Hunter “SicK” Mims has announced his retirement from competitive Counter-Strike. The 21-year-old puts an end to a five-year-long pro career in the game with plans to focus on streaming and possibly playing Valorant competitively.
Another failed CS:GO pro making the Valorant switch
SicK, a once promising North American CS:GO talent, is giving up on his professional career in the game. That much he announced through his Twitter account. His reasoning is Counter-Strike becoming “incredibly stale and tedious”, adding that his retirement was inevitable. Valorant just happened to come at the right time to offer an alternative of which the American plans to take full advantage.
After 5 years and almost 800 official maps played, I'm taking a step back from competitive CS:GO. The game has become incredibly stale and tedious for me. Valorant comes at a perfect time but it was inevitable anyway. I've spent my entire adult life in this game, it's been fun.
— Hunter Mims (@SicK_cs) April 21, 2020
SicK signed his first professional contract with Mortality Esports as a 16-year-old in March 2015. He switched around teams a lot throughout the year but made enough of an impression to catch the attention of Team Solo Mid and signed with the organization at the start of 2016, igniting the best period of his career.
SicK was part of a two-man up and coming TSM combo together with Russell “Twistzz” van Dulken. Only one of them was able to make it to the big time, though. While Twistzz became one of the best players in the world with Team Liquid, SicK got lost in mediocrity with various NA rosters that promised much but delivered nothing of notice.
SicK’s final stop in professional CS:GO was with Chaos Esports Club at Flashpoint Season 1 where they finished 7-8th out of 12 teams.
Started by Braxton “Brax” Pierce a little over a month ago, there’s been something of a trend for CS:GO pros to retire from the scene they are known for and make the leap to Riot’s new first-person shooter Valorant. Still, in its beta, Valorant is the talk of the moment, so it is understandably tempting for those who are no longer relevant in CS:GO to test their luck. Don’t be too surprised if we get some prodigal sons back in autumn though.
