Scarlett
Hostyn at BlizzCon 2014
Personal information
NameSasha Hostyn
Nickname(s)
  • The Queen of Blades
  • Korean Kryptonite
BornDecember 1993 (age 30)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Career information
Games
Playing career2011–present

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.

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. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 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 (August 17, 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 (November 10, 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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