For me yes, ICO is the best way to invest because you can buy coins at a cheap price and considering some offers discounts for early investors.
I've made profits already investing in ICO so it's well recommended as it's profitable, but always do your job to make a study.
Your effort and your knowledge is the key to success here.
Yes indeed ICO is the best way to invest, but also high risk. So as you say, effort and knowledge is the key to success to invest in ICO. That's because not all ICOs can work and can make a decent profit. Probably the reason many investors are investing in an ICO they invest at the end of the period because they want to know the development of the ICO, it will be safer.