Esports stickers in Counter-Strike have evolved a lot since the first Majors. Today, players put real effort into customizing their autograph stickers and even hide references inside them! The CS.MONEY Blog checked all the stickers from the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 and found the most interesting ones!
Watch the Budapest Major with us! Predict the winners and win cool skins!
Decorated autograph stickers
Many autograph stickers feature small decorative elements. For example, some players replace the letter O in their nickname with an AWP scope. What’s interesting is that this isn’t just done by snipers. You can find crosshair symbols on stickers from:
- NiKo;
- Torzsi;
- z4KR;
- 910;
- Device;
- Woxic;
- W0nderful;
- Jambo;
- Brnz4n;
- Wicadia;
- Noway;
- Regali.
Besides crosshairs, there are other repeating symbols too. For example, hearts or smiley faces. And the Brazilian player biguzera even managed to squeeze a beer glass into his sticker. But all of these are pretty obvious autograph decorations. Now let’s move on to the much less obvious references hidden in the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 stickers.
Budapest Major stickers with references
At previous Majors, stickers already had references to other media. For example, Yuri “yuurih” Santos added a Sharingan to his stickers for the Stockholm Major. The Budapest Major didn’t break this tradition either.
One Piece reference by chopper
For several years now, you can spot a hat with a cross on it on the sticker of the Team Spirit captain. This is a direct reference to the headwear of the medic from the One Piece anime crew. By the way, that medic’s name is also quite special. His name is Tony Tony Chopper. Coincidence?
Dice and clover by Lucky
The player with the very fitting nickname Lucky once again included a symbol of good luck on his sticker. Before it was a four-leaf clover, and now it’s a six-sided die with the number six on top. Obvious reference? Sure, but we included it for another reason too. The die is drawn correctly: you can see the numbers 6, 4, and 2, exactly how they should appear from that angle in real life. That’s some serious attention to detail!
iM and his former captain
Nicknames of former teammates or legendary players from a player’s home country appear on stickers from time to time. Just remember the stickers from The MongolZ players. But for Ivan “iM” Mihai, this is a first. On his personal sticker, three letters appeared: BTN. This is no accident, because BTN is the nickname of the captain of Nexus Gaming, the team where Mihai started his career.
Makazze No. 17
Another Natus Vincere player also left a mysterious mark. Makazze has the number 17 on his sticker. We don’t know exactly what this number refers to, but there’s one theory: he joined the “Born to Win” academy team at the age of 17. Sadly, even the player’s own social media posts don’t give a clear answer.
MAJ3R and his children
On the sticker of Aurora Gaming’s captain, Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli, you can notice two small human figures. The story behind them is simple: they represent his two children. This isn’t the first time he’s done this. Stick-figure people already appeared on his stickers back at the Austin Major.
VINI’s secret message
Vinicius “VINI” Figueiredo is a big fan of decorating his autograph. In the past, his stickers featured sharks, sausages, and cartoon faces. Now there are just dots. What do they mean? The answer is simple: Vinicius translated his nickname into Morse code and left a second autograph underneath the first one on the same sticker.
After looking through all the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 stickers, we can confidently say that player creativity was a little more restrained at autograph signing this year. But that didn’t stop them from decorating their stickers and even sneaking in Easter eggs. Now all that’s left is to wait for the community to turn these into new insane crafts. To make sure you don’t miss it — follow us on social media, like our X.
