Hiko Retires From Valorant

Former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and a long-standing member of 100 Thieves Valorant roster, Spencer “Hiko” Martin, announced his retirement from professional play.

He will instead move to a full-time content creation role within the organization.

Hiko began his esports career way back in 2011 as a professional Counter-Strike player for CheckSix Gaming. Shortly after, he transitioned to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and competed in Valve’s FPS title for the next seven years.

Hiko has played for numerous high-profile teams throughout his CS: GO career, including Complexity Gaming, Cloud9, Rogue, and Team Liquid. And throughout all these years, Hiko has achieved plenty of success.

He helped Complexity finish top-four at DreamHack Winter 2013 and led the team to a top-eight finish at ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014 before leaving for Cloud9. There Hiko enjoyed a short stint, helping Cloud9 place top-eight at ESL One: Cologne 2014, but unfortunately, got cut from the roster at the end of 2014, following a streak of disappointing results.

Hiko would then spend the next few months competing at iBUYPOWER and Nihilum Gaming before getting picked up by Team Liquid in August 2015. This marked the start of Hiko’s most successful period of his CS:GO career.

With Team Liquid, Hiko would win three tournament titles, including ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 – North America, and helped the North American side secure respectable placements in other big events. Most notably, a top-four finish at MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 and a runner-up finish at ESL One: Cologne 2016.

Hiko left Team Liquid at the start of 2017 and has since played for OpTic and Rogue but couldn’t achieve much success. In the final months of his CS:GO career, the 32-year-old played for Ze Pug Godz in minor tournaments before transitioning to Valorant.

Hiko transitioned to Valorant in June 2020, when he got picked up by 100 Thieves as the inaugural member of its roster. The team went through many roster changes in the first year of operation, and while Hiko’s teammates came and went, he has remained put as the only player who has stayed with 100T from the start.

After numerous roster changes,100 Thieves finally found some traction in December 2020, when the team won First Strike North America. Hiko and co. continued with strong performances into 2021, with a runner-up finish from VCT 2021: North America Stage 1 Challengers 3 and a title from Stage 2 Challengers 1.

After a short slump, which saw 100T crash out of Stage 2 Challengers Finals in fifth place, 100T bounced back and finished the year on a high note. Most notably, 100 Thieves claimed silver from Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs and reached the semi-finals of VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters – Berlin.

Unfortunately, they failed to qualify for VALORANT Champions 2021, as they got eliminated from VCT 2021: North America Last Chance Qualifier.
Following a disappointing ending to the 2021 season, 100 Thieves hoped for more success in 2020, but that never came.

Over the three tournaments the team attended this year, 100T’s best placement was a runner-up finish at Knights Arena Monthly Gauntlet 2022: February.

Due to failing to achieve its goals, 100T initiated a complete roster rebuild in February, which led to the departure of four players, with Hiko now the fifth departure of the last two months.

After announcing his retirement from Valorant, Hiko revealed that he will now focus on content creation within the 100 Thieves organization.

Meanwhile, the Valorant team already has its eyes set on new signings.

As reported, 100 Thieves is looking to sign Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk and Sean “bang” Bezerra, as well as a new in-game leader in Brenden “stellar” McGrath.

The signings have yet to be confirmed, but we can expect more information in the new-look 100T Valorant roster in the coming weeks.