AWP | Asiimov (Battle-Scarred)

The AWP | Asiimov in Battle-Scarred (BS) has its white surfaces gone gray throughout and its edges rubbed down to metal. The float band for this grade runs from 0.45 to 1.00. It is the cheapest way into the recognizable white-and-orange AWP: the finish's scale starts at 0.18, so there is no step higher than Field-Tested. The skin is Covert and belongs to the Phoenix Collection.

What the AWP | Asiimov looks like in Battle-Scarred

The barrel, receiver, scope tube and stock are painted white and gray. Orange goes on the scope turret rings and the scope mount, a panel on the side of the receiver, the chevrons, the stock cheek piece and butt plate. The bipod feet are orange too. The magazine, pistol grip and rail stayed black and gray, while the bipod spring and the rim of the lens are bare metal. Among the small details are orange chevron triangles, black diamonds on the receiver and magazine, and dark markings too worn to read.

This grade of the AWP | Asiimov holds both 0.45 and 1.00, and listings at the two ends look quite different. Wear hits the white surfaces. They gray evenly and pick up grime, while the receiver edges, the stock edges and cheek piece, and the corners of the orange panels rub through to bare metal. The orange on the exposed scope rings and bipod feet goes sooner than the white. Close to 1.00, only the layout of the colors still resembles a clean copy.

Where the AWP | Asiimov came from

The finish started as Coridium's Workshop entry "AWP - ASIIMOV", posted on November 10, 2013. In the description of the work, the author called this design his first finish for CS. He is a science-fiction fan and wanted to bring the look of the future from the movies into the game. The Phoenix Collection, with this skin, came out on February 20, 2014. A day later Valve's update notes announced the sale of operation passes and thirteen new finishes in the case. In Valve's catalog the rifle is number 279.

What to check before buying

What to compare when choosing an AWP | Asiimov:

• the float: this grade has the longest strip on the scale, and the difference between 0.45 and 1.00 is visible at once;


• the shade of white on the stock and receiver, which in previews runs from gray to a dirty brown;


• stickers on the body of the AWP | Asiimov, and a name tag if it has one.

Pattern plays no part: every AWP | Asiimov is painted the same way.

What the AWP | Asiimov costs in Battle-Scarred

The finish has just three grades. Field-Tested costs about two fifths more, and Well-Worn about a seventh more.

Among Covert AWPs the skin stands eighth of eighteen by price, which puts it right in the middle of the rank. Close by are AWP | Sovereign Flame and AWP | CMYK; noticeably cheaper are AWP | Containment Breach, AWP | Printstream and AWP | Neo-Noir. The floor of the rank is AWP | Hyper Beast, and the peak is AWP | Gungnir, which costs a hundred times as much.

Getting the AWP | Asiimov

The finish has one case, the Operation Phoenix Weapon Case, and that is where the AWP | Asiimov drops from.

A trade-up also yields it: ten skins from the rank below, all from the same collection. The wear of the result is calculated from the inputs, so Battle-Scarred comes out of worn-down ingredients.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the AWP | Asiimov

The AWP | Asiimov has a StatTrak version. Souvenir copies of the finish turn up as well, though no Souvenir packages were ever made for it: packages only ever covered tournament map collections. Those copies are built with the Souvenir-O-Matic, which puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on a normal skin from the inventory.

On the grayed body a sticker becomes the only clean spot and draws the eye to itself. There are flat areas for a craft on the stock and the forend, and the barrel shroud is best left alone. Light stickers vanish against the faded white, while dark and acid ones keep their contrast. On the rubbed edges part of a sticker will wear off along with the paint, so it is better not to place one right up against an edge.

Who this wear suits

Battle-Scarred on the AWP | Asiimov makes sense when:

• you want that very AWP for CS2 at the lowest price;


• the rifle is going into play in CS2, where grime on the body goes unnoticed;


• you want the worn look for its own sake, for a build in dark tones.

The difference from the neighboring grade is under half the price, so for a display piece it is easier to pay a little more and take a cleaner one.