Martin “Hiko” Spencer is considering a return to the Counter-Strike scene despite the fact that his popularity and following have skyrocketed since he first entered the VALORANT scene several years ago.
Hiko, aka Spencer Martin, used to play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive but has now switched to Valorant. With 100 Thieves, he dominated the VCT Challengers and North American First Strike before retiring to focus on streaming last year.
After having tried his luck at Valorant after realizing his options in Counter-Strike for advancing his career were exceedingly restricted in North America. He was eventually signed by 100 Thieves as their professional Valorant player where he contributed to the team’s top-four finish at VCT 2021: Stage 3 Masters Berlin.
But after his team’s exit from the VCT NA Stage 1 Challengers in April 2022, Hiko decided to leave the active squad and take on streaming and content creation for 100 Thieves. After a decade spent at the top of his game in Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Valorant, Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin announced his retirement from professional gaming in April 2022.
Hiko has announced that he will be playing Counter-Strike 2 regularly alongside other streamers and content makers after its release this summer. “I do kind of miss this game,” he said on a recent CSGO stream.
The Counter-Strike community would welcome Hiko’s comeback because it still lacks well-known streamers and content providers who can appeal to a broad audience.
Hiko has had an impressive CSGO career, having competed for teams like Complexity and Cloud9 as well as Team Liquid. Among his most notable professional accomplishments are semi-final appearances at DreamHack Winter 2013 and MLG Columbus 2016, and a finals performance at ESL One Cologne 2016.
“I think I’ll make a comeback to CS when CS 2 comes out. I do kind of miss this game. The community in general is just better. The Valorant community is a little cringe to me, and probably because I’m older…”
Hiko said on one of his streams.
The 33-year-old reflected on his experiences in the CS and VALORANT communities’ age difference.
“The Counter-Strike community in general is just better,” he said. “The Valorant community is a little cringe to me, probably because I’m just older. I think the average age in most of the CS people is higher than the Valorant people.”
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