Captivating, calming competition: it's the 2018 Winter MarbleLympics!

October 27, 2018 10:41 AM

The Jelle'sMarbleRuns wiki is home to all things Jelle'sMarbleRuns. Here you will find information about the Sand Marble Rally, Hubelino Tournament, and most notably, the MarbleLympics. Jelle Bakker, the Marble Master, isn't new around these parts (Big Marble Run Machine: 11 000 Marbles!!! | Longest sand marble run ever | Sand Marble Rally - 33 competitors! | Betting on Balls of Chaos) but if you haven't seen his 2018 Winter MarbleLympics, take some time to enjoy the well-produced Olympics-style games, featuring unique teams and a calming commentator throughout. The Wikia page for the 2018 Winter games makes it feel all the more official, complete with International Marblelympic Committee.
posted by filthy light thief (15 comments total)

If you wanted to know a bit more about the marble master, here's a short article on Jelle Bakker.

And if you wanted a spookier marble run, here's 🎃Halloween Marble Race 2018 🎃

There are two more forthcoming races as part of Marble Mayhem 2, including a Halloween Special on Oct. 31, 2018.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:48 AM on October 27, 2018

The videos have such a unique and powerful combination of cute, cozy, and campy. Perfect for lazy weekend procrastination.
posted by lilies.lilies at 1:24 PM on October 27, 2018

I first found out about this channel through metafilter. Jelle’s marble races are the greatest things—they’re so fun to put on at parties and watch kids, parents, and grandparents get super into which marble will win! Truly the best of the web.
posted by sleeping bear at 2:23 PM on October 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

The ultimate in crouton petting.
posted by tofu_crouton at 3:45 PM on October 27, 2018 [7 favorites]

I had an Olympics party (really just making popcorn and having people over to watch the Olympics in my living room a few times) and my friend interrupted regular Olympics programming and all the nonsense filler with the MarbleLympics. We got into it. No one was mad.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2018 [5 favorites]

I'm barely past the qualifiers and I already have a favourite AND least favourite team. This is ridiculous.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 4:41 PM on October 27, 2018 [3 favorites]

I feel sorry for the marbles that have particularly bad luck.
posted by The otter lady at 5:43 PM on October 27, 2018 [5 favorites]

Raspberry Racers for life!
posted by Braeburn at 7:24 PM on October 27, 2018

YESSSSS THE MARBLES ARE BAAAACK
posted by cortex at 7:37 PM on October 27, 2018

Love this
posted by bq at 11:52 PM on October 27, 2018

Turns out that despite lacking interest in many actual sporting events, I will happily sit and watch marbles compete at almost anything.

The physical and narrative work taken to put this all together has to be extraordinary, but I especially love the reaction shots of...groups of marbles, just sitting there.
posted by eponym at 7:30 AM on October 28, 2018 [6 favorites]

The 11,000-marble run was both captivating and soothing. It helped me finally fall asleep after a couple hours of insomnia. Thank you!
posted by the_blizz at 7:59 AM on October 28, 2018

Midnight Wisps Rule! Savage Speeders Drool!
posted by jacquilynne at 10:15 AM on October 28, 2018

My kids, ages 7 and 11, adore the MarbleLympics and invariably are jumping up and down cheering their favorites on when watching. (And I kinda like them a lot, too.)
posted by papercake at 7:29 AM on October 29, 2018

A quick note for anyone reading this thread now: Jelle's YouTube channel got deleted by mistake, so all the video links above no longer work as of now (unless, in the future, the channel is miraculously undeleted!). Jelle's set up a new channel here and is in the process of uploading all the old videos again.
posted by chrominance at 1:16 AM on November 25, 2018 [2 favorites]