For two and a half years, Sasha Hostyn, better known to her legion of supporters as “Scarlett”, has, in her words, been “at the very top” of the North American StarCraft II league.

The video game, designed in California but whose spiritual home is in South Korea, where it has been adopted as something approaching a national sport, is often compared with chess. Both games are played by two players, each of whom command an army from a bird’s eye vantage point. But the analogy is flawed. In StarCraft II, the map changes between each match while each side’s troops are asymmetrical: players choose between three “races” at the start of the game, each with its advantages and drawbacks. Among her peers, Scarlett is considered something of a Kasparov – quick-witted, daring, stoic in the face of peril and, crucially for her sponsors, Acer, usually victorious.

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But after four years of playing StarCraft II professionally, Scarlett, who lives in Kingston, Ontario, is ready for change. “I want to try something else for a bit,” she tells me. “I’ve been playing a lot of Dota 2 so I’m going to practise and see if I can get good at that. With StarCraft II I have lost a little bit of my competitive drive.”

Dota 2, another American game, is played with two teams of five players and each player has a clearly defined role. For Scarlett, who has spent her career answering only to herself, the idea of working alongside other players is daunting. “Playing with strangers is always a challenge,” she says. “But I’m going to start looking for people who share my view and approach to the game soon. There can’t be conflict else you won’t be able to play well.” Scarlett’s plan to switch e-sports is unprecedented, she says. “If I can be good at both it’ll be something nobody has really done before.” But while both games are vastly different, they share elements that Scarlett considers essential for professional play. “Both games are extremely well-balanced,” she says. “More importantly, there are lots of ways in which, if you are better than someone else, you can create a lead. That’s crucial in high-level competitive play.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hostyn plays in the eliminations round during the Red Bull Battle Grounds Grand Finals in Washington DC last September. Photograph: Cameron Baird/Red Bull Content Pool

Whether or not Scarlett and her other colleagues should be considered professionals is a question for debate. They are certainly paid a salary and placed on a stage for the matches. Last year’s world final for League of Legends, the most widely played competitive video game in the world, was staged at the Sangam stadium in Seoul, where the 2002 world cup final was held. The prize pot totalled millions of dollars.

The best cyber-atheletes can earn up to $200,000 a year and many e-sports teams live together in training houses where their diet, schedule and even psychological health can be monitored. In July 2013 one e-sports manager hired a lawyer who successfully campaigned to have one of his players issued with a US athlete visa, a move that in effect sees the game recognised as a professional sport. But last year John Skipper, the president of sports channel ESPN, declared that video games are “not a sport”, but “a competition”. Scarlett, meanwhile, admits that her only preparation on the day of a big match is to buy a cup of hot chocolate.

Scarlett seems uninterested in how her hobby is categorised. At 20, she has earned a good living from StarCraft II, winning $111,000 in tournaments and thousands more while playing in a team league. She has become famous for her daring strategies on the digital pitch and also brave in her decision to reveal that she is transgender within a culture around video games that is often associated with misogyny.

“I plan to go to college next,” she says. “Maybe study Korean or computer science. I think e-sports players should think about higher education before they get too old. We don’t know how popular this will be in the future. If you focus 100% on e-sports till you are 35 or so and it doesn’t continue to become mainstream, I think it could be harder in life later on.”

Once concern that plagues this, the first generation of so-called cyber athletes, is shared with their counterparts in physical sport: for how long will their minds and bodies be quick enough to enable top-level play. While e-sports are a sedentary pursuit, one’s action-per-minute rate (how many clicks of the mouse and keyboard one is able to make) is crucial to top-level StarCraft II play, as is a nimble mind. Scarlett, however, disagrees. “I think the decline is overstated,” she says. “People say after the age of 25 that you won’t be able to compete in e-sports any more. I don’t believe that’s true. In most other sports you are able to compete till you are 35-40. E-sports is even less of a physical activity. You can play till 40 easily; I don’t think this would affect how well you are able to play video games.”

SASHA ‘SCARLETT’ HOSTYN

Dec 1993 Born in Kingston, Ontario.

April 2011 Begins playing StarCraft II, winning online women-only competitions later that year.

Jan 2013 Bases herself in Seoul with the Axiom-Acer team, making the winners’ rostrum three times.

Sept 2013 Returns to the US and picks up two tournament wins.

Jan 2015 Tweets that an upcoming StarCraft II tournament may be her last.