DEEP · the Trench · Deep Blue

TEAL

The Technician

Takes the inside line on every choke. It works about half the time.

The shard

A Trench shard from the narrow part, where the walls come in and the only way through is the middle. Teal learned the middle so thoroughly that it now takes it whether or not the middle is a good idea.

It is the shortest way through. That it is also the busiest is not my problem.
TEAL

How Teal races

Every funnel, sieve and chicane on the descent, Teal goes for the centreline — the geometrically shortest route through the choke, arrived at with real precision. The centreline is also where every other marble is being funnelled. Teal is either first out of the throat or buried in it, and the two outcomes are about equally likely.

The signature

The Inside Line

A hard commit to the centre on the approach to any choke, held through the throat.

What it costs

The centreline is where the jam is. Teal's precision delivers it, reliably and at speed, into the exact spot the entire field is being compressed into.

The tell

Goggles, and a face that snaps to determination the moment a choke comes into view — three quarters of a second of visible intent before anything happens.

Feeds on

funnelchicane

Comes apart in

sieve

The voice

Hear Teal

Three clipped "tik-ki-TEK" chirps, like an instrument confirming something. Precise, and finished immediately.

In the race mix — E4, 330 Hz, The signal

Two clipped notes on the approach to a choke, like a flag. Then silence for the rest of the section.

The record

—Championship

0Points

1Starts

0Wins

0Podiums

6thBest

6.0Average

6thLast out

R03 6th of 6 last-gasp steal

In the stands

Watched by the sort of viewer who pauses to argue about racing lines — a smaller stand than Coral's, and a louder one.

Rivalries

TEAL

The Narrowest and the Widest

Deep Blue teammates with exactly opposite instincts.

Not yet met on a grid

AZURE

Teal takes the centreline through every choke on the descent — the shortest way and the busiest. Azure takes whichever wall is nearer — the longest way and the emptiest. They are the same decision made twice with the sign flipped, on the same team, in the same colours.

In a heavy field Azure is right. In a clean one Teal is right. Neither has ever conceded this.