Daniel Bloom
| Daniel Bloom | |
| |
| Noted subjects | Linguistics, American History, "things he knows" |
| Current college | University of Edinburgh (2024—) |
| Stats | HDWhite • NAQT |
Daniel Bloom is a Linguistics student at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst born in New York City, he grew up in Golders Green, northwest London, once home to Ben Russell Jones. He started playing quizbowl for Edinburgh in his second year in 2024/25, and will represent it on University Challenge in the 2025/26 season.
Within quizbowl, Daniel is regarded as a “things he knows” player, giving him the ability to buzz on a small amount of nearly any category, rather than a large amount in any category. His favourite category is “Other”, and is known for his love of US political history and Jorge Luis Borges, as well as taking the National Express to and from tournaments.
Outwith quizbowl, Daniel appeared on the Channel 4 show Countdown, winning 3 episodes, and is a keen cryptocruciverbalist, co-founding Edinburgh University Puzzle Solving Society. He also visited every borough of London, and every city in Scotland, in one day (a different day for each).
Quizbowl career
Daniel’s first tournament was 2024 ACF Fall’s northern UK mirror, where he played with David Allen, Siddhant Kumar and Lucy Isabella. That team, Edinburgh A, would win the tournament, beating Durham B. The exact same team would play at British Novice later that semester, where Daniel achieved the fastest recorded buzz of the tournament (10 words in, on “verbs”). However, due to transport failings concerning 8 of the 11 Edinburgh players, the first game wasn't played as scheduled, rendering his earlier 8-word buzz on “linguistics” unrecorded.
With David, Ted Harrison and Lovel Hearn, Daniel played in the UK mirror of PLAYTIME!. That tournament involved Daniel leaving Edinburgh for Newcastle at 10pm, arriving at midnight, leaving Newcastle for York on a Transpennine Express bus at 2:30am, arriving at 5:30, in time for the first train to Doncaster and then Sheffield.
Daniel competed in the second WaShBowl tournament, with David, Harry Sexton and Cait Self, where he was the first buzz on “Lemmings”, a testament to the “things he knows” strategy.
At 2025 Spring Novice, Daniel played on Edinburgh D, with Kathryn Knispel, Lucy Isabella and Blake Danziger. Before the final, his 54 PPG made him the top scorer that tournament; after the exhibition final against York, played with Lovel and Ted, his PPG and Lovel’s were the same. That day marked the end of Daniel, Lovel and Ted’s novice careers.
He played VAULT on Edinburgh City with Kathryn, Pen Hughes and Alex Haggerty, and played MRNA IV on Edinburgh B with Lovel, Harry and Ted. At SOTON TRASH, he played with Pen, David and Ted on a team called “The Truth is a Lemon Meringue”.
After being unable to form a team comprising entirely Daniels, Daniel joined Warwick’s Danny Fisher, Evan McMullen and Lucas Johns at 2025 Penn Bowl (under “Alas poor Warwick, I knew him Edinburgh”) where he surprisingly got 2 powers. The team finished last.
Along with Harry, Lovel and Siddhant, Daniel formed Edinburgh B at 2025 ACF Winter, where the team finished in the top bracket.
Notable moments
- At 2024 ACF Fall, Daniel firstlined “whales” due to an entry in Susie Dent’s Word Perfect for the day before the tournament (which mentioned Mocha Island).
- Daniel's self-purported worst quizbowl moment of all time was negging Robert Nozick at PLAYTIME!
- At WaShBowl II, Daniel was the only member of his team to recognise “Low Taper Fades”.
- At MRNA IV, Daniel negged Hezbollah with “the IDF”; he was far from the only person to make that mistake.
- At 2025 Penn Bowl, Daniel answered the only hard part that team did that day, despite missing the medium.