Your Last Quizo Update

Well, folks, after just under four years and 180 games I have come to the end of the Quizo-hosting road.

I realized yesterday that I started this gig around the same time that Battlestar Galactica came on, so ending it the same time the show goes off is a nice sort of symmetry reminiscent of a classic Greek drama or, well, Battlestar Galactica.

(By the by, if you weren't deeply moved by the Galactica finale, I'm sorry, but you're doing it wrong.)

Four years ago I heard the Dark Horse was trying to start up a Quizo game. One Saturday morning I was there watching Chelsea and I said to James, one of the owners, "hey, I hear you're looking to have Quizo." I just wanted to know what night it was going to be.

James instantly responded, "do you wanna do it?"

I said, "yeah, sure" just as quickly.

That's how all this started. The entire exchange took less than a second.

I'll tell you what, back then I didn't think this thing would last four weeks, much four years. That first night I think we had five teams. Even though their house was robbed that day - seriously, the place got broken into, stuff was stolen, the police were called, the whole shebang - my parents came down to play. Their team name was "We Wuz Robbed." Some of the other players on my Quizo team from The Bard's, Stupid Sexy Flanders, also showed up. The other three teams were poor random saps sitting at the bar that I pressganged into playing. I certainly had no idea what I was doing. The entire game, all four rounds, took less than 45 minutes; I was so nervous I just blazed through the entire thing like I was The Flash. Those first couple weeks were pretty dire. We hovered in the two or three team range for weeks.

Then, after maybe a month, something just... happened. To this day I don't know what brought it on, but people just started showing up. Whole bunches of people. Suddenly we had regular teams: the Darg Whores, the De-SEPTA-Cons, and what is still my favorite team name of all time, Suck it Trebek. When Dr. Dan from Suck It Trebek (which would later morph into Das Boot) and Marty from the Darg Whores asked me if I could make up a special Lord of the Rings trivia round so they could determine which of them was a bigger Tolkein nerd - I am not making this up, this actually happened - and the De-SEPTA-Cons asked if they could play in it too, I knew we had something pretty cool going.

In four years of doing this I have witnessed an actual fistfight over shouted-out answers, quit smoking four times and restarted smoking three times, crowned two Quizo Tournament Champions, grumbled every Monday afternoon about "making the Quizo," and, most awesomely, seen three marriages between Quizo teammates. That last bit, especially, is just about the greatest freaking thing ever.

I hope to see most of you tonight (get there early!) because I am going to try and make my last Quizo one for the ages. If I don't see you, let me just say that it has been an absolute blast and I hope you had as much fun as I did.

Thanks for a great time, everyone. See you on the other side.

JLK