Nicolas Plott, known by his alias Tasteless, is an American eSports commentator. He has provided commentary for multiple Starcraft and Starcraft 2 tournaments. Together with Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, he currently provides commentary for Global StarCraft II League and AfreecaTV StarLeague games.
Early life
Plott grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. Upon graduation from high school, he attended Regis University in Denver studying philosophy and psychology, and was a member of the parliamentary debate team. He considered law school and philosophy dual Ph.D. programs but instead pursued StarCraft full-time.
''StarCraft'' career
Player
Plott and his younger brotherSean bought a copy of StarCraft from a local video game store in 1998 after hearing about the game's popularity. The brothers would watch each other play while offering gameplay advice. They played casually online, but were hampered by a slow Internet connection. They visited a nearby Internet café where they met players about five years older who would play and beat them. 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. With the advent of high-speed Internet, the brothers played StarCraft competitively on Korean servers. They entered and won tournaments while in high school. Plott became uninterested in school when it did not let him incorporate StarCraft into his studies. He played the game through high school and college.
Commentator
Upon losing to his brother early in the World Cyber Games 2005 finals, Plott watched the rest of the games as a spectator. 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. He received offers to commentate without pay in Europe, Japan, and Singapore. In Plott's last semester of college, Korean broadcasting company GOM TV invited him to provide English commentary for the recently announced StarCraft II as part of a strategy to extend their reach. This did not guarantee a career or easy move, but offered Plott an opportunity to make a career of his StarCraft commentary and become the first Western StarCraft commentator, or caster, in South Korea. He dropped out of college and arrived in Seoul within a week. In Korea, Plott slept on friends' couches and worked as a caster where he could. As StarCraft IIs 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. The two began casting together and became known by a portmanteau of their nicknames, Tasteless and Artosis, as Tastosis. Before this partnership, the two knew each other through their former competitive gaming careers, but became friends in Korea. Polygon attributed their success to their "magic" dynamic from complementary personalities, with Plott bold and sociable, and Stemkoski encyclopedic and analytic. 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. PC Gamers Rich McCormick cited the pair in 2011 as examples of how the electronics sports profession is developing celebrities. The Verges Paul Miller referred to Tastosis as "the primary practitioners of StarCraft casting". A crowdfunded documentary about their careers, Sons of StarCraft, was released in 2014. Plott and Stemkoski prepare separately, with Stemkoski constantly watching StarCraft matches and Plott studying commentary from non-traditional sports and major StarCraft news. Together, they incorporate team histories and their respective strategies into their commentary. Plott has said that he considers Tastosis' nuanced readings of player tactics and their eventualities as a "gateway" for bringing unfamiliar crowds into StarCraft. Plott cast alongside Stemkoski at the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series Europe finals, Australian and Oceania finals, and UK nationals, DreamHack Winter 2011, IGN Pro LeagueSeason Two, and Major League Gaming 2012 Spring Arena, Raleigh, and 2011 Orlando. Plott was among the first group to sign to the electronics sports agency eSports Management Group in 2012. In a Easter egg, two in-game characters are named after the casters. In an interview with the Korea Times, Plott stated: "Since I was a little kid, I always wanted to come to Korea because this is the place where the StarCraft tournaments were started."
