Counter-Strike 2’s new sticker system threatens the entire structure of the esports scene

There’s a lot of commotion in Counter-Strike community right now, and it’s related to Big Stickers. Valve recently changed the way Big Sticker sales work IEM Cologne 2026ditching the capsule system we’ve used for decades in favor of a token store where you simply buy the sticker you want at a set price.

At first, this new system may sound like a W to people who just don’t want to gamble on unboxings – maybe you just want to buy an autograph of your favorite player and go about your day. However, behind the scenes, this change is hitting the club’s finances hard – indeed hard – and if things don’t improve, it can have a negative impact on the future of the event.

For more than a decade, major labels have been dealing with pills. They’re like your standard armor bags, except they only contain stickers. Therefore, the capsule can have a predetermined set of team stickers or player autographs, and you open one and hope you find what you want.

Then, the income from those sales was divided among the groups, and we are talking about hard money. For example, according to HLTV.org, the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023 they broke records, and the teams are said to be earning an estimated $4.5 million each. Of course, other Majors don’t achieve that kind of spectacle, but teams in StarLadder Budapest Major by 2025 at least they were reportedly earning around $600,000 in dividends, which is still decent dough.

Another important thing is that this money was still paid regardless of how well the team did to the Major himself. You can show up at a Major, win zero maps, get knocked out of the final, and earn some serious cash.

This sticker income was a lot of money for smaller organizations – especially Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams. Qualifying for an Executive was a guaranteed payday – and a indeed big. If you are a Division 1 team, your first priority is to win the trophy – qualifying for the Premier is already a given. For these guys, the goal is to just get it done there, and you have a shot twice a year to do it.

Once there, the sticker money alone can fund the program for months.

The recent IEM Cologne Major was the first time things changed. The valve ruptured the capsule system completely. Tablets are no longer a thing, and fans now buy tokens and spend them directly on the specific stickers they want. Prices for individual stickers fluctuate based on demand.

At that time, if you wanted a golden Kryshkovets “donkey” sticker of Danil, you would have to open the tablets or buy them from the market. But now, you can just buy tokens, and copy this sticker directly – no tablets are needed, although popularity increases the price.

Therefore, teams that are eliminated from the competition in Tier 1 will earn less money than those that will be eliminated from Tier 2 or Tier 3. Teams in the lower half of the VRS ranking also receive less money, so Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs end up with a very small portion. Meanwhile, the likes of Vitality, Falcons, and NAVI, among the richest esports orgs, take the largest share.

I mean, sure, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and getting more money to get better makes perfect sense. But this isn’t really about who “deserves” more money – it’s about who really is requirements too much money, and that’s a group of lower groups.

According to a report by HLTV.org, the organization that submitted the packaging in Stage 1 made only about $60,000. But, we would consider it to be $120,000 if we calculate the same share that went to the players under the new 50/50 split. I’m going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt and spend $120,000 on this whole article.

So, for teams that can make it and get out early, we see at least a 5x drop compared to previous Majors. It could be up to 10x or more, depending on how the organization agrees to split the money between the players and all that.

So, why is income falling so hard? There are several possible reasons why.

First, since you no longer have to “gamble” to get the particular sticker you want, there is no reason left to keep spending money on random draws. Also, if you wanted a golden donkey sticker back then, you might have to open hundreds before you got it.

Valve (and the teams) made a lot of money from all those failed attempts. But stop gambling, and you’re taking away a decent chunk of that extra cash from people who missed out on what they really wanted.

There is also an investment angle. A group of players would buy a ton of sticker pills, not to open them, but to sit on them. Valve no longer sells capsules through the in-game store after the end of the Major, so you can only get them from other players who still have them. Therefore, putting them in stocks has become a popular investment opportunity, as you can sell them again later when the supply stops.

But now, we don’t have people carrying hundreds of sticky tablets anymore. You can multiply that by thousands of people who had the same idea. You can imagine how much sticker money just disappeared into thin air.

People always say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So, Valve probably had a good reason to make this big change, right? Valve hasn’t officially said why they discontinued the sticker tablets, but we can make a rough guess.

The company has been under heavy fire for gambling-related lawsuits, particularly its loot boxes. Last year, Valve released a new version of Terminal – you open it (without needing a case key), it shows you the skin, and you can decide whether you want to buy it or not. There is no more direct gambling involved in filing a lawsuit, which seems to be a clear sign that Valve was already trying to move forward with these lawsuits.

The sticker tablets worked in the same way as the armor case, meaning they would fall under the same cargo box as the umbrella controllers they targeted. So, this is probably the reason why Valve ditched the sticker capsule concept and tried their hand at this new token system instead.

As you can guess, groups are not happy about this change, especially Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs. These groups don’t have the luxury of Tier 1 groups that sound like 20 different sponsors, and they obviously find it difficult to stay profitable.

One of the best examples SINNER. This Czech organization has been chasing that big dream for years. They’ve been around since 2020, and those years of grinding finally paid off when they qualified for their first Major at IEM Cologne. The big one. They were eliminated from Stage 1, but just getting into the tournament should have been a big win regardless.

At that time, the teams were already getting big payouts, so they thought it was time for them to get theirs. But boom – if the $120,000 exit from Phase 1 doesn’t change, that’s how much they got. Thanks for playing.

Let’s take another example. There is this Russian organization called CYBERSHOKE that lists Tier 3 Counter-Strike. Like others at this level, their main goal is not to lift trophies at S-tier events – they want to win a Major. Last year, the team’s owner, Erik “Shoke” Shokov, revealed that he spent approximately $950,000 on the team over 2.5 years.

Of course, these costs are broken down into different things, but to keep things simple, let’s say you spend about $31,667 per month on the team. Every Big cycle is six months, so that’s about $190,000.

So, if CYBERSHOKE were to make it to the Major (they haven’t yet), considering the income figures of the previous stickers, Shoke would at least make a good amount of his money in those six months. But now, when the orgs are said to be getting around $120,000 before the player splits, the numbers look bad.

Even with the big cut in revenue, the Majors will still pay more than all the other S-tier events on the calendar – no doubt about that. The validity of one is still a big issue as the org and its players have their logo and name immortalized in the game.

But that’s not really the main point. Until this year, the Majors often offered life-changing money. It can make or break an organization’s entire year, and players may receive months (or even years) of salaries. Now, that’s great. A nice bonus, but nothing too extreme.

From another point of view, that sticker money wasn’t just about breaking or making money. Some groups can use it as fuel for recovery. Let’s say a team wins a Major – they get $600,000 or whatever. Maybe the organization can use some of that money to improve their roster and buy better players for next season.

Who knows, they might eventually get good enough to compete with a class above them. They may be a tough competitor in the future. A $120,000 payment does not.

Now, there is real danger. Tier 2 and Tier 3 orgs can risk chasing the Major slot because there is a clear reward. When you get to the Major, you will probably get paid with the rest. But now that the reward is over, the math stops the math.

Qualifying for a Major is still very difficult – not guaranteed. Because of how eligibility works with VRS points, orgs will have to send teams to compete in LAN tournaments and sponsor training camps, adding more costs to the equation.

So, if the payoff to reach the Major is no longer worth all this risk, why would the organization continue to bankroll the team? It doesn’t make much sense from a business perspective. They will be fully dependent on sponsorships and other sources of income, and we know that most esports organizations often struggle to make money.

I personally don’t know what the fix is, but I’m sure Valve needs to do something about this. Gaimin Gladiators exited CS2 last month, citing “recent changes in the Major ecosystem and revenue structure” as one of the main reasons. If nothing changes, we can see more to come.