100 Thieves’ Hiko Says Being a Valorant Pro is Less Taxing Than CS:GO

100 Thieves’ Valorant pro Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin talked about how the Valorant esports scene is “less taxing” on esports professionals than CS:GO esports. Hiko is one of the many CS:GO professionals who switched to Valorant following the game’s release. Despite it being Riot Games’ first time putting out a FPS title, pro players had faith in the studio’s ability to deliver a highly competitive game. Hiko joined 100 Thieves with some of NA’s best players including nitr0, steel, Ethan and Asuna and found instant success. Here is why he thinks that being a Valorant pro is easier than competing in CS:GO.

Why Hiko thinks competitive Valorant is easier than CS:GO

Despite the game being in its infancy, pros like Hiko flocked to Valorant last year. Riot has a track record of hosting some of the biggest esports events of all time with its League of Legends’ Worlds events and Valorant is quickly shaping up to be an extremely popular esports title. Since joining 100 Thieves, Hiko has won First Strike NA and Stage 2 Challengers 1 but the team has failed to secure a podium finish at VCT Masters events. The team is currently attempting to qualify for VCT Masters Berlin, which is the third and final event that will allow teams from all over the world to be a part of the Valorant Champions event at the end of this year.

Hiko talked about CS:GO, talking about how “CS got to a point where you’re literally traveling… seven or eight months of the year. When I was younger, in 2013, we were traveling a lot. We were traveling to Europe, bootcamping in Europe all the time. It was a lot to handle.”

He compared Valorant to League of Legends and appreciates that players do not have to travel that much. Most of the esports ecosystem created by Riot Games is focused on online play with very limited LAN events. He feels that this model “makes the LANs more important and impactful and it’s less of a tax on players who have families, friends (and) girlfriends.”

Hiko will be competing with 100 Thieves at the next VCT Challengers NA event on 11 August in a bid to qualify for VCT Stage 3 Masters – Berlin. If the team qualifies, Hiko will finally be competing for the first time at a LAN event.