You can live on marble races. Yes, you can live on marble races. And since the coronavirus pandemic suspended professional sports around the world, from the League to the NBA, from rugby to cricket, one can live quite well from marble racing.

This story is the story of Jelle Bakker , the author of the miracle, for his passion first and his dedication later. The story of a hobby elevated to profession by insistence, by pure insistence. Because when Baker, a 36-year-old Dutchman, started creating circuits for his marbles to compete, nobody in his environment thought it would be a job. Who could imagine it? Long-term unemployed and on the verge of autism disorder, racing was entertainment before 2006, when he opened his blog on the matter, after when he broke some related Guinness records - the longest circuit in the world, for example - and still in 2013 when he started broadcasting on YouTube.

Until 2016 there was no sign of what would end up happening. But that year, in February, one of his careers ended on Reddit as narrated by Greg Woods , an Iowa-based Alzheimer's researcher, and he started counting visits, and more visits, and more visits. And Bakker started receiving emails, and more emails, and more emails. In the summer of that same year, with several of the fans who had written to him, he created the Jelle's Marble Runs and a series of competitions such as the Marble League or the current Marbula One and the growth suddenly became unstoppable.

Today his careers have up to 11 million visits on YouTube and he collaborates with entities such as Formula E, which sponsors one of his tournaments. "We have received more attention to the channel during the pandemic, we admit it reluctantly because we do not want to think that we are prospering because of this. On March 15 one of our careers went viral on Twitter reaching 30 million views. It was retweeted by the musician Pete Wentz , from Fall Out Boy, by ex-footballer Gary Lineker , by Jabrill Peppers , player of the New York Giants, and in Spain by eSports commentator Ibai Llanos . Subscriber and visitor numbers shot up, "acknowledges EL WORLD Alejandro Tejada , Colombian member of the Jelle's Marble Runs Committee, the group that organizes races around the world.

Teamwork

Because although Jelle Bakker is still the boss, he is no longer alone. All the races recorded and broadcast on YouTube require remarkable coordination. Bakker creates the circuits, each time longer, more and more spectacular -there are stands, there are jumps, there are different surfaces, there are ramps that the marbles ascend with a kind of escalator ...- and the rest of the group helps in the editing : they generate the map of the track, they make graphics with the changes of position and the times or they mount audios with the chants of the fans. The production of each video takes about three or four days before sending it to Greg Woods so that, as he does since that race in 2016, he narrates the test. Then it is published and the magic happens.

About 10 minutes of marble races for all those sports fans who have been orphaned during these months. Those who want can follow the same team of the 16 created and cheer them on throughout the Morbula One season, which currently consists of eight Grand Prixes. Each Grand Prix also has a qualifying session - the marbles start in 2x8 formation - before the race.

"I remember the first time I saw a test was in June last year, a Marble League event, and it was practically love at first sight. I was used to alternative sports like eSports already, so I guess it was easy to be absorbed in this world. I like it because there is no drama here. The world that Jelle has created is very healthy. Any person, be it an adult or a child, can easily join and enjoy to the maximum from the first moment, "says Tejada, thinking of the next race.

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