Nick Plott
Nicolas Plott (born August 11, 1984), known by his alias Tasteless, is an American esports commentator. He moved to Seoul, Korea in 2007 to give commentary to e-sports competitions. 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, along with his brother Sean Plott, who is also an e-sports commentator. 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. Section::::"StarCraft" career. Player. 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. 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 competitive "" series as part of a strategy to extend their reach. 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. 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 in 2007. Plott provided commentary for the "Star Invitational", with around 75,000 viewers for the finals, and 3 seasons of the "Averatec-Intel Classic". Plot was joined by Susie 'lilsusie' Kim as co-caster for one season of the "Avertec-Intel Classic". Plott first met Susie 'lilsusie' Kim at BlizzCon in 2005.As "StarCraft II"s launch neared, Plott and another American commentator living in Seoul, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, had individually amassed 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. 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". Due to the age range of their audience being 15–32, they try to incorporate humor as well. 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 League Season 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 2016, AfreecaTV brought back "Starcraft: Broodwar" competition with the AfreecaTV Starleague. Both Plott and Stemkoski were English commentators. In 2017, Plott as well as his brother and Stemkoski hosted an event marking the release of . 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."