Scarlett (gamer)

Sasha Hostyn (born December 1993),[1] also known by her username Scarlett, is a Canadian professional video game player. She is most well known for playing StarCraft II, and is the first woman to win a major StarCraft II tournament. She has also played Dota 2.

Scarlett
Hostyn at BlizzCon 2014
Personal information
NameSasha Hostyn
Nickname(s)
  • The Queen of Blades
  • Korean Kryptonite
BornDecember 1993 (age 29)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Career information
Games
Playing career2011–present

Personal life

Hostyn grew up in Kingston, Ontario[2] and played games as a hobby during school and began to enter tournaments in 2011, leading to her career as a professional player. Hostyn is a transgender woman, and has said that her gender identity has "absolutely no relevance" to how she plays and that she has "always tried to make it a complete non-issue".[3]

Career

StarCraft II
Hostyn at the North American Star League Season 3 in 2012

Hostyn became prominent in the StarCraft II scene in 2012 when she beat a number of highly ranked professionals at an event in Las Vegas.[4] In 2013, she climbed the global StarCraft II rankings to rank 21 and placed second at NorthCon.[3] By mid-2014, Hostyn had taken first place in seven tournaments, making her the second highest-paid professional female gamer at the time.[5] By 2014, Hostyn had won over $110,000.[2]

During her time playing StarCraft II, Hostyn has been called "the queen of StarCraft II", "Korean Kryptonite", and "The Queen of Blades".[4][6] The New Yorker called her "the most accomplished woman in e-sports".[2] She was the only Red Bull Battle Grounds 2014 finalist from a country other than South Korea.[7] In 2014, Polygon named her one of 2014's 50 admirable gaming people, describing her as "one of the few women succeeding at the top level of the StarCraft II pro scene".[8]

Dota 2

Having lost some of her "competitive drive" for StarCraft II, Hostyn switched to playing Dota 2 in February 2015, explaining "If I can be good at both it’ll be something nobody has really done before."[1]

Return to StarCraft II

As of June 2015, Hostyn has returned to StarCraft II, joining the Dead Pixels team[9] and will compete in Korean leagues.

On August 17, 2016, Scarlett joined Team Expert.[10]

In February 2018, Scarlett won the Intel Extreme Masters tournament, held in the leadup to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, becoming the first woman to win a major StarCraft II tournament.[11][12] Following this, in November 2018 Scarlett joined Newbee.[13]

In February 2021, she joined the newly formed Shopify Rebellion.[14]

Awards

Scarlett was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as "highest career earnings for a female competitive video game player" on October 5, 2016.[15]

References
  1. Parkin, Simon (February 6, 2015). "StarCraft II's high-flying 'Scarlett' is turning to Dota 2. Does success await?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  2. McGrath, Ben (24 November 2014). "Good Game: The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  3. Smith, Ryan (5 February 2014). "How a transgender "foreign hope" is challenging the pro StarCraft world". The AV Club. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  4. O'Neill, Patrick (21 December 2013). "Meet Scarlett, the 20-year-old woman who's blazing trails in 'StarCraft'". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  5. Levy, Karyne (10 June 2014). "15 Of The Highest-Paid Professional Female Video Gamers". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  6. Robertson, Adi (5 February 2014). "Meet Scarlett, the queen of 'Starcraft II'". The Verge. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  7. Aidan, Julian (September 24, 2014). "Red Bull Battle Grounds 2014 Comes To Stunning Conclusion". Hardcore Gamer Magazine. Archived from the original on September 28, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  8. Campbell, Colin (30 December 2014). "Polygon's 50 admirable gaming people of 2014". Polygon. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  9. "Scarlett and FeaR join Dead Pixels". Archived from the original on 2023-04-10. Retrieved 2016-06-17.
  10. @expertesport (17 August 2016). "A selection of our new roster. Do you recognize any of them?" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  11. Donnelly, Joe (2018-02-07). "Scarlett wins Intel's pre-Winter Olympics 2018 StarCraft 2 event". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  12. Bell, Brian (2018-02-07). "Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn Becomes First Woman to Win a Major StarCraft 2 Tournament". Pastemagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  13. @newbeecn (10 November 2018). "The QUEEN is here~ Welcome to Newbee @onfireScarlett" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  14. "Shopify forms Rebellion and signs StarCraft II pro Scarlett". Daily Esports. 2021-02-19. Archived from the original on 2022-01-28. Retrieved 2022-01-25.
  15. "Highest career earnings for a competitive videogame player (Female)". Archived from the original on 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
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