CS2 Update (Jul 1, 2026)

This update refreshes the IEM Cologne 2026 content in CS2 with new Champion autograph stickers, highlight-reel keychain charms, and a significantly upgraded Major Store UI that now treats stickers and charms as first‑class items.

Major Store Overhaul: Stickers and Highlight Charms Together

• Keychains promoted to “Highlight Charms”:

  • The tournament shop now treats keychains as highlight-themed charms tied to specific pro plays. UI text refers to them as "Highlight Charms" and “items” rather than only “stickers.”
  • The main token tooltip and cart messages now talk about redeeming "items" instead of just stickers, so tokens clearly cover both stickers and highlight charms.

• New Highlight Charms category and filters:

  • The store gains a dedicated Highlight Charms banner (major_store_banner_keychains) and a Highlight Charms Only filter toggle in the sidebar.
  • When the charm filter is active, team and rarity filters are disabled and the sort mode resets to a sensible default, making it easier to browse just charms without conflicting filters.
  • Search now returns two result sections: one for stickers and one for highlight charms, each with its own “See all” button (major_store_search_see_all_stickers, major_store_search_see_all_keychains).
  • The main item counter now reads {d:item-count} Items, reflecting that the grid can contain both stickers and charms.

• New Keychains page and stage sections:

  • A new page (id-major-store-keychains) groups highlight charms by tournament stage using stage sections (e.g. Swiss stages, playoffs, grand final).
  • Each section uses a keychain-section layout with a big stage title (localized via #CSGO_Tournament_Event_Stage_*) and a wrap layout of tiles.
  • The store builds these sections based on g_ActiveTournamentHighlights, so each stage’s charm set appears together.

• Champions banner and favorites rework:

  • A MAJOR CHAMPIONS STICKERS banner (major_store_banner_champions) highlights Champion signatures, sorted by popularity and price.
  • The Favorites banner is renamed from "FAVORITE STICKERS" to "FAVORITE ITEMS", and now includes both stickers and highlight charms.
  • The "Top 40 trending" text remains sticker-focused but is now presented alongside charm‑oriented banners.

• Improved filtering, sorting, and search UX:

  • Filters for teams and rarities now ignore disabled buttons (for example, when the keychain-only toggle is on) to avoid confusing states.
  • The default sort for list view is now weekly-high-low instead of a generic "default" entry, giving more meaningful ordering out of the box.
  • Active filters (including the new Highlight Charms Only toggle) show up as removable pills in the navbar; clearing the keychain filter also resets the sort to weekly-high-low.
  • Bookmarks/Favorites now work by item definition ID, and the system handles both sticker IDs (rawId) and charm IDs (kc_highlight).

• Unified price handling across all Major items:

  • The store now tracks pending price updates for all dynamic containers in g_ActiveTournamentDynamicContainers (stickers, Champion stickers, and highlight-charm crates) instead of only itemid_dynamic_stickers.
  • Functions like GetSecondsUntilPendingPriceUpdateForAllTournamentItems() aggregate the soonest upcoming update across every Major container.
  • The refresh timer UI and checkout popup both rely on this shared helper, so any pending update to any Major item set will surface in the UI.

• Shared data refresh and subscriptions:

  • The popup now subscribes to every tournament shop container via _SubscribeForAllTournamentItems(), not just the dynamic sticker capsule.
  • When a volatile shop update arrives, the code:
    • Updates stickers if the container is either dynamic stickers or Champion stickers;
    • Updates highlight charms if the container is one of the highlight crates.
  • The loading overlay now waits for all relevant price sheets (stickers, Champion signatures, and highlight charms) before dismissing, reducing partial/half-baked price displays.

New Champion Autograph Stickers for Cologne 2026

• Champion sticker set added:

  • A full line of Champion autographs has been added for the IEM Cologne 2026 champion team Falcons (event id 26, team id 139):
    • NiKo – cologne2026_signature_niko_champion
    • kyxsan – cologne2026_signature_kyxsan_champion
    • m0NESY – cologne2026_signature_m0nesy_champion
    • TeSeS – cologne2026_signature_teses_champion
    • kyousuke – cologne2026_signature_kyousuke_champion
  • Each player gets the usual four finishes: base, foil, holo, and gold, with matching sticker kits and localizations.

• Champion capsule:

  • A new crate entry crate_sticker_pack_cologne2026_champion is defined and wired as a volatile pricing sticker capsule:
    • Uses the same capsule prefab as other Cologne 2026 sticker packs.
    • Has its own lootlist (crate_sticker_pack_cologne2026_champion_* for rare/mythical/legendary/ancient) that includes only Champion versions of the autographs.
  • This capsule is added both as a revolving loot list and as a redeemable good for the Cologne 2026 operation, meaning:
    • It appears alongside the existing “all” sticker pack; and
    • It can be obtained with tokens as part of the operation’s reward store.

• Store integration for champions:

  • g_ActiveTournamentInfo now includes itemid_champion_stickers, and the code:
    • Checks pricing for this container during initial load;
    • Updates sticker data when champion prices are refreshed; and
    • Treats Champion stickers as a separate banner and filterable subset (champion: true in the internal data).
  • A new Champions banner in the store presents the most popular Champion signatures in carousel form.

• Major hub and main menu callouts:

  • The Major Hub store panel now has an extra line: “Now Available – Champions Stickers and Highlight Charms” (major_hub_store_desc_2).
  • The main menu Major tile shows two prominent promo images:
    • A NiKo Champion sticker; and
    • The Cologne 2026 highlight charm keychain.
  • The tile caption switches from simply "Visit The Major Hub" to highlighting that Champions Stickers and Highlights are available (mainmenu_major_hub_new_items).

Cologne 2026 Highlight Charms and Reels

• New keychain (highlight charm) base:

  • A kc_cologne2026 keychain base and a corresponding Cologne 2026 Highlight item name/description are defined.
  • All new charms use this base and add a highlight_reel id tying them to a particular replay.

• Six highlight charm crates added:

  • New volatile containers crate_highlights_pack_cologne2026_1 through _6 correspond to different parts of the Major:
    • Stage 1 Swiss (stage 49)
    • Stage 2 Swiss (stage 65)
    • Stage 3 Swiss (stage 83)
    • Quarterfinals (stage 6)
    • Semifinals (stage 8)
    • Grand final + ceremony (stage 97)
  • Each crate’s lootlist contains about 10–11 charms, each mapped to one specific highlight reel (e.g. kc_cologne2026_st3magixxanubismultiweaponace).
  • All six crates are added as redeemable rewards in the Cologne 2026 operation, so players can spend tokens on highlight charm packs in addition to sticker capsules.

• Highlight reel metadata (engine-level):

  • A new highlight_reels section defines several dozen reels, each with:
    • A unique ID string (e.g. cologne2026_gfm0nesyinfernomajorwinningkill),
    • Event and stage IDs,
    • Map (de_nuke, de_mirage, de_inferno, de_anubis, de_ancient, de_overpass, de_dust2), and
    • The two participating team IDs.
  • This structure ties charms to actual Major matches and moments, enabling consistent playback and UI labeling.

• Localized highlight titles and descriptions:

  • Each highlight reel gets a name and description in csgo_english.txt, for example:
    • "w0nderful 2 HP 1v4 Clutch" on Dust II;
    • "m0NESY Major-winning Kill" on Inferno;
    • "KSCERATO ACE" on Dust II; and many others.
  • These strings are used when displaying charm tiles and in the inspect/video UI, so players see a human-readable title and short description of the play that charm commemorates.

• Store presentation for highlight charms:

  • Charm tiles now have:
    • Team logos for both sides of the match (foreground and blurred background, using diagonal mask images);
    • A stage label like "Quarterfinals" or "Grand Final";
    • Highlight title and price, plus weekly low/high positioning like stickers.
  • On hover, the tile can play a video clip of the highlight if the item has a reel attribute ({uint32}keychain slot 0 highlight), via an in-tile movie container.
  • Charms can be added to the cart and favorites just like stickers, and support the same price-change animation and price-protection text.

• Automatic video popup for charms in inspect:

  • The inspect action bar has been updated so that when an item has a highlight reel:
    • The “View Highlight Reel” button shows; and
    • If the item is a keychain, the highlight popup is automatically opened after a tiny delay when you inspect it.
  • This suggests Valve wants highlight charms to immediately surface their video content when players inspect them.

UI and Visual Polish in the Major Store

• Tile variants for stickers vs charms:

  • Sticker tiles keep rarity bars, team logos, and hot-trend badges.
  • Charm tiles (keychain class) instead show:
    • Dual team logos and blurred diagonal backgrounds;
    • Stage text; and
    • A big highlight title.
  • Charm tiles can display a trophy overlay (id-store-item-trophy) for final-stage items (stage 97), with styling suggesting grand-final or champion status.

• Banners and carousels refined:

  • All banners now share a consistent background gradient, dot texture, and padding.
  • Bookmarks, champions, keychains, and popular banners each have their own carousel and navigation UI.
  • Bookmark and popular banners reuse the same tile snippet but set additional classes (popular-tile, banner-bookmark, keychain-banner) to control size and behavior.

• Improved small-tile layout:

  • The small tile variant is fully reworked so hidden tiles collapse correctly, rarity bars show only when appropriate, and keychain-specific decorations behave well in compact grids.
  • Banner tiles have clearer hover behavior: revealing high/low price bars and expanding trend icons when you move the mouse over them.

• Search overlay layout:

  • The text search overlay is now wider, with two vertical lists side-by-side when both stickers and charms match.
  • Each list has its own “See all” button summarizing result counts, plus rows that support inspect and bookmarking.

• Team pack and single-view tweaks:

  • Team view now uses a UniqueRandomGenerator helper to consistently vary sticker stacking order and rotation without duplicates.
  • Sticker containers clean up any extra child items when the selection changes, fixing potential leftover stickers from previous views.
  • Single-view now dynamically creates as many tiles as needed instead of assuming exactly four.

Economy and Backend Safeguards

• Data integrity checks for items:

  • Internal tooling and server/client strings now include warnings for:
    • Invalid highlight reels referenced by keychains;
    • Base keychain definitions that fail to resolve; and
    • Duplicate gold stickers for a given event/team/player with decreasing IDs (which could break assumptions about sort order).
  • These checks likely help Valve’s content pipeline avoid releasing inconsistent Champion/gold stickers or charms.

• Cologne 2026 standings metadata:

  • A new team_places block for event 26 assigns final placements to all participating teams, from Falcons (1st) down through the rest of the field.
  • This may be used for medals, in-game overlays, or descriptive text in other UI panels.

• Souvenir price subscription clarified:

  • The async inspect souvenir checkout bar now bails out if a volatile shop update is not for the dynamic sticker container.
  • This keeps its souvenir token price calculations scoped to the correct sheet and avoids accidental coupling to new Major crates.

Main Menu & Tournament Watch Panel

• Main menu Major tile visual update:

  • The Major tile script and layout now:
    • Layer promo art with two item images (a Champion NiKo sticker and the Cologne 2026 keychain), and
    • Emphasize "Champions Stickers and Highlights" as the call to action.
  • The promo subtitle is visually emphasized with gold-toned text and a strong drop shadow.

• Tournament Watch player card correction:

  • The watch tab now special-cases event 26: if a player appears as kyxsan, the UI:
    • Displays the name "karrigan"; and
    • Uses 76561197989430253 as the avatar steamid.
  • This suggests a branding/identity update for that slot in the official watch UI, without changing the underlying tournament stats data.

New Assets and Map Flavor Details

• Champion sticker art & avatars:

  • New materials and textures are added under stickers/cologne2026 and panorama/images/econ/stickers/cologne2026 for all Champion variants.
  • Extra avatars for tournament players are added under panorama/images/tournaments/avatars, keeping UI headshots in sync with the new champion lineup.

• Cologne 2026 keychain art:

  • A new material weapons/keychains/cologne2026/kc_cologne2026.vmat and corresponding Panorama image are present, used for charm tiles and inventory icons.

• Mirage novelty prop (tomato sauce bottle):

  • New models, materials, and particles are added under models/de_mirage/food/magixx_sauce_01a and materials/particle/fluids/pulp:
    • A breakable sauce bottle model with multiple shard pieces.
    • Fluid materials and particles like break_tomato_sauce and tomato_splat_01a.
  • This strongly suggests a new breakable sauce bottle prop on Mirage that sprays tomato-like fluid when destroyed, potentially tied to one of the highlight reels referenced in the charm descriptions.

Overall Impact

This update significantly deepens the IEM Cologne 2026 content in CS2:

• Players get a full Champion autograph set for Falcons, with a dedicated capsule and a prominent Champions banner in the shop.
• A new class of highlight charms turns specific memorable plays and matches into collectible keychains, each backed by real highlight reels and stage labels.
• The Major Store UI evolves from a sticker browser into an item marketplace that coherently handles stickers, Champion signatures, and highlight charms with unified pricing, filters, and search.
• Visual and audio assets for charms and a new Mirage prop help ground these items in the pro matches they reference.

The result is a more cohesive Major experience that ties the tokens you spend, the items you collect, and the plays you remember into one integrated tournament ecosystem inside CS2.