Nick Plott

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Nick Plott
File:Tasteless BlizzCon 2014.jpg
Plott at BlizzCon 2014
Born (1984-08-11) August 11, 1984 (age 39)[1]
Residence Seoul, Korea[2]
Nationality American
Other names "Tasteless"
Occupation eSports commentator
Relatives Sean "Day[9]" Plott[3]

Nicholas "Nick" Plott (born August 11, 1984), known by his alias Tasteless, is an American StarCraft 2 eSports commentator. Together with Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, he provides commentary for GOMTV Global StarCraft II League games.

Early life

Plott grew up in Kansas City, Kansas.[2] Upon graduation from high school, Plott attended Regis University in Denver studying philosophy and psychology and was a member of the parliamentary debate team.[2][4] He considered law school and philosophy dual Ph.D. programs but instead pursued into StarCraft full-time.[2]

StarCraft career

Plott and his younger brother Sean bought a copy of StarCraft from a local video game store in 1998 after hearing about the game's popularity.[2] The brothers would watch each other play while offering gameplay advice.[2] They played casually online, but were hampered by a slow Internet connection.[2] The Plott brothers visited a nearby Internet café where they would meet players about five years older who would play and beat them.[2] This loss and the ensuing trash-talk were an early inspiration for the brothers to hone their skills, though they never returned to the café.[2]

With the advent of high-speed Internet, the brothers played StarCraft competitively on Korean servers.[2] They entered and won tournaments while in high school.[2] Plott became uninterested in school when it did not let him incorporate StarCraft into his studies.[2] He played the game through high school and college.[2]

Upon losing to his brother early in the World Cyber Games 2005 finals, Plott watched the rest of the games as a spectator.[2] He became frustrated by the tournament commentator's inexperienced handling of in-game nuances and requested to co-host the commentary, which was a success.[2] He received offers to commentate without pay in Europe, Japan, and Singapore.[2]

In Plott's last semester of college, Korean broadcasting company GOM TV invited Plott to provide English commentary for the recently announced StarCraft II as part of a strategy to extend their reach.[2] The offer was not given 100% guarantees of moving assistance, but offered Plott an opportunity to make a career of his StarCraft commentary and become the first Western StarCraft commentator, or caster,[5] in South Korea.[2] He dropped out of college and arrived in Seoul within a week.[2]

File:Artosis and Tasteless at 2011 South Korean StarCraft tournament (6012884181).jpg
Stemkoski and Plott at a 2011 South Korean StarCraft tournament

In Korea, Plott slept on friends' couches and worked as a caster where he could.[2] As StarCraft II's launch neared, Plott and another American commentator living in Seoul, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, had individually amassed significant followings, and had the interest of commercial broadcast networks.[2] The two began casting together and became known by a portmanteau of their nicknames, Tasteless and Artosis, as Tastosis.[2] Before this partnership, the two knew each other through their former competitive gaming careers, but became friends in Korea.[2] Polygon attributed their success to their "magic" dynamic from complementary personalities, with Plott bold and sociable, and Stemkoski encyclopedic and analytic.[2] In July 2013, Polygon reported Tastosis to be "the most well-known StarCraft 2 casting duo in the world", both broadcasting for GOMTV Global StarCraft II League.[2] PC Gamer's Rich McCormick cited the pair in 2011 as examples of how the electronics sports profession is developing celebrities.[6] The Verge's Paul Miller referred to Tastosis as "the primary practitioners of StarCraft casting".[7] A crowdfunded documentary about their careers, Sons of StarCraft, is scheduled to be released in early 2013.[8]

Plott and Stemkoski prepare separately, with Stemkoski constantly watching StarCraft matches and Plott studying commentary from non-traditional sports and major StarCraft news.[2] Together, they incorporate team histories and their respective strategies into their commentary.[2] Plott has said that he considers Tastosis's nuanced readings of player tactics and their eventualities as a "gateway" for bringing unfamiliar crowds into StarCraft.[2]

Plott cast alongside Stemkoski at the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series Europe finals,[9] Australian and Oceania finals,[10] and UK nationals,[11] DreamHack Winter 2011,[12] IGN Pro League Season Two,[13] and Major League Gaming 2012 Spring Arena,[14] Raleigh,[15][16] and 2011 Orlando.[17] Plott was among the first group to sign to the electronics sports agency eSports Management Group in 2012.[18]

In a StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Easter egg, two in-game characters are named after the casters.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 2.27 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://www.novicenats.org/results/2007-novice-nationals/
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

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