AK-47 | Bloodsport (Factory New)

In Factory New (FN) the AK-47 | Bloodsport is at the top of the wear scale: the racing graphics sit on the receiver without a single scuff. The grade covers floats from 0.00 to 0.07. The skin is Covert and comes from the Spectrum Case.

What the AK-47 | Bloodsport looks like in Factory New

The finish is put together like the livery of a race car: red, white and dark blue panels with sponsor graphics laid over them. The center of the composition is a white outlined cat face with narrowed eyes, set on the red side of the receiver. Next to it, the dust cover carries a large white "STRIKE" and a boxed number "26", with a round gear emblem below and vertical white marks that look like katakana.

The magazine is painted on its own: a dark red field with white lettering, a turquoise stripe, a yellow edge and a white grid along the bottom. The rivets are orange, and the bolt and trigger are brass. The barrel, gas block and front sight are bare metal, with no paint on them at all.

Clean FN keeps thin white outlines along the edges of the panels, and those are the first thing to go in the lower grades. The handguard edge and the stock corners are crisp, the letters on the cover hold their shape, and the red surfaces carry no pale haze. Despite the name, nothing bloody is drawn anywhere on the model.

Where the AK-47 | Bloodsport came from

The finish was drawn by a Steam Workshop artist who posts as SLIMEface. He submitted it on November 8, 2016 under the working title "BLOODSPORT - AK47 NORMALS". The Spectrum Collection, with this skin in it, reached the game on March 15, 2017, and Valve's catalog lists the finish as number 639. The item's flavor text backs up the racing reading: "Co-driver wanted".

What to check before buying

Three things to look at on an AK-47 | Bloodsport listing:

• the float: inside Factory New it barely changes the look, because the strip is so short;


• any name tag and stickers, which stay with the listing;


• the version of the item: StatTrak and Souvenir copies are separate listings.

The artwork is fixed and does not depend on the copy. The sponsor graphics are part of the finish itself and land the same way on every one.

At 0.00 to 0.07 this is a tight strip, and it is hard to tell one listing from another.

What the AK-47 | Bloodsport costs in Factory New

The other three grades compare like this:

• Minimal Wear is about a fifth cheaper;


• Field-Tested is about a quarter cheaper;


• Well-Worn is about a quarter cheaper.

There is no fifth grade: the finish's own scale ends at 0.45, so Battle-Scarred was never made for it. The spread across the four grades that do exist is under a third, which means the premium for clean FN is small here.

Among Covert AK-47 finishes, the Bloodsport in Factory New is fifth of twenty-four counting up by price. Only four are cheaper, and the Legion of Anubis is the cheapest in the rank. The nearest finishes above are Aquamarine Revenge and Neon Rider, and the top of the rank belongs to Wild Lotus.

Getting the AK-47 | Bloodsport

The first route is the Spectrum Case, and no other case holds this finish. To trade up into the AK-47 | Bloodsport you need ten skins from the rank below in that collection. AWP | Fever Dream, CZ75-Auto | Xiangliu and M4A1-S | Decimator all qualify. The collection has two Covert skins, so the contract returns this rifle about every other time.

Rifles of this rank can be taken further. Five Covert skins from the Spectrum collection yield a random rare special item, anything from a Bowie Knife to Shadow Daggers.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AK-47 | Bloodsport

The AK-47 | Bloodsport has a StatTrak version. No Souvenir packages were ever made for this finish, because packages only ever covered tournament map collections. A souvenir copy can still be built by hand. The Souvenir-O-Matic puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a normal skin from the inventory. That is why the odd souvenir copy turns up where no package was ever made.

The background is busy, so stickers have to be chosen with care: red and white ones sink into the panels, while black and blue ones hold their shape. Clean FN is exactly the base on which expensive stickers get applied, since no scuffs show through from underneath. The stock and the lower handguard are free; the side with the cat face is usually left uncovered.

Who this wear suits

Factory New on the AK-47 | Bloodsport is worth buying if:

• you want a clean base for a craft with expensive stickers;


• you care about the even white of the letters and outlines, which disappears lower down the scale;


• the extra cost is modest, since the gap to the lower grades is under a third.

For actual play it is money spent for nothing: at fighting distance you cannot tell Factory New from Minimal Wear on this rifle.