As Counter-Strike 2 fans patiently await the release of the PGL Copenhagen Major sticker capsules, the reason behind the record delay has been revealed with many pros forced to rewrite their signatures as many had outsourced designs and used commercial fonts—against Valve’s new guidelines.
CS2 streamer and co-owner of Danish organization ECSTATIC Oliver “zipeL” Behrensdorff discussed the reason for the delay on X (formerly Twitter) on March 19, stating that the Major sticker capsules were delayed because Valve wanted anyone who had their autograph designed needed to redo them at the event. “From Valve’s perspective maybe they’re worried designers [would] sneak in any commercial logo,” zipeL added.
Valve made a specific update to how sticker signatures for the Major worked going forward ahead of the Copenhagen Major whereby players must hand-draw their sticker design and not use the likes of custom fonts. It’s clear players attempted to skirt this rule change, judging by several previews and the fact that Valve has denied signature submissions already according to a March 13 tweet from data minier Thour.
It was originally believed the sticker delay was due to 9Pandas’ last-minute withdrawal due to travel issues, but Valve ensures all teams at the RMR stage have their signature ready in case of an emergency change. GamerLegion’s team logo and sticker in the client were updated almost immediately after their addition to the Major, yet still CS2 players have been kept waiting.
ZipeL did say the sticker capsules would be on sale “soon,” so it sounds like the pros are just about done updating their signatures, but given some of the eliminated Opening Stage teams will be home by the time stickers are released, it’s a bit of a shame we couldn’t get our hands on them sooner.
Here’s hoping they’re ready in time for the Elimination Stage later this week.
