Ninjas in Pyjamas’ CEO Hicham Chahine caused an uproar in the CS:GO community today after tweeting that there will not be stickers for the upcoming BLAST Paris Major on May 8, which is one of the greatest perks for teams and players who qualify for the Valve-sponsored competition.
Later on, however, Chahine took it back once CS:GO fans started calling him out on Twitter and made it clear that he was joking while the fans are waiting for Valve to release the stickers for the last CS:GO Major ever. Chahine told Dot Esports he was just “reverse-jinxing” so Valve releases it as soon as possible.
Most fans knew what Chahine was up to in the beginning, though, as it’s known that Valve asked teams and players to send their signatures during the Major qualifiers in April.
“The CEO of an organization tweeting something definitive like this can genuinely make people think it is true and it is not a funny joke,” CS:GO journalist Danish Alana said. “Stop trolling,” another fan said.
The in-game stickers have been a staple for CS:GO‘s ecosystem since Valve introduced team stickers for the first time at EMS One Katowice Major in 2014. Later on, the developer added player signatures at ESL One Cologne Major in 2015, which allowed players to earn money from sales. The revenue generated by sticker sales is so massive that it helps some CS:GO organizations fund operations. The teams and players made over $70 million from stickers between 2021 and 2022, according to Valve.
The BLAST Paris Major will kick off on May 8 with 16 teams battling in the Challengers Stage and will finalize on May 21 with the showmatch and grand finals. Even though Valve is kind of delaying the release of the stickers, CS:GO fans should be able to purchase them sooner rather than later as time is running off.
