Following 100 Thieves’ quarterfinals win over T1, ONE Esports caught up with the team’s star player, Spencer “Hiko” Martin to talk about how the team prepared for First Strike.
“We might have prepared a little too much for certain enemies,” recounted Hiko of their past tournaments, “So, our main thought process going into First Strike, dealing with the big event of the year, was, ‘Hey, let’s try to focus more on ourselves, instead of what the other team does.’ So, we really tried to solidify everything.”
However, 100 Thieves had a slow start on Haven in Game 1, and it really didn’t look good for them after the half. “We knew that a 9-3 half could have easily continued to a 13-3 loss; pro matches can spiral that fast,” said Hiko, “But we were confident that as the match continued, the better team would win the game.”
True enough, the first game ultimately concluded with both Asuna and nitr0 stepping up and combining for a 42/31/11 KDA record, with nitr0 being awarded MVP on Haven.
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Later, after taking a quick lead on Bind and earning the comeback win, Hiko shared that he was surprised at how well T1 was able to rally behind Ha “Spyder” Jung-woo, who had switched from Omen to Phoenix on Bind and carried his team in critical moments of the game.
100 Thieves resolved to stick to their game plan though and continued to execute on their post-plant situations to close out the rounds. “We also knew that one player wouldn’t be able to carry an entire team throughout the match. So, once Spyder started to slow down, we knew we had them,” Hiko concluded.
When asked about how Skye had made it into the tournament agent pool for the first time, Hiko had this to say: “So, in theory, Skye has an amazing kit, three cheap flashes, an ability that’s like a drone, and she can heal. But her ultimate isn’t great, it gets bugged quite often.” He further explained that Skye’s abilities are quite difficult to execute in tournament play, though maybe she would be useful in pubs. Hiko, for his part, doesn’t see her as a valuable agent pick in tournaments.
Hiko, alongside his 100 Thieves squad, is set to face off against tournament favorite Sentinels in a semifinals match on December 6 at 8:00 a.m. GMT+8.
READ MORE: Sentinels advance to the First Strike North America semifinals
