The stickers for the StarLadder Budapest CS2 Major have now been released, and as always, some are leaving people scratching their heads, whilst others are providing plenty of excitement for future sticker crafts.
Strangely, though, these latest Major stickers have also left some people feeling emotional, with both Cai “CYPHER” Watson and Havard “rain” Nygaard’s stickers feeling very bittersweet.
The stickers going live also mean that the Major Viewer Pass has been released. Players can now lock in their Pick’Ems for Stage 1 of the Budapest Major, and they’ll all be hoping that it goes better than it did with the BLAST Austin Major, where many players saw their hopes of a Diamond Coin dashed at the first hurdle.
Stickers also now feature Pokémon card-esque Sticker Slabs attached to them, keeping the stickers nicely encased in a protective pocket that allows players to attach them to their guns as charms and return them to their inventory at a later date if desired.
Some Stickers Cause a Stir
In terms of the actual stickers themselves, Falcons’ prodigious talent Maxim “kyousuke” Lukin has left people utterly confused about his first sticker. The youngster seems like he’s taken Valve’s sticker rules to heart, drawing out his five-second design with an interesting amount of artistic flair.
Some other designs have caught the eye, including matching stickers from brothers Baatarkhuu “Bart4k” Batbold and Ayush “mzinho” Batbold, as well as clean designs from the likes of FURIA star Danil “molodoy” Golubenko and Chinese fan-favourite, Junjie “EmiliaQAQ” Tang.
Heartbreak Hotel
Unfortunately, not every sticker has brought joy to the Counter-Strike community. For the likes of rain and CYPHER, who were both benched by their respective teams and will miss the Major, the stickers Have instead brought a rare sense of sympathy to the scene.
rain’s sticker features a sad face, as well as an “R” that’s styled to also look like a “P” (making the sticker read “pain”) whilst CYPHER’s features a “H”, a tribute to his girlfriend.
