People of Belmont, it’s the end of an era: Out with the Beige Food, and in with the No Mouth Monkeys. Beige Food, the two-time reigning champ took a bit of more than they could chew at this week’s Meat-themed quiz at the Belmont Inn’s weekly Thursday Throwdown, and the end result was relinquishing their title to the rag-tag band of Monkeys who they just narrowly defeated last season. Gracious in their defeat, Beige Food handed over the Belmont Steak Trophy to the Monkeys after 13 weeks of ferocious quizzing, and now it’s on two the next season, where the Monkeys must defend their title against a growing mass of title-hungry Pub Quiz squads.

But the Monkeys didn’t just back-into this thing. In fact, they DOMINATED. In the last 13 weeks, they rattled off FIVE first place finishes — even bagging four in a row at one point! Of those 13 weeks, they made the Challenge Round 10 times as well. Consistent quality, people, that’s what it takes to be a champ.

But like I said, there’s a lot of teams already gunning for the Monkeys. Team C Average came in fourth place and didn’t even start playing until Week 5! The Wildcatters missed three weeks as well, and Can You Smell the Stank said they are going to start taking Ritalin and Speed for next season. It’s going to be INTENSE, people.

DO YOU WANT TO GET IN ON THE ACTION!? It’s easy. All you have to do is come to The Belmont Inn each Thursday and use the same team name (or some obvious version of it), and I keep track of the rest.

Points work like this: You get 1 point for showing up, 2 for making it into the Challenge Round, 3 for leaving with money, and 4 if you win first place on the night. It’s a great way to add a little spice into your regular quizzing routine as well as make some friends (or frenemies) with your fellow Pub Quiz teams.

The winning team gets their table reserved for an ENTIRE SEASON (that’s according to the calendar, people), has their team name engraved on the Belmont Steak Trophy, and is given given oodles of gift certificates and t-shirts. Heck, I even gave out gift certificates to the first and second runners up this season, because dammit, I care.

So come on down starting next week. And if you were wondering what those returning champs look like — hey, hey, here’s the Monkeys:

Alright, like the credits at the end of the movie, here’s the final standings, with EACH of the 72 teams who played listed. Thank you all for coming out and making this such a fun, weekly event. I hope to see you all again next season — WHICH STARTS NEXT WEEK!

1 No Mouth Monkeys 36
2 Beige Food 32
3 Tom Peterson and Glorias Too… 25
4 C Average 22
5 Wildcatters 18
6 Can You Smell the Stank? 16
7 Soylent Green 12
8 Fuck You Mr. Bitey 6
9 Last Minute Douchebag Convention 5
10 YMBP 5
11 Kim and the Jong Ills 5
12 Silver Snakes 4
13 Buck the Fonus 4
14 Toga Toga Toga! 4
15 Heartbreaking Works of Staggering Genius 4
16 Unfortunate Looking Women 3
17 Marshall Mudbutt #1 3
18 Shake Your Bacon Maker 3
19 Pretty Not Smart 2
20 Their First Album was Better 2
21 Wasabi 2
22 P-A-R-T-Why Not 2
23 Cross Bronx Expressway 2
24 Team Wolverine 2
25 Pop Tart Assasins 2
26 Sloppy Shro 2
27 Scienticians 2
28 Halal in the Family 1
29 Shanigans 1
30 Schadenfreude 1
31 The Obama Youth 1
32 Yellow Number 5 1
33 Balls Deep 1
34 The ORIGINAL NMM 1
35 Bazawa True Story 1
36 The Mauraders 1
37 Desert Rose 1
38 Whistful and Pensive 1
39 The Pit Bosses 1
40 Capitol Hill Ninjas 1
41 Sunny Daze 1
42 Shit Bird 1
43 Welcome to the Gun Show 1
44 Mouther Puckers 1
45 Hand Warmers 1
46 Purple Smurfs 1
47 Tigers 1
48 Dammit I Told You! 1
49 Not on a Date 1
50 Ass Penny Advantage 1
51 The Bushwackers 1
52 Crss Bronx Expressway 1
53 The Finer Things Club 1
54 Key Caulker Reunion Tour 1
55 The Greivus Angel 1
56 Bob Zombie 1
57 Kens’s Crew 1
58 Cock Blocking Tails 1
59 Sin Nombre 1
60 The Thirsty Lions 1
61 New Quiz on the Block 1
62 Oregon Coast 1
63 Chicago Diner 1
64 Hollywood Homies 1
65 Bishop and Queens 1
66 Biggest Losers 1
67 Murder Planz 1
68 The Squirrels 1
69 503 Killas 1
70 Shamrocks and Potatoes 1
71 Poor Grad Students 1
72 Borrowed Wood 1