



Sasha "Scarlett" Hostyn is a Canadian Zerg player who is currently playing for Brave Star Gaming.



Throughout 2017, she occasionally off-raced in minor tournaments.

Play Style [ edit ]

Scarlett favors using Zerglings, Banelings and Mutalisks, though she has also displayed proficiency with Infestors, Brood Lords and Ultralisks. She also was one of the first, if not the first, to use Infested Terrans to bait Widow Mine hits (against Mvp in her GSTL debut). Her play style's defining feature, though, is her Creep spread, which has been spotlighted and can stretch to opposing bases by the time of a decisive engagement.

Wings of Liberty [ edit ]

Beginning Steps (April 2011 – April 2012) [ edit ]

Scarlett started to play StarCraft II in April 2011. She made her first steps in the competitive scene by participating in an online female-only tournament, the NESL Iron Lady, becoming champion of those cups twice in a row in autumn of 2011.

In March 2012, she won the Playhem "Sponsor Me!" Tournament, an online event reserved for amateur players without a team or a sponsor. Winning that tournament awarded her a sponsored trip and attendance to the IGN ProLeague Season 4 in Las Vegas.[1]

The IPL 4 Open Bracket was Scarlett's debut in a live premier event, and she delivered by pulling big upsets against such notable players as Terius and DdoRo in the first rounds. She lost 1-2 to Oz in the third round of the winner's bracket. Dropping down to the loser's bracket, Scarlett once again pulled off an impressive victory by defeating DeMusliM 2-0 and knocking him out of the tournament. Her run at the IPL 4 was finally ended by Golden in the round immediately following, where she was defeated 0-2.

On 16 April 2012, it was announced that Scarlett had joined Eclypsia.[2] During her tenure in Eclypsia, Scarlett performed admirably as the team's ace in the IPL Team Arena Challenge 3 team league qualifiers. For instance, in the team's match against ZeNEX, Scarlett secured a win over Avenge to push Eclypsia through with a 5-3 victory.[3]

Rise Under Acer (May 2012 – January 2013) [ edit ]

On May 12, 2012, SLoG announced through Twitter that he and Scarlett had left Eclypsia along with Artist and desRow.[4] She joined Team Acer on June 21.[5]

Scarlett appeared under Acer's colors in a team event for the first time in July when the team faced Team SCV Life in the IPL TAC 3 loser's bracket. There, she achieved a three-kill (beating Revival, Cyrano and inori) before losing to Polt.

On July 14, 2012, Scarlett was invited to the 2012 StarCraft II World Championship Series Canada. She managed a flawless run in the winner's bracket, defeating HuK, Ostojiy, Drewbie and DdoRo along the way to reach the grand finals and even prompting, according to Soe, a crisis meeting among remaining players who were unable to find out ways to beat her on their own. In the grand finals, she overwhelmed Ostojiy to become the WCS Canada national champion with a 12-1 record in games, securing a $6,000 prize as well as a spot in the 2012 Battle.net North American Championship.

Following her run at WCS Canada, Scarlett attended the WCS North American Championship on August 24. She realized similar success at this tournament, defeating HuK again and making her way to the winner's bracket finals with only a single lost map (to theognis in the first round). She then defeated Vibe 2-0 in both the winner's bracket final and the grand final, taking first place and claiming the $24,000 prize as well as a spot in the World Championship.

Scarlett went to Shanghai to participate in the 2012 BWC as the Canadian and North American champion. She was placed into Group H with mOOnGLaDe, Creator and Nerchio, and ended up in second place in her group, losing to Creator but beating the other two Zerg players. In the first round of the championship bracket, she played the South Korean Protoss PartinG, who ended up beating her with a score of 3-0.

Starting off 2013, Scarlett made it to the Round of 8 in Iron Squid - Chapter II. She defeated MarineKing and Brown in the group stage to reach the Round of 16. After defeating Symbol 3-0, she played against the South Korean Zerg NesTea, who ended up defeating her with a score of 3-1.

Heart of the Swarm [ edit ]

Training in Korea (January – August 2013) [ edit ]

On January 15, a partnership between Axiom and Team Acer was officially announced to take part in the GSTL by forming Axiom-Acer.[6] Scarlett and MMA were chosen as the first two Acer representatives and stayed in the Axiom team house in Seoul to compete. She made her GSTL and GOMTV debut in the Week 3 match where Axiom-Acer faced LG-IM and upset Mvp after nullifying his Blue Flame Hellion harassment, decimating his SCVs with a Baneling bust and even using Infested Terrans to bait Mvp's Widow Mines. Even though she lost the next set against YoDa, it was still enough to help Axiom-Acer win and meant she became the first female player to best a male opponent on GOMTV (Aphrodite is the only other female player with a GOMTV win, but hers came against Eve.) Including playoffs, she went a respectable 3-4, picking up additional wins against BBoongBBoong and Ganzi. She stayed in Korea until August 4, 2013, when she left for the United States to play in the WCS America 2013 Season 2 Premier League Finals, with plans to return in October.[7]

During WCS America Season 1, she started in Premier League, reaching the Round of 16, one of two North American players to do so. However, she fell against HerO and Revival, causing her to drop to Challenger League, where she defeated Jim to requalify for Premier.

Scarlett competed in the online Ritmix RSL Season 5 from June 8 to July 28, 2013. She had an impressive run in the tournament, defeating Polt and Symbol in the Group Stage and Jim and Strelok in the Bracket Stage. In her match against Life, she used fairly predictable Roach-based macro builds, which Life took advantage of to win the series 3-2. Scarlett took 3rd by default, after HyuN forfeited, unable to find internet access while in China for IEM Season VIII - Shanghai.

Scarlett played in the Acer TeamStory Cup for Team Acer. During the Group Stage, she went 15-10, including a 4-kill against mousesports.

In WCS America 2013 Season 2 Premier League, she took revenge on HerO in the Round of 32, defeating him in the final match of their group to knock him out of the tournament and advance to the Round of 16. She won her rematch against Revival as well, defeating him and MacSed to advance first from her group to the Round of 8. Despite taking heavy damage early in her games against aLive, she recouped each time to sweep their series 3-0. Against Jaedong, her unit control was tested, as early aggression was key throughout the entire series. She lost the first game but won the next, each involving early pool builds from Jaedong. The third game saw her take unrecoverable damage from a well timed unupgraded Roach attack, but she recovered in the next game, winning the Mutalisk vs Mutalisk war. However, she could not close the series, as she fell to a six pool. Her fourth place finish was enough to qualify her for the Season Final at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. However, she had announced her intention to take a break from Starcraft and forfeit her position in WCS America 2013 Season 3 Premier League, citing wrist issues.[8]

At the Acer TeamStory Cup Playoffs on August 17, 2013, Scarlett went 2-4, defeating Super and ForGG, but losing to DongRaeGu and Dream twice each.

On August 23, 2013, Scarlett attended the WCS 2013 Season 2 Finals as the only representative of an American country and one of two Zerg players along with Jaedong. She started the tournament in a three-Terran group where she defeated teammate MMA 2-0 but lost 0-2 to aLive. In the final match of the group stage, she played Maru, the WCS Korea Season 2 Champion. She outplayed her opponent in a macro game to take map one, and scouted Maru's double proxy Barracks to take an overwhelming lead in game two. With a 2-0 victory in the match and a 2-1 group score, she advanced to the Round of 8 against Bomber. In game 1, Scarlett overwhelmed Bomber with relentless Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk attacks to prevent him from reaching a comfortable three-base economy. Bomber forewent Siege Tank production in game 2 in favor of a much earlier attack with Widow Mines, which allowed him to tie the series off his own constant aggression. In game 3 Bomber began his aggression without any Factory units at all, which again prevented Scarlett from reaching a comfortable economic position and left her in a 1-2 deficit. Scarlett took heavy early-game damage in game 4, but took advantage of Whirlwind's size to continuously deny Bomber's expansions with Mutalisks to take economic advantages in the mid- and late-game and re-tie the series. Scarlett's third base was significantly delayed in game 5 by Reapers and Banshees, but she still stayed fairly even with her opponent through excellent Mutalisk and Baneling control. However, once Bomber established his fourth base economy, she could not produce enough Banelings to survive the constant Marine aggression and had to concede the series 2-3.

From August 23 to September 30, 2013, Scarlett stayed in China to take a break from practicing StarCraft II.[9]

Return to America (September 2013 – 2015) [ edit ]

On October 1, 2013, Scarlett played in the final WCS America 2013 Season 3 Premier League Round of 32 group. She defeated puCK 2-1 and CranK 2-0 to reach the live Round of 16 in California. She defeated NesTea 2-0, but lost to MacSed and Oz 0-2 each, and fell to the third round of Challenger League, where she defeated Tassadar to return to the Premier League.

Scarlett had planned to return to Korea to participate in the 2013 Global StarCraft II Team League Season 2, but was unable to do so since the recent Acer acquisition of INnoVation and Axiom acquisition of Impact meant there was not enough space in the Axiom team house for her to reside there, which meant that she missed being part of Axiom-Acer's championship.[10]

However, she did return to competition at Red Bull Battle Grounds New York City after taking a break to allow her wrists to recover. In a rematch of their WCS Season 2 Finals quarterfinal match, she defeated Bomber in what Day9, who cast the event, later called the best professional StarCraft II game to date [11] - the deciding game on Habitation Station to decide a semifinal berth. In it, she won by luring Bomber's large Marine force into two massive burrowed Baneling detonations after she wound up with no bases while Bomber had a gold base. She nearly made the finals, but couldn't close out sOs after taking the first two games. After her loss to sOs, however, she defeated MC 2-0 to take third in the tournament.

Soon after, on December 1, 2013, Scarlett also reached the quarterfinals at IEM Season VIII - Singapore after knocking out Bomber again in the group stage. Against Bomber, she lost the initial series 1-2, but gained a rematch after defeating Dream 2-1, and she subsequently beat Bomber 2-1 to advance. She played Hydra in the quarterfinals, but was caught off-guard by her opponent's unexpectedly aggressive builds and ceded the series 1-3.

She finished 2013 by making a Premier Tournament final for the first time at ASUS ROG NorthCon 2013, where she beat Life 3-0 in the semifinals and pushed Jaedong to 6 games in the finals. She also helped Acer win the TeamStory Cup by beating Ryung in an Axiom-Acer ace match to decide the winner's semifinal on her 20th birthday. So far in 2014, she has not been able to replicate her 2013 form in WCS, but she has returned to Korea for an extended stay and says her skills have been improving as she has been able to practice more. It began to show in the summer when she took third/fourth place at HomeStory Cup IX and fourth at MLG Anaheim - with the latter including a win on Frost against DongRaeGu while off-racing as Protoss.

On January 6, 2015, Scarlett made an unexpected tweet stating that WCS 2015 Season 1 would probably be her final tournament,[12] later citing a loss of interest in StarCraft 2 as her reason for wanting to quit.[13] However, she returned to competitive play a few months later, participating in but failing to advance through WCS 2015 Season 2 Qualifiers, as well as playing in DreamHack Tours and a series of showmatches in the weeks after her return.

On November 23, 2015, Scarlett participated in the BaseTradeTV's "Matcherino" matches,[14] using the ID "Shura", a Russian variant of her first name Sasha.

Legacy of the Void / Olympic Glory [ edit ]

Eventually, Scarlett joined Team Expert alongside Acer alumni MMA and Bly and qualified for IEM Pyeongchang, where she had the added honor of representing Canada in a tournament that was fully supported by the International Olympic Committee less than a week before the 2018 Winter Olympics in the same city. After defeating Cham in an on-site play-in, she then bested Time, Serral and Elazer in that order to advance to a final against sOs. She then defeated the two-time WCS Global champion 4-1 to become the first champion of an esports tournament with IOC support, the first female player to win a Premier tournament in StarCraft II, and the first Canadian to win a Premier tournament since HuK's victory at Dreamhack Summer 2011. She also became just the third foreigner to win a Premier StarCraft tournament in Korea following Grrrr... in the 2000 Hanaro OSL and Neeb in the 2016 KeSPA Cup.

Less than a week after IEM Pyeongchang, she made further history when she advanced to the 2018 GSL Season 1 quarterfinals after she beat Zest and INnoVation to win Group A. This made her the first female player ever to do so and the first foreigner to do so since NaNiwa in 2012 GSL Season 3.

Trivia [ edit ]

Achievements [ edit ]

Team Achievements

Rivalries [ edit ]

Bomber [ edit ]

Bomber

Though no bad blood is involved, a heated rivalry has developed in the second half of 2013 between Scarlett and Bomber that has played out to a dead heat at the moment, has produced series that have gone the distance each time and has commentators and fans looking forward to the next installment. From August to November of 2013, they met four times, each winning twice and also each winning seven maps. Moreover, three times out of those four, the winner knocked the loser out of the tournament.

The first meeting came in the last quarterfinal and also featured Scarlett as the last foreigner standing. She won Star Station before Bomber fought back and took Newkirk Precinct TE and Bel'Shir Vestige SE to get on match point. Scarlett won Whirlwind to take it to a decisive fifth game, but Bomber's macro prevailed on Akilon Wastes and he advanced with a 3-2 win on his way to beating TaeJa and Jaedong to win the WCS Season 2 title, his first major title in two years.

Four months later, they met again to decide a semifinal berth after both had lost to PartinG earlier that night. Bomber opened with a win on Cloud Kingdom before Scarlett took Frost, leading to a decisive third game on Red Bull's exclusive Habitation Station and what Day9 called the best professional StarCraft II[26] game so far. At the end of it, Scarlett researched Burrow after ending up on no bases while Bomber held a gold base and successfully lured his large Marine force into two massive burrowed Baneling detonations to take the game and advance 2-1. The game was further analyzed by TL Strategy staff[27] and placed second behind only Game 3 between TaeJa and INnoVation at the WCS Season 2 Finals in the Team Liquid rankings for Game of the Year. She would go on to finish third after narrowly losing to sOs and beating MC.

Because both were drawn together just a week later and were paired in the opening match, Kaelaris and IdrA were among those eager to see if they could produce a series that lived up to their previous meetings. They were also eager to see if Bomber had "learned his lesson" about Scarlett's ability with burrowed Banelings, and the answer was yes and no. Scarlett landed another big burrowed Baneling hit against Bomber's Marines in the first game on Frost, and after Scarlett took Akilon Wastes, Bomber executed a successful rush on Polar Night to win 2-1.

The two met again later that day after Bomber lost to HerO and Scarlett beat Dream, and ReDeYe introduced their latest match as "a TvZ of the highest order" where each of their series had produced fireworks. This was no different - after Bomber took Polar Night and Scarlett took Whirlwind, Scarlett got her Creep and a sizable Swarm Host force to Bomber's doorstep. While they occupied Bomber's other units, she took out rocks blocking another of Bomber's bases with Speedlings, leading to a big hit on Bomber's workers and forcing his hand. She was then able to surprise Bomber's Siege Tanks with a charge from the Swarm Hosts to win the game and advance 2-1.

NaNiwa [ edit ]

NaNiwa

After Stephano decided to retire and left the - pretty much undisputed - title of Best Foreigner free to claim, two players emerged to contend for it: the Swedish veteran NaNiwa and Canadian favorite Scarlett. While - surprisingly - they managed to avoid each other throughout the year, they traded blows in terms of results with Scarlett beating arguably stronger Korean players throughout the year, while NaNiwa making more deep runs in top tier tournaments, qualifying for the 2013 WCS Global Finals and finishing the year with two silvers (IEM Season VIII - New York and 2013 DreamHack Open: Stockholm) to Scarlett's one (ASUS ROG NorthCon 2013).

In interviews with ESL, Scarlett has alluded to this ongoing contest. She told ReDeYe after beating Bomber to win a quarterfinal berth at IEM Season VIII - Singapore that she had to outdo NaNiwa's performance at DreamHack Winter, which was going on simultaneously (which she did), but also later said during an ESL feature on her that she considers herself the second best foreigner behind NaNiwa because he has better results so far.

The two met once before in Wings of Liberty in the IPL 5 winners' second round, where Scarlett prevailed 2-1. She also had the better placing in the tournament, placing in the top 24 while NaNiwa was unable to place in the top 32.

Round 2 - Bitcoin Starcraft Show Match (Online) - December 21st, 2013 [ edit ]

On 16th December, it was announced that a special Best of 7 show match would take place with a prize pool of 12 bitcoins (~10,000 USD at the time of the announcement) on 21st December. The main caster and coordinator of the event was TotalBiscuit, who was joined by IdrA. [28]. NaNiwa prevailed after the first two maps were split and ribbed her in a post-match tweet when he said that he felt that Scarlett had played greedy and called it "a waste of what could have been" but also said that he guessed that her greed was a part of her success.

Championships [ edit ]

Matches & VODs [ edit ]

ZvZ [ edit ]

ZvT [ edit ]

ZvP [ edit ]

Coaching VoDs [ edit ]

ZvP [ edit ]

First Person View Match VODS [ edit ]

Interviews [ edit ]

2017 [ edit ]

2017-06-10 | Get to Know Your WCS Challengers: Scarlett by Waxangel of TL.net

2014 [ edit ]

2013 [ edit ]

2012 [ edit ]

Articles [ edit ]

Gallery [ edit ]

Statistics [ edit ]

Matchup Statistics

vs vs vs vs Total Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% Record Win% as 6 - 2 75 % 28 - 20 58.3 % 69 - 14 83.1 % 0 - 0 - 103 - 36 74.1 % as 0 - 1 0 % 0 - 0 - 5 - 1 83.3 % 0 - 0 - 5 - 2 71.4 % as 739 - 457 61.8 % 652 - 491 57 % 728 - 402 64.4 % 12 - 0 100 % 2131 - 1350 61.2 % as 5 - 0 100 % 4 - 4 50 % 12 - 12 50 % 36 - 18 66.7 % 57 - 34 62.6 %

Earnings Statistics

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Medal Statistics

Tier Total Premier 2 4 3 9 Major 7 11 5 23 Minor 7 11 9 27 Monthly 5 2 5 12 Weekly 42 14 16 72 Daily 1 4 1 6 Show Match 20 4 0 24 Total 84 50 39 173