Sasha Hostyn (born December 1993), also known by her username Scarlett, is a Canadian professional video game player. She is most well known for playing ''

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...

'', and is the first woman to win a major ''StarCraft II'' tournament. She has also played ''

Dota 2 ''Dota 2'' is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve Corporation, Valve. The game is a sequel to ''Defense of the Ancients'' (''DotA''), a community-created Mod (video gaming), mod for Blizzard Entertainment's ''War ...

''.

Personal life

Hostyn grew up in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...

, 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 A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

, and has said that her

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

has "absolutely no relevance" to how she plays and that she has "always tried to make it a complete non-issue".

Career

''StarCraft II''

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 Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. In 2013, she climbed the global ''StarCraft II'' rankings to rank 21 and placed second at NorthCon. By mid-2014, Hostyn had taken first place in seven tournaments, making her the second highest-paid professional female gamer at the time. By 2014, Hostyn had won over $110,000. During her time playing ''StarCraft II'', Hostyn has been called "the queen of ''StarCraft II''", "Korean

Kryptonite Kryptonite is a fictional material that appears primarily in Superman stories published by DC Comics. In its best-known form, it is a green, crystalline material originating from Superman's home world of Krypton (comics), Krypton that emits a u ...

", and "The Queen of Blades". ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' called her "the most accomplished woman in e-sports". She was the only Red Bull Battle Grounds 2014 finalist from a country other than South Korea. In 2014, ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the 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".

''Dota 2''

Having lost some of her "competitive drive" for ''StarCraft II'', Hostyn switched to playing ''

'' in February 2015, explaining "If I can be good at both it’ll be something nobody has really done before."

Return to ''StarCraft II''

As of June 2015, Hostyn has returned to ''StarCraft II'', joining the Dead Pixels team and will compete in Korean leagues. On August 17, 2016, Scarlett joined Team Expert. In February 2018, Scarlett won the

Intel Extreme Masters The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in ''Counter-Strike 2''. Oth ...

tournament, held in the leadup to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, becoming the first woman to win a major ''StarCraft II'' tournament. Following this, in November 2018 Scarlett joined Newbee. In February 2021, she joined the newly formed

Shopify Rebellion Shopify Rebellion is a Canadian esports organization founded in February 2021 by e-commerce company Shopify, with active rosters in ''Apex Legends'', ''Dota 2'', ''Guilty Gear Strive'', ''Halo (series), Halo'', ''League of Legends'', ''Rainbow Si ...

Awards

Scarlett was entered in the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

'' as "highest career earnings for a female competitive video game player" on October 5, 2016.

References

External links

Twitch channel
{{Professional StarCraft II competition 1993 births StarCraft players Canadian esports players Women esports players Living people Canadian transgender sportspeople Canadian transgender women Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Transgender sportswomen LGBTQ esports players 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian sportswomen