It had not long since ended before the talk began…was this the greatest Quizzo Bowl ever? It had some pretty good competition: Quizzo Bowl IV, at the Blue Horizon, was a classic, as was Quizzo Bowl at the Golden Palace. And last year’s steel drum band pretty much blew everyone’s mind with, among other brilliant covers, a mind-blowing rendition of War Pigs.

But there was no question about one thing: this was the weirdest Quizzo Bowl ever, helped in large part by a hair metal band that certainly didn’t just play glam metal…they lived it. Whether it was Welcome to My Face lead singer Casey pleading with the World Cafe staff for more beers in the back (“At employee discount prices, if possible”) or trying to make the moves on my mom. (“How Do I Get You Alone?“), this one had a bit of it all. It also featured a “Live Round”, in which Fastball Bob acted out famous movie scenes and Earle and Brenda Goodtimes made an appearance, and a little WHAM in the opening number (“Wake Me Up Before You Quizzo“).

Quizzo Bowl IX also had a crew of ringers, brought together by our enemies at Geeks Who Drink. Furious that a Philly team had come in and taken their crown the year before, they decided to field a Dream Team. It included 6 former Tournament of Champions contestants, one of whom was Roger Craig, who caused quite a stir when he “beat the game” on Jeopardy a little over a year ago, winning $77,000 in a single episode (a Jeopardy record). Those 6 contestants had won a combined $1.2 million during their time on Jeopardy. This was a Murderer’s Row.

Of course, the Geeks Who Drink crowd had talked a big game before and finished way back in the pack, so I didn’t take them too seriously. Furthermore, I had my sites set on a local squad: Sofa Kingdom (below), who I desperately wanted to lose. The bottom line is this: we needed new blood. We had only had two winners in the past 6 Quizzo Bowls (Lambda and SK) and I really wanted both of them to lose. And so there was not a lot of history and geography (which they have mastered) and there was a fair amount of opera and cocktails (which they struggle at). That said, the quiz wasn’t entirely aimed at stopping them…I knew they would ace the Oscars round and did it anyway, because I liked the idea of doing a live round and the Oscars were the next night.

The 3rd Round (the music round) turned out to be a doozy, with 5 musicals included in it instead of our normal rock music audio rounds. Things got even tougher in the 4th round, the video round, in which no team got more than 7 questions correct.

At the end of 4 rounds, the Sofa Kingdom was still in the hunt, and the Super Team (Who won best Team Name of the Night with “I Used to F*** Guys Like You in Prison”…which won them a Road House poster I just happened to bring as a prize) was in 2nd. In first? The Sidecardigans. The Sidecar staff had teamed up with a few free agents to form a very well rounded team, and they led going into Round Five, which turned out to be easier than the Video Round. The Jeopardy ringers scored a perfect 55, the Sidecardigans scored 50, and the …Guys in Prison held on for a 146-142 victory. Sofa Kingdom finished 4th, behind the Yahoo Serious Fun Club. Smell the Glove finished 5th, and the Specific Jawns finished an impressive 6th. In 8th was Lambda. (You can see all of the Final scores here.)

But the action on the field was not as wild as the action off it, as the event ended with an impromptu jam of “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake (No, it was not planned or practiced. Casey essentially demanded that we all come up on stage and that’s pretty much the only hair metal song I know all the words to). That grand denouement included 300 nerds from across the country waving candles in the air and singing along, and ended with my dad telling everyone to love each other. And led to the inevitable question: how in the hell are we gonna top this at Quizzo Bowl X?

RELATED: If you haven’t seen the Quizzo Bowl pictures yet, be sure to check them out. They’re pretty terrific.