Jordan Brownstein was a member of the Class of 2017 at the University of Maryland. During his undergraduate career, he was widely recognized as the best active player in quizbowl, and, after leading the field in scoring en route to winning the 2016 Chicago Open and 2017 ACF Nationals, as one of the greatest college quizbowl players of all time.
As early as his freshman year, Jordan was notable for his extremely deep specialty areas in literature and history (despite being a computer science major) and for coming out of relative nowhere—namely Plymouth, New Hampshire, where his only good quizbowl exposure was one or two History Bowl events—to establish himself nearly immediately as an elite collegiate player. After a year playing alongside (and sometimes outscoring) Chris Ray, Jordan became lead scorer of the Maryland team that finished 4th at ICT and 3rd at ACF Nationals in 2015. He was the lead scorer on the 2nd-place team at the 2015 Chicago Open, and high scorer overall at the main event, literature side event, and history side event.
Prior to teaming up at Chicago Open 2014, Mike Cheyne gave Jordan the nickname "The Viper", a reference to a particularly sadistic WWE wrestler. The name has stuck. Noted misanthrope Tommy Casalaspi has referred to Jordan as "the nicest person in quizbowl."
Jordan has also been recognized for his prolific and high-quality question-writing, including for the 2014 NASAT, 2016's MYSTERIUM, 2016 PACE NSC, 2016 Terrapin, the 2018 ACF Nationals, 2018 Chicago Open, and the Jordaens Visual Arts side event.
Tournaments played
- 2017 ACF Nationals - 1st place
- 2015 ACF Nationals - 3rd place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Dan Puma)
- 2015 MUT at VCU - 2nd place (solo)
- 2015 ICT - 4th place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Dan Puma)
- 2015 SCT at Virginia - 1st place (with Brian McPeak and Stephen Meyer)
- 2015 ACF Regionals at Virginia - 1st place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Dan Puma)
- 2014 DEES at Maryland - 3rd place (with Chris Manners, Dan Puma, and Sohan Vartak)
- 2014 Penn Bowl - 2nd place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Dan Puma)
- 2014 PADAWAN at VCU - 1st place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Dan Puma)
- 2014 Chicago Open History - 4th place (with Matt Jackson)
- 2014 Chicago Open - 4th place (with Mike Cheyne, Aaron Rosenberg, and Sinan Ulusoy)
- 2014 ACF Nationals - 7th place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Chris Ray)
- 2014 College History Bowl - 5th place (with Isaac Hirsch, Chris Manners, Dan Puma, and Chris Ray)
- 2014 ICT - 5th place (with Brian McPeak, Dan Puma, and Chris Ray)
- 2014 Cane Ridge Revival at Penn - 4th place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Chris Ray)
- 2014 ACF Regionals at VCU - 1st place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Chris Ray)
- 2014 SCT at Maryland - 2nd place (with Chris Manners, Brian McPeak, and Chris Ray)
- 2013 Arrabal - 3rd place (with Arun Chonai, Chris Manners, and Brian McPeak)
- 2013 DRAGOON at Virginia Tech - 2nd place (with Arun Chonai, Brian McPeak, and Chris Ray)
- 2013 Delta Burke at Maryland - 1st place (with Isaac Hirsch, Chris Manners, and Dan Puma)
- 2013 ACF Fall at Virginia - 1st place (with Brian McPeak, Stephen Meyer, and Gary Weiser)
- 2013 Penn Bowl - 3rd place (with Isaac Hirsch, Ophir Lifshitz, and Sohan Vartak)
- 2013 Michigan Fall at VCU - 3rd place (with Isaac Hirsch, Dan Puma, and Sohan Vartak)
