When Are Major Stickers Released?
Counter-Strike 2 is currently one of the most popular esports titles in the world, amassing millions of players and fans since its initial release in August 2012. The title also rocks one of the biggest esports scenes in the world of competitive gaming, featuring massive tournaments with gigantic prize pools for the best teams in the world to compete in.
One of the most anticipated events in the CS2 competitive scene are the Major Championships, more commonly referred to as CS2 Majors. For the uninitiated, CS2 tournaments that are officially sponsored by Valve and have a minimum prize pool of $1,000,000 identify as a Major.
These events not only showcase top-tier Counter-Strike gameplay to the community but also offer an opportunity for players and fans to engage with their favorite teams in a unique way through Major stickers.
In this article, we take a dive into the world of CS2 Major stickers and try to identify details about their release schedule.
Why Major Stickers Are Special
The start of every CS2 Major tournament is accompanied by the release of its respective Major Stickers. Like any other stickers in the shooter, these Major Stickers are also cosmetic items that can be applied to weapons in a player’s inventory. However, what sets them apart is their temporary availability. They are only sold for a limited time and disappear from the store a few weeks after the tournament concludes.
The limited-time availability of CS2 Major Stickers encourages active participation from the community in the CS2 Major events, as players know they have a time-bound opportunity to acquire these exclusive stickers. This engagement greatly benefits the CS2 esports scene, as it increases viewership and community involvement during the tournament period.
On top of that, due to their scarcity, the value of these stickers can fluctuate significantly on the Steam Community Market, making them attractive investments for CS2 traders. The dynamic nature of their prices also adds an element of speculation to the ecosystem.
The Major Stickers in CS2 are generally available in separate five variants including Paper, Glitter, Foil, Holo, and Gold. Each Major tournament features three team sticker capsules (Legends, Contenders, and Challengers) alongside some Autograph capsules.
Looking At The Data From Previous Majors
Now that you’re aware of what CS2 Major stickers are and why they hold such significance to the game’s community, let’s take a look at when these stickers are released.
To put it simply, there’s no specific date for the release of Major Stickers in CS2. However, we can get a decent idea about their release date by studying the release patterns of the stickers from previous Majors.
For starters, we have to check out the release dates of all the past CS2 Majors and notice the difference between the sticker release date and tournament start date. To simplify the process, we’ve listed them in a table below:
| Tournament | Sticker Release | Tournament Start | Difference In Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 BLAST Paris | 2023-05-05 | 2022-05-08 | 3 |
| 2022 IEM Rio | 2022-10-21 | 2022-10-31 | 10 |
| 2022 PGL Antwerp | 2022-05-03 | 2022-05-09 | 6 |
| 2021 PGL Stockholm | 2021-10-21 | 2021-10-26 | 5 |
| 2019 StarLadder Berlin | 2019-08-14 | 2019-08-23 | 9 |
| 2019 IEM Katowice | 2019-02-06 | 2019-02-13 | 7 |
| 2018 FACEIT London | 2018-08-29 | 2018-09-05 | 7 |
| 2018 ELEAGUE Boston | 2017-12-19 | 2018-01-12 | 24 |
| 2017 PGL Krakow | 2017-07-07 | 2017-07-16 | 9 |
| 2017 ELEAGUE Atlanta | 2017-01-12 | 2017-01-22 | 10 |
| 2016 ESL One Cologne | 2016-06-24 | 2016-07-05 | 11 |
| 2016 MLG Columbus | 2016-03-17 | 2016-03-29 | 12 |
| 2015 DreamHack Cluj-Napoca | 2015-10-20 | 2015-10-28 | 8 |
| 2015 ESL One Cologne | 2015-08-14 | 2015-08-20 | 6 |
| 2015 ESL One Katowice | 2015-02-26 | 2015-03-12 | 14 |
| 2014 DreamHack Winter | 2014-11-21 | 2014-11-27 | 6 |
| 2014 ESL One Cologne | 2014-08-04 | 2014-08-14 | 10 |
| 2014 EMS One Katowice | 2014-03-06 | 2014-03-13 | 7 |
When Are CS2 Major Stickers Usually Released?
After reviewing the above list, we observe that, on average, stickers are launched approximately 9 days before the start date of a major tournament. That’s just an average though - as you can see, the release is usually between 5 and 10 days before the start of the event.
Furthermore, it’s also evident that the tournament sticker capsules have consistently been released exclusively on weekdays, and never on weekends.
With this information, we can easily make educated guesses on the release date of Major Stickers for the upcoming Counter-Strike tournaments.
When Do Sales For Major Stickers Start?
We got you covered here as well. We’ve written an in-depth article about when you can expect CS2 Major Stickers to go on sale.
When Do Sales For Major Stickers End?
If you’re also curious about how long Sticker Sales last and when they end, check out our article about CS2 Major Sticker sale durations.
Conclusion
To sum it up, it’s safe to say that the release of Major Stickers can be expected roughly 5-10 days before the start of a Major tournament. However, take this with a grain of salt as there have been instances where Valve released the stickers before or after that time frame. Additionally, it’s worth noting that Major Stickers have consistently not been released on weekends, suggesting a very high probability of a weekday release.
It’s important to state here that purchasing tournament stickers right off the bat as soon as they go on sale might not be the best idea for most players. Ideally, it is advisable to wait for the Major Sticker sale before buying stickers, as it offers substantial discounts of up to an impressive 75% for the players.
