. Sidespin rather than topspin might mean the slightest off-line, but Misty moved towards that meter mark, so it can’t be too bad. 100.50 cm which is definitely not-bad, 3 mm past the Bumblebees for 2nd.

Green Ducks (Striker-Mallard; Skipper-Quacky) That’s a little bit more of that true spin off the collision from Mallard, as she had some backspin coming off. And again, another marble made its way towards that meter mark. Just short though, it’s 99.60 cm

Balls of Chaos (Striker-Anarchy; Skipper-Tumult) Anarchy had a very nice launch, getting sprung back. Tumult on the other hand didn’t have the cleanest travel, as again, that oscillation meant that they’d lose distance. 92.50 cm

Midnight Wisps (Striker-Wospy; Skipper-Waspy) On the other hand, Waspy was right on line thanks to Wospy’s strike, sending him way back up the track with some topspin. Unlike most of the others in that main pack the Wisps clearly broke the meter mark, meaning they’d sit in 2nd. 104.50 cm

Raspberry Racers (Striker-Rizzy; Skipper-Rozzy) Rozzy got some air, showing the robust impact Rizzy imparted, and just like Waspy, clearly broke that 100 cm/1 meter barrier. 105.10 cm puts them into 2nd above the Wisps.

Crazy Cat’s Eyes (Striker-Green Eye; Skipper-Yellow Eye) Another run towards 105 cm, as the last few teams have kicked it into high gear. A little less air than Rozzy for Yellow Eye but still a similar distance up the track. 104.85 cm puts them into 3rd, ahead of the Wisps but behind the Racers and Team Galactic.

O’rangers (Striker-Clementin; Skipper-Tangerin) It wasn’t the cleanest run by Tangerin, getting some air, serpentining up the track. But Clementin must’ve put some juice on it considering the distance. 107.55 cm, taking the lead with just one team left.

Minty Maniacs (Striker-Minty Flav; Skipper-Minty Fresh) Another strong shot from the striker, and a bit cleaner, but it didn’t have the same kind of something. 102.40 cm is only good enough for 6th.

Your podium:
Gold: O’rangers (107.55 cm)
Silver: Team Galactic (106.55 cm)
Bronze: Raspberry Racers (105.10 cm)

It’s the O’rangers’ second gold medal, and fittingly for the team based on citrus, the $5,000 donation from Last Week Tonight was made in their name to Feeding South Florida. For Team Galactic, they have to feel better with some sort of medal, because it means they won’t have the all-time worst games as hosts. And that does mean something (sorry, Oceanics).

Rest of the results:
Crazy Cat’s Eyes; Midnight Wisps; Minty Maniacs; Hazers; Bumblebees; Savage Speeders; Green Ducks; Team Momo; Oceanics; Balls of Chaos; Thunderbolts; Hornets; Mellow Yellow

We’d normally withhold the full standings until after Event 5, but since Event 4 marks the quarter-pole, here’s what we got.

Standings after Event 4
1. O’rangers-76 pts (2G 1S)
2. Minty Maniacs-75 pts (2G 1B)
3. Crazy Cat’s Eyes-53 pts (1S)
4. Raspberry Racers-49 pts (1S 1B)
5. Midnight Wisps-43 pts (1B)
6. Team Galactic-34 pts (1S)
7. Hazers-32 pts
8. Bumblebees-31 pts
9. Balls of Chaos-29 pts (Hold position tiebreaker)
10. Green Ducks-29 pts
11. Savage Speeders-25 pts (1B) (Hold medal tiebreaker)
12. Team Momo-25 pts
13. Hornets-18 pts
14. Thunderbolts-15 pts
15. Oceanics-13 pts
16. Mellow Yellow-6 pts

Biggest risers: Team Galactic (+7)
Biggest fallers: Balls of Chaos & Green Ducks (-3)

Onto the next event, the long jump.

Event 5: Long Jump
One marble competes per team, traveling down a track ramped at the end. Those that jump farthest jump best.

Once again, we move in inverse order to the standings, so once again we start with Mellow Yellow. Well, after King Stardust’s 58 cm even. I was worried he wouldn’t get past the barrier Lego wall at 45 cm, so thank goodness for that. So now, Mellow Yellow.

Due to a new track setup, the records for this event have been reset.

Yelley (Mellow Yellow): A nice high launch off the ramp. Nobody’s going to have a super-high arc but definitely better than not getting height. 82.00 cm

Ocean (Oceanics): Also a very high launch. Can I admit that this is harder to commentate than other events? Anyway, it’s marked at the rear of the marble when it makes contact, so what looks like Ocean being somewhat near 85 isn’t entirely true thanks to camera that have more frames per second than our eyes. It’s actually 81.60 cm

Bolt (Thunderbolts): It seemed like a slightly lower launch, but how much is eyes playing tricks? In theory every marble should have the same launch angle since it’s the same ramp, in which case the importance is speed off the ramp. Yes, specifically speed because if you want to go into the physics of it we’re only measuring distance via one axis, so it’s the scalar measurement rather than the vector of velocity. That’s been my high school physics memories of the day. Anyway, it’s a similar distance for Bolt, 81.65 cm. I’m not sure how to measure the distance of half a millimeter, but that shows you how close it is.

Wasp (Hornets): I disagree with Greg Woods that it’s a flatter angle, if anything it looked like less speed coming off the ramp so it almost looks like a higher angle. Which means less distance, to the sound of 78.70 cm.

Mimo (Team Momo): Mimo had what seemed like a comparable launch to the first three, so it would be about landing position knowing that it would be millimeters. Most have been fairly straight so there’s not much yaw in the long jump. And it would be based on millimeters, 81.20 cm for Mimo. With the exception of Wasp, this first pack has all been in the 81-82 cm range.

Velocity (Savage Speeders): Greg Woods noted it was an interesting choice going with Velocity over the more well-known and more-accomplished members. As a note, this season Velocity is the 4th member with Whizzy the reserve, as opposed to vice-versa in 2018 and 19, but he does have an individual gold back from 2016. As for this event, Velocity got what looked like a pretty good takeoff and landed in the same region as the pack. With a score around the pack, 81.80 cm which at this point was good for a provisional 2nd.

Billy (Green Ducks): It looked like a lower, longer launch, which seemed promising. But Billy flew short of the pack of 81s, with only a score of 80.60 cm. Again, a centimeter would have made a world of difference, that’s how close it’s been.

Anarchy (Balls of Chaos): The launch looked consistent, and after seeing the replay it was confirmed, 82.60 cm, good enough for the lead through the first half of runs.

Bea (Bumblebees): Judging by the live shot it looked a bit short. Replays confirmed it, 79.85 cm, only good enough for not-last.

Hazy (Hazers): Due to the size of the marbles and how the long jump is scored, combined with how the sand flows, it almost looks like they’re jumping and hitting the 85 cm mark, like that’s where the indentation mark centers around. So with that, Hazy was around that pack. Unfortunately for the Hazers captain, closer to the back of it, as he scored 81.00 cm even.

Cosmo (Team Galactic): From one captain to another, Cosmo’s launch angle didn’t look too crazy, but judging by the live shot, it looked a little short of other marbles’ impact craters. It was in comparison to some of the other 81-82 cm range marbles, but not by too much. But with only jump a millimeter’s as good as a mile, 81.35 cm was good for current mid-pack, 6th out of the 11 marbles to have run.

Wispy (Midnight Wisps): A third consecutive captain, because I’m guessing they didn’t want Wospy flying long distances after the O’raceway incident which I’d say is a good call considering how dangerous that was, falling off a conveyor belt. Anyway, Wispy looked a little short, and a little pulled to the right. The replay showed it was maybe a little less to the right than originally expected but who knows how much that affected the distance? Any yaw kept him from medaling, or from joining the pack of 81s, even if just barely. 80.90 cm for the Wisps’ captain.

Rizzy (Raspberry Racers): Back to not all the captains. Rizzy looked decent off the launch but it didn’t look like the best flight, probably a little short from the live view and the first replay. The side view confirmed a rough run, or rough flight. 79.40 cm doesn’t get it done and probably will drop the Racers from 4th in the overall standings.

Blue Eye (Crazy Cat’s Eyes): We haven’t seen much of Blue Eye, as he went for his flight. The live launch looked okay, but the replay looked pretty good, definitely in that 81 range and maybe more. Maybe more indeed, as with a score of 83.30 cm the Crazy Cat’s Eyes took the lead! This guaranteed them a medal, as well, as the Minty Maniacs and O’rangers remained.

Minty Swirl (Minty Maniacs): The Maniacs missed the podium for the first time all games in the Newton’s cradle and hoped to get back on track. A nice jump by Minty Swirl looked pretty promising. It’s hard to give more than a ballpark, but the ballpark didn’t look half bad. 81.20 cm is lower half, 9th of 15, so that won’t be a podium in this event either.

Mandarin (O’rangers): It looked a tiny bit to the right and maybe a bit short of Blue Eye’s mark off the bat. A bit was right, as with a score of 80.80 cm it would not be enough, and would actually only by good enough for 12th.

Your podium:

Gold: Blue Eye, Crazy Cat’s Eyes (83.30 cm)
Silver: Anarchy, Balls of Chaos (82.60 cm)
Bronze: Yelley, Mellow Yellow (82.00 cm)

For the Crazy Cat’s Eyes, they had been just as consistent, if not a step behind, the O’rangers and Minty Maniacs, normally around 4th place, so finally getting a gold to break that duel is about time. Speaking of about time, Mellow Yellow finally gets off the mat, as the 15 points for bronze is 2 1/2 times their cumulative total from the first four events.

The Crazy Cat’s Eyes’ $5,000 donation was made to the Food Bank for New York City.

Rest of the results:
Savage Speeders; Thunderbolts; Oceanics; Team Galactic; Team Momo & Minty Maniacs (T-8); Hazers; Midnight Wisps; O’rangers; Green Ducks; Bumblebees; Raspberry Racers; Hornets

Some much-needed points for some bottom teams such as the Thunderbolts and Oceanics, while the O’rangers, Green Ducks, and Raspberry Racers slipped. Here are the full standings.

Full standings after Event 5 of 16
1. Minty Maniacs-83 pts (2G 1B)
2. O’rangers-80 pts (2G 1S)
3. Crazy Cat’s Eyes-78 pts (1G 1S)
4. Balls of Chaos-51 pts (1S)
5. Raspberry Racers-50 pts (1S 1B)
6. Midnight Wisps-48 pts (1B)
7. Team Galactic-43 pts (1S)
8. Hazers-38 pts
9. Savage Speeders-37 pts (1B)
10. Bumblebees-33 pts
11. Green Ducks-32 pts (hold position tiebreaker)
12. Team Momo-32 pts
13. Thunderbolts-26 pts
14. Oceanics-22 pts
15. Mellow Yellow-21 pts (1B)
16. Hornets-18 pts

Biggest risers: Balls of Chaos (+5)
Biggest fallers: Hornets (-3)

So far through five events it looks like a three-horse race, as five points separate the Minty Maniacs, O’rangers, and Crazy Cat’s Eyes, with a 27-point gap back to 4th. 27 points is already more than a gold medal difference away.

Event 6, the hurdles, will be Thursday the 16th, at 7 PM GMT (3 PM Eastern), followed by Event 7, block pushing, on Sunday the 19th at the same time. And the Rolldown will be back at its normal spot Tuesday afternoons. Unless I haven’t finished writing it, which is totally possible. But if I have, I’ll see you then.