How Two Starcraft Commentators Became Stars

Dan Stemkoski and Nick Plott patiently wait at the side of the stage, suit jackets buttoned up, eyes calmly scanning the darkened room. When they get their cue — a voice shouting, "GO!" into their earpieces, the cameraman making windshield-wiper arms — they'll climb the steps to greet a live audience of hundreds and broadcast to an audience of potentially millions.

Soaked with blue and purple lights, with music thumping and an audience watching their every movement, the two are cucumber cool. They've done this thousands of times before. On cue, they'll get up on stage, knowing exactly where to stand, aware of the location of every camera and every screen. They'll know what to say, teasing their audience with a taste of the nerdy and irreverent banter that's about to come. There will be no awkwardness, no sweaty palms, no hint of nervousness. They'll slide behind a desk between two soundproof pods — futuristic glass and metal cubicles each containing a PC where professional StarCraft 2 players can compete without noise or visual distractions. "Tastosis," as Plott and Stemkoski are called when they work together — the former's nickname being "Tasteless" and the latter's being "Artosis" — will don their headsets and microphones, flash the crowd a pair of cheeky smiles and launch into a dazzling performance.
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"It's actually really funny. I was brought up in southern New Hampshire, which is a place that's basically just Caucasian people. It's the whitest state in the whole country and as ridiculously funny as this is, there was one Korean family in town and I was best friends with that kid and he introduced me to StarCraft," Stemkoski says. "I was over at his house with another friend and he said, 'Look at this awesome new game!' and I just sat there and watched him and my friend play."
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Southwest of New Hampshire in Kansas City, Kan., a 13-year-old Nick "Tasteless" Plott and his younger brother Sean (who has also since gone on to make a name for himself as a successful StarCraft 2 broadcaster, Day9) walked into their local game shop, pocket money in hand. Everyone was talking about a new game called StarCraft. It was a real-time strategy about aliens and marines and spaceships and, to the two brothers in 1998, it looked amazing.

The brothers bought a copy of the game. They took turns playing, one watching over the other's shoulder, shouting commands and telling the other person how they were doing everything wrong. Their internet was slow, and matches were fun but not as competitive as they could have been. Wanting a challenge unhindered by their dial-up connection, the brothers went to a LAN cafe to play.
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Dustin Browder is the game director of StarCraft 2 at Blizzard. He watches Tastosis every morning and says they are some of his favorite casters.

"I think they have such great knowledge of the game," he says. "They're really good at building up the drama that goes on in the game, they understand the stakes in any given battle; they understand the stakes in any given moment."