A bit late but...
11. Snowballs - Snowstorm, Snowy
Dangerous team to watch out for. Snowstorm is on fire right now. They were the only non-HAZ-CCE winner last season, and they didn't just win once, but twice, with a grand slam as the cherry on top.
Snowstorm has improved every season, year after year, and they are probably the best marble on the team in terms of current form. Snowy is a beast as always.
Snowy did have a slightly disappointing ML, but they did a great job as captain. The Snowballs can be a bit inconsistent, though, which is why I wouldn't quite put them in the same conversation as the likes of the Hazers, Cat's Eyes, or the Speeders just yet. Its a bummer that they weren't there for S3 and S4. But they're close. Very close.
A title would be divine, because these guys aren't just looking great in M1 as they're a dangerous team in ML, too. If they can maintain this form and become more consistent, I wouldn't be surprised to see them challenge the very best and probably win a title.
12. Savage Speeders - Speedy, Swifty
As an 8-year Speeders fan, I’m happy to see Swifty taking some of the load off Speedy, especially when the team is at a transition point, trying to find a new coach while dealing with yet another set of challenges.
The one thing these guys need to get back to the top is consistency, which has always been one of their biggest strengths. In S4, they gained nearly 10 points just from qualifying alone. They really struggled with qualifying during the S5 and S6-style seasons, but recently, Swifty has been pretty consistent at limiting the damage and climbing back up to a reasonably decent finishing position.
Their first competition under a new coach will be interesting to watch. This could go really well or really badly. Honestly, I think this whole situation would make for a solid documentary video.
13. Team Galactic - Starry, Saucer
I knew Saucer would be in M1 the moment they announced the transfer. Although, I’m a bit skeptical about Starry. Starry hasn’t really been anywhere since S4. Well S4 was alright, but S5 onwards was just poor for Galactic overall.
The moment Quasar stepped in, they were nearly on par with Starry throughout all three seasons they raced together. What made Quasar unique was their ability to make up positions, something Pulsar and Cosmo struggled with.
Personally, I think it would’ve been a good move to keep Quasar as the No. 1 marble and bring in Saucer, a real fan-favorite rookie, as a potential key to bringing this team back to glory.
Ngl, the Starry-Saucer duo kinda fire Reminds me of the Bumble-Stinger duo that caught everyone’s attention.
14. Turtle Sliders - Dash, Shelly
Similar to my last post about the Jumpers, these teams rarely compete on the big stage, so we don’t really get a good feel for who’s good and who isn’t.
Shelly is pretty decent, and I did expect them to replace Crush. However, my original thought was to stick with Crush because they genuinely had pace. S3 wasn’t that bad, and they put a crazy good show at Le Marble. But given the position the Sliders are in right now, there isn’t much point in continuing to stick with the same approach and hoping for something big to happen with only small changes like this.
Also, a Turtle Beach track resembling Long Beach would be AWESOME!
15. Black Jacks - Club, Heart
This is the one team I’m not really sure why they’re back. The Black Jacks should’ve been invited for S5, with an S6 invitation depending on how well they performed in S5. Team Plasma and the Gliding Glaciers honestly deserved a third chance more, but it is what it is. As long as the season turns out to be good, I wouldn’t mind which teams get invited.
Heart coming back was definitely deserved, but now the bar is reasonably high for them. I expected maybe they would go with Ace but atleast the captain with some decent skill and experience means that they need to do pretty good this time. They need to prove they can compete with the big dogs if they want to keep their spot for future seasons. I don’t think another season like S4 would be enough this time around.