John Bain

John Bain, more commonly known by his username TotalBiscuit (Born July 8, 1984) is a British YouTube commentator on gaming and the games industry, a professional Starcraft II and Planetside 2 commentator and is part of the Polaris Network.

History

John began broadcasting when he was just 13 years old and was a founding member and beta-tester for Live365 , John went on to run his University’s radio station and host a prime-time extreme metal show after which he took his talents to the realm of talk radio, hosting the groundbreaking World of Warcraft show “Blue Plz”, which is still the most popular solo-hosted WoW show on the internet. After 5 years at WoW Radio, 4 of which in the role of managing director, John decided to take his rigorous standards, work ethic and extensive experience and apply them to a new site. Thus “The Cynical Brit ” was born.

In-Yogiverse

TotalBiscuit has taken part in a series of Magicka with Lewis and Simon . This mainly consisted of them frequently dying, often due to Simon casting rain (so the lighting spreads to everyone) or healing the enemy or by Simon using the legendary spell for the ARSE Mines (both accidentally and on purpose).
In the Minecraft series, TB has made a cameo appearance and has had his own reference. His grave can be found in the Mistral City graveyard, saying "He was here once, we swear", jokingly poking at the fact that he refuses to make Minecraft videos.

He was also added in as a NPC during Granny Bacon's Funeral and he appeared at the server livestream event in mid-2011.
TotalBiscuit joined Simon, Lewis and Duncan (known then as Lalna) on their videos through the Cataclysm version of the Deadmines dungeon in World of Warcraft.
TotalBiscuit hosted the 6th TGS podcast episode along with Jesse Cox and Dodger when Simon was the guest of said episode.
He was a host the the 24th episode of the TGS podcast along with TotalBiscuit and Jesse Cox when Martyn was the guest of said episode (although Martyn was not a member of the Yogscast at that point).
TotalBiscuit also hosted the 11th episode of the Co-Optional Podcast along with Jesse Cox and Dodger when Sips was the guest of said episode.
TotalBiscuit also hosted the 22nd episode of the Co-Optional Podcast along with Jesse Cox and Dodger when Strippin was the guest of said episode.

Quotes

"I'm the freaking archmage the entire universe!"
"Angbadang, get on the treadmill."
"Welcome to the Co-Optional Podcast: we occasionally talk about video games."
"Shameful dispray!"
"Simon!!"
"Husky, the most useless member of this podcast."
"I have more youtube money than God! I can afford these games!"
"U fuckin wot m8"
"Your authority is not recognised in Fort Kickass!"
"The hidden dick is the most dangerous dick!"

Trivia

TotalBiscuit has a Youtube series based on the game Terraria played with Jesse Cox (OMFGcata). Simon and Lewis have since also created a three-part series and have tutored Jesse Cox on how to play Minecraft.
TotalBiscuit refuses to upload any kind of Minecraft footage to his channel as he is afraid of what his channel would become, he stated that "That sort of thing really does turn your channel into a Minecraft channel" He does however, like to play the game whilst not working as stated in a mini interview with MalvinStudios, "Minecraft is a game I like to play and enjoy and not actually work".
TotalBiscuit was ranked #1 on King of the Web in December 2011. He donated all of the prize money ($50,000) to charity. His King of the Web profile page can be found here.
TotalBiscuit is a very picky individual when it comes to games, some people think he is an unlikeable grump because of that but it is also why they can trust him in giving an honest opinion on games.
TotalBiscuit is from Newcastle upon Tyne.
TotalBiscuit suffers from dyspraxia.
TotalBiscuit's favourite dice is a d20.
TotalBiscuit's most played Team Fortress 2 class is the Scout.
TotalBiscuit despises onions, to the point that he will send meals back if they contain them.
TotalBiscuit's first trip abroad was to Toronto, Canada. Whilst there, he went to an EB Games store and, having read about it in a magazine, he persuaded an older kid to buy Dungeon Keeper for him. On another occasion, he faked glandular fever for 2 weeks to avoid school and keep playing it. At the Co-optional Podcast Panel at PAX Prime 2013, a guest gave him a copy of the Canadian version of Dungeon Keeper as a memento.
TotalBiscuit voiced the character Vinnie & Spike in the game Awesomenauts and the Steampunk Disciple alt avatar of Corrupted Disciple in Heroes of Newerth.
He also voiced the Crystal Ball in the adult animation show 'Broken Quest' and the Medivac in HuskyStarcraft's show 'HuskyTales'
On his Big December Q&A livestream, he told his viewers that he had contacted the Yogscast about being on for the Dairy Drive 2013 but he never got a response.
On April 30th 2014, TotalBiscuit announced that a cancerous tumor had been discovered inside his colon. He also expressed his frustration that he did not speak to his doctor after noticing strange changes to his toilet routine.
TotalBiscuit operates two different Youtube accounts: 'TotalHalibut' and 'TotalBiscuit'. TotalBiscuit is the creator of the well known video series WTF is..., Content Patch and Terraria - the Next World Generation which have been regularly uploaded to his 'TotalHalibut' variety gaming channel. He also regularly streams Starcraft 2 in a series called "ShoutCraft" (later rebranded as "ShowCraft") and showcases professional Starcraft 2 matches in a series called "Procraft" on his "TotalBiscuit" Starcraft 2 channel. TotalBiscuit originally went by the moniker of SoulCake, but stopped using it as he felt that the name was too over used
It was TotalBiscuit who first introduced the Yogscast to The Game Station, playing a significant role in helping them to become as popular as they are today
For the Yogscast Honey Drive in 2012, TotalBiscuit held a livestream on the 20th of December in which he played XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Awesomenauts with Jesse Cox and MyndFlame on Team TGS against the Yogscast Mods Team of SteelCyro, Janedash and Veteranharry. Team TGS were originally to face the Yogscast team but they chickened out according to TB. The livestream finished 49 minutes early due to internet problems, the same time the stream normally played Area 11 music (11:11)
As stated in the 15th episode of the TGS podcast, TB thinks that Halo became irrelevant after the second game.
A Korean newspaper translated John's username from 'TotalBiscuit' to 'SumCookie'. Jesse Cox then heard about it and made a joke about it on a TGS Podcast episode when TB wasn't present and it has stuck with TB's fans since.
In a Q&A with Jesse Cox, TotalBiscuit stated that his original username was going to be 'SoulCake', which came from the Terry Pratchett book series, Discworld. He elected to change this however, as it was a very common username at that time and other people kept taking it on other websites.
He is a fan of Terry Pratchett's books.
He has worked in the UK line of gaming shops, GAME.
Nerd3 has been shown to be a fan of TB.
He is one of the hosts of the Co-Optional Podcast, Polaris' gaming podcast along with Jesse Cox and Dodger.
It was mentioned by Lewis himself in a subreddit about TB's opinion on YogDiscovery that because TB referred Yogscast to TGS / Polaris, TB (to this very day) receives a small percentage of all revenue made across all of the content the Yogscast makes.
John is known to have a large amount of respect for the gaming website, Giant Bomb and has even went at far as to say that they are an inspiration to him.
When one of the founding members of the Giant Bomb, Ryan Davis passed away at the age of 34, John talked about how much Ryan's death affected him in a Content Patch episode covering the passing. John also played a remix of the SMB3 World 3 Map theme at the end of the episode in honor of Ryan's love for the game.
John is also known to have some amount of respect for Adam Sessler, the former editor-in-chief and producer for Revision3 Games.
In his early years of media production, John was known to prefer doing Podcasts and livestreams than video as it was much easier to do the former.
John worked at a financial advisory before making youtube videos.
During his university years, John was the host of his university's metal radio station, named Demon FM as discovered in his Linkedin page.
John has a brother who is a part of the music industry.
John has specified many times that his username "TotalBiscuit" has no space between the total & biscuit. To this day, many people still punctuate John's username like that and this is poked at every once in a while by John himself.
John, along with his wife Genna, owns his own Starcraft II team named Axiom.
John currently owns two dogs: Kumo, a White Japanese Akita and Maya, a Red Shiba Inu.
John has a step-son named Orion.
John became friends with Jesse Cox whilst hosting WoW Radio when Jesse entered a competition John was running called WoW Idol, in which contestants had to make their own song or a cover of an existing song based on World of Warcraft. Jesse submitted an entry with his song "Raid With Me", a cover of the song "Take on Me" by A-ha. Jesse won 3rd place in the contest and that's how Jesse and TB became friends through that although TB knew of Jesse before this.
John was a guest on Tabletop, a board gaming show along with Will Wheaton.
John considers himself overweight and is currently trying to add exercise into his daily routine.
John is a big fan of the Warhammer 40K universe.
John has a fear of flight and as a result, hates travelling by plane.
Whenever John does facecam, he always has the UK flag in the background. Whether this is because John is patriotic of the UK or just wanted a more interesting background than the back of his office is unknown. This flag is deliberately hung upside-down to frustrate his British viewers.
John doesn't have a Driver's License however, he did state in his Big December Q&A in 2013 that he was almost certainly going to get one (as well as a car) in 2014 so he doesn't have to rely on his wife, Genna to drive.
Whilst he was still a regular of the Something Awful forums, TB occasionally listened to the YoGPoD as it was "quite funny" as revealed in his big December Q&A of 2013.
John is known to despise the game, Spelunky for its many random insta-death scenarios amongst other things.
John attended De Montfort University.
John was interviewed for BBC Radio 1's documentary on gaming on youtube, Rockstar Gamers.
John is known to despise the Motion Blur effect.
He is also appears to have a very slightly obsession with FOV sliders.
Turpster once made a song called Buff Up based on World of Warcraft which featured John as a guest singer.
John met his wife, Genna at Blizzcon 2010 and moved to America (more specifically, North Carolina) to live with her and her son.
John once did a promotional video of the MOBA game, Strife from the developers of Heroes of Newerth with PyrionFlax.
In a sound cloud audio podcast, TB stated that "his father was a priest and his mother taught at the school".

When TotalBiscuit was 11 years old, he faked glandular fever for two weeks to stay off school and keep playing his copy of Dungeon Keeper that he purchased from Canada.

John Bain

Contents

History

In-Yogiverse

Quotes

Trivia

Links

Gallery

Fan Feed