After four years, over $100,000 in winnings, and several Major tournament victories on the StarCraft scene - it seems Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn may be stepping away from the game.
Right before Scarlett's WCS Challenger match with Astrea she tweeted: “I think wcs may be my last tournament”. Despite gaining a two game lead with some hellacious Swarm Host tactics, Scarlett was then eliminated from WCS during the Challenger Round – after a tense 3-2 loss.
Following her WCS elimination there were a few tweets thrown around that she may perhaps make a move to DOTA 2, which was then confirmed when she spoke with The Guardian about her departure: “I want to try something else for a bit, I’ve been playing a lot of DOTA 2 so I’m going to practise and see if I can get good at that.”
This might not be end of Scarlett's illustrious StarCraft career, but anybody who has been paying attention could see signs of her potential hiatus coming. In the same Guardian article she even eludes to her heart having not been in it as much as she would have liked recently: “With StarCraft II I have lost a little bit of my competitive drive.”
Scarlett also, correctly, mentioned: “If I can be good at both it’ll be something nobody has really done before.” Which appears to be true; players have gone from DOTA to LoL, WC3 to SC2, SC2 to LoL, and plenty more initialised transitions – but Scarlett would be the first to go from SC2 to DOTA. At the very least the first pro player to do it successfully.
Team Acer seem to be, potentially, on board with the switch. The name “Acer Scarlett” is so heavily etched into people's brains that it isn't too surprising they're keen to continue the legacy. Even going as far as to tweet out a very non-subtle hint that perhaps Scarlett could move to their DOTA Team division instead.
StarCraft will miss your insane Baneling busts and Zergling run-bys, Scarlett, and we wish you all the best with DOTA... But please come back one day.
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