Last night at just a little past midnight the 86^th academy awards came to a conclusion. The night was filled with tons of celebrities, lots of honorees, and plenty of laughs, but one thing that seemed to be missing was the element of surprise.

The night kicked off when actor and “30 Seconds to Mars” lead singer Jared Leto took home the award for best supporting actor. His speech was an emotional one, with a tribute to both his mother, and those around the world suffering hardships, specifically in the Ukraine and Venezuela.

While the speech was exceptional, the winner was anything but surprising, a trend that continued throughout the night.

12 years a slave ultimately took home the award for best picture, clinching a win many suspected. Following suit Lupita Nyong’o won best supporting actress, “Frozen” won best animated picture, Alfonso Caurón won best director, and Cate Blanchett won best actress. All front runners in their category, and all recipients that could have easily been picked weeks before the awards.

Even the win by Matthew McConaughey was anything but surprising. As much as the Internet and myself wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to pull an upset, there was virtually no chance of it. Sigh. Leo goes home empty handed yet again.

It seemed that the most exciting parts of the night turned out to be the ones that had nothing to do with the actual awards. Highlights included Host Ellen DeGeneres getting three pizzas to share with the entire poll of nominees and subsequently asking them all to help pay for it. As well as that, Ellen and Meryl Streep managed to break a world record by posting the most re-tweeted tweet in history (a tweet which as of writing this garnered over 2.6 million re-tweets.)

On a similarly hilarious note, manny-a-Oscar night has led to a foible or two in the past, but while usual mess-ups come big and embarrassing, most people involved this year were spared. Besides a few slip-ups from a select group of presenters, the only truly embarrassing moment of the night came from John Travolta who called Idina Menzel something like, “I-dizzy Mainez” before she went on to perform her now Oscar winning song, “Let it Go.”

Overall I can’t complain about the outcome of the Oscars. I managed to get 18 of the 24 categories correct, an okay score I suppose. The festivities were fun, and Ellen did a fantastic job hosting. I’d consider it one of the more successful Oscars of the past few years.