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Tale of The Cursed Child of Tyche: Hiko (Part 1)

The clutch-master in Spencer “Hiko” Martin was born in Detroit and started playing Counter-Strike in middle school after a... Fragster | 12. September 2021

The clutch-master in Spencer “Hiko” Martin was born in Detroit and started playing Counter-Strike in middle school after a hockey injury forced him off physical sports. After discovering that there are people who are paid to play this game and that they get to travel all around the world, he knew what he wanted to be.

But the circumstances weren’t in his favor. Despite his family suffering economically in the mid-2000s and having a $30,000 education loan, Hiko decided to drop out of a Computer Science Major to pursue his dreams. His family was the last among the people amused, but he believed in himself and trod on. As time would prove it, the Greek goddess of luck, Tyche, was one of those unhappy people.

Early Career

Hiko soon made a name for himself in the CS 1.6 scene and by the time CS:GO came around, he was ready to enter the scene with a bang. And with a bang, did he enter. Joining Quantic and teaming up with n0thing, swag and Brax, Hiko and co. upset the CS 1.6 mega-team, VeryGames. The team found themselves as one of the big things in the NA scene. Soon, the roster moved under the Complexity banner.

This is the point that would mark the start of the curse he was born with. Complexity reached the final of ESEA S14 and lost to the very same team that defeated them in ESEA S13: NiP. It was the Ninjas again that dropped them from the next top-tier tournament, ESWC 2013. And then the real deal came along. The first-ever CS:GO Major. In a strong showing and a statement tournament where we saw COL famously outsmarting VeryGames to win Inferno, COL did fall short. They were ranked 3rd-4th in the Major after losing to eventual champions, fnatic, in the semi-finals. Despite that, they had cemented themselves as far-and-away the best team out of the NA region. They were so close to glory, yet Hiko and co. were always just so far away.

2014 rolled out and COL started their pursuit for trophies. In the first top-tier tournament, the eventual champions in iBUYPOWER defeated COL in the Lower Bracket Final. Next was the Major where lo and behold, it was NiP again to drop COL in the Quarter Finals. In ESEA S16, COL finally put behind their ghosts of NiP after beating them. They followed that with convincing victories over NaVi and previous Major winners, Virtus.Pro. They were finally on the cusp of sweet glory in Hiko’s last event with COL. Hiko’s salvation might have just reached him in his very last event. But it was not to be. The final tear in the Complexity shirt witnessed a loss to iBUYPOWER again in the Grand Finals. It was tragic.

The roster now moved on and joined the Cloud9 organization, with the addition of shroud. The very first event for the squad was the second Major of the year: ESL One Cologne 2014. And they were on fire. Beating the French giants, Titan, boasting of kennyS, ScreaM, NBK, and Ex6tenZ, they reached the playoffs by topping the group. And that’s where history repeated itself, much to Hiko’s dismay. The Ninjas were back. Cloud9 fell to NiP after winning the first map and losing 16-14, the absolute edge, on both the later maps. Cloud9 moved on though, as NiP went on to win that Major.

In the following two months, Cloud9 became one of the best NA teams, competing with iBUYPOWER for the no. 1 spot. The third Major came along. And it was a disaster. After losing to HellRaisers in the group stage match, Cloud9 found themselves in a match against fnatic for the Playoffs. Cloud9 didn’t even stand a chance, as they lost 16-5. This would be the last event for Hiko with Cloud9, as they parted ways after just 5 months.

In the same month, Hiko joined the only other NA team competing internationally: iBUYPOWER. The roster was to move to EG and create another super-team out of the region. But as it had been on many, many occasions in his career, factors beyond his control sabotaged his dreams. This time, it was the banning of the rest of the iBUYPOWER members for match-fixing that forced Hiko to be lost without a sense of direction.

To find a way back after this shocking development could be near impossible, but somehow Hiko managed to find a team where though he couldnt win, still shined the brightest he ever had. 

Read about it in Part 2 of the History of Hiko!