IEM Cologne 2026 ran in Cologne from June 2 to 21 — 32 teams, a $1.25 million prize pool, and a title won by Falcons over FURIA in the grand final, with m0NESY named tournament MVP. For this Major, Valve dropped sticker and autograph capsules entirely, replacing them with the Cologne 2026 Major Shop, a token-based store where every sticker is picked directly, no RNG involved. That shop has a hard deadline: Valve is closing it on September 29, 2026, and after that date no new Cologne 2026 stickers can be bought through the Shop — further supply on secondary markets like LIS-SKINS will come only from copies players already hold. Below is how the new system works, what the Souvenir-O-Matic does, and how to buy the autograph or team sticker you want right now, while the market is still filling up.
How the Major Shop and Cologne 2026 Tokens Work
Instead of a capsule with a random sticker inside, Valve opened a shop where team logos and player autographs in Paper, Holo, Foil, and Gold can be bought directly with tokens: 100 tokens cost $0.99. Every sticker's price floats with demand, so popular autographs get more expensive while less-wanted ones drop. If a sticker you just bought loses more than 25 tokens in value within 24 hours of purchase, the difference gets refunded to your balance — the mechanics are covered in more depth in our breakdown of the sticker system update.
Tokens can also come from the Viewer Pass and the Pick'Em Challenge: the pass grants a Challenge Coin that upgrades from Bronze through Diamond, and each upgrade awards 300 tokens to spend in the Major Shop. Valve later added two more lineups on top of the original Event Series. On July 28-29 it shipped the Ranked Series — the same autographs and team stickers, but for every team in the bracket, marked with the team's final placement, and priced well below Event Series; Valve itself said the original floating-price model for Event Series "didn't produce reasonable prices." Separately, on July 1, Valve released the Champion Autograph Stickers — a standalone commemorative lineup for Falcons' win, covering only that team's five players in Paper, Holo, Foil, and Gold; on LIS-SKINS these are tagged "(Champion)" in the item name. A similar but not identical system was already tested at the previous Major — the tokens and Viewer Pass writeup from StarLadder Budapest 2025 is a good side-by-side of what actually changed.
Souvenir-O-Matic: Build Your Own Souvenir Instead of a Random Drop
The second big change: souvenir skins from Cologne 2026 no longer drop randomly during matches. Instead, players build their own through the Souvenir-O-Matic — take any Normal or Souvenir-quality weapon from your inventory, pick a completed tournament match and a specific player, and the weapon is permanently converted into a souvenir carrying gold team stickers, that player's autograph, and a map sticker. Any stickers already applied to the weapon are removed as part of the conversion and cannot be returned to your inventory — there's no mechanic in CS2 to peel a sticker back off a skin, so think twice before running a weapon with a valuable existing craft through the Souvenir-O-Matic. The craft's price depends on the base weapon's rarity and demand for the specific gold team and autograph stickers involved.
Souvenir quality was also brought in line with Normal quality in terms of rarity, so older souvenir skins from past tournaments, including souvenirs from the Austin Major, now formally rank the same as standard copies. Souvenirs can also now be used in trade-up contracts right alongside regular items, with the souvenir attributes stripped from the inputs and not carried over to the output. The general crafting logic behind both skins and stickers is covered in our CS2 crafting guide.
How to Buy Cologne 2026 Stickers and Autographs Now
Until September 29, it's worth comparing the Major Shop price of the sticker you want against secondary-market listings — with floating prices, which route is cheaper depends on the specific sticker, especially given Valve's own admission that the original Event Series model didn't always land on reasonable prices. On LIS-SKINS, every Cologne 2026 sticker is already listed as a regular item: search by player nickname or team name, pick a finish — Paper, Holo, Foil, or Gold — and buy the listing outright, no waiting.
The price spread is wide. The donk (Gold) autograph (Event Series) runs around $66, even though his team, Team Spirit, didn't take the title — our breakdown of its price at launch shows that a specific player's name recognition and popularity can move demand noticeably, independent of his team's final placement. The m0NESY (Gold) autograph in its Event Series version sits around $75, while his separate Champion Autograph Stickers version runs around $47. The priciest right now is the NiKo (Gold) autograph's Event Series version at around $209; his Champion Autograph edition costs noticeably less, around $119. The Falcons (Holo) team sticker runs around $99, while the more modest ZywOo (Gold) autograph costs around $28.
What Affects the Price of Cologne 2026 Stickers and Autographs
Finish. Paper and Holo run from cents to a few dollars, Foil costs noticeably more, and Gold is the most expensive and rarest finish an autograph comes in.
Release lineup. Event Series is the original, floating-price lineup; the Ranked Series (July 28-29, every team, cheaper than Event) and the separate Champion Autograph Stickers (July 1, only Falcons' five players) are priced differently from the original version of the same autograph — these are three distinct products, not variants of one sticker.
Player popularity and name recognition. A team's final placement isn't the only factor — demand for a specific player's autograph can meaningfully affect its price.
The Major Shop closing on September 29, 2026. After that date, no new stickers can be bought through the Shop, so further secondary-market supply will come only from copies players already hold — market trackers note that past Major stickers typically rise in price in the months after their shop closes, especially for the champion team, though that's a pattern, not a guarantee.
Cologne 2026's pricing logic isn't any different from past tournaments — our rundown of CS2's most expensive stickers shows the same pattern: autographs of top players on the champion roster tend to hold their price longer than the rest.
A few price benchmarks — pricing model, lineup, and spread:
| Player / Team | Finish | Lineup | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZywOo | Gold | Event Series | ≈$28 |
| donk | Gold | Event Series | ≈$66 |
| m0NESY | Gold | Champion Autograph | ≈$47 |
| m0NESY | Gold | Event Series | ≈$75 |
| Falcons (team) | Holo | Event Series | ≈$99 |
| NiKo | Gold | Champion Autograph | ≈$119 |
| NiKo | Gold | Event Series | ≈$209 |
Prices reflect LIS-SKINS listings at the time of writing. The "≈" mark denotes an approximate price; quotes and the availability of specific stickers can change, especially once the Major Shop closes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I still buy tokens and pick a sticker directly in-game?
Yes, but only until September 29, 2026 — after that date Valve closes the Cologne 2026 Major Shop, and getting a specific sticker will only be possible on a secondary market like LIS-SKINS.
What's the difference between a regular autograph and the "Champion"-tagged version?
The tag means the sticker belongs to the separate Champion Autograph Stickers lineup, which Valve released on July 1 specifically to mark Falcons' win, covering only that team's five players. That's not the same thing as the broader Ranked Series (July 28-29, covering every team in the tournament, priced below the original Event Series) — both lineups shipped after the tournament ended, but they're distinct products.
Which Cologne 2026 autograph is the most expensive right now?
At the time of writing, it's the Gold version of the NiKo autograph's Event Series, around $209. But the price rides on demand and name recognition, not just the player's team's final placement, so the ranking can shift.
Can I craft my own Cologne 2026 souvenir?
Yes, through the Souvenir-O-Matic: any Normal or Souvenir-quality weapon converts into a souvenir carrying gold team stickers, an autograph, and a map sticker from a completed match of your choosing. The craft's price depends on demand for those specific gold stickers and the weapon's rarity.
