Desert Eagle | Crimson Web (Field-Tested)

Of all the wears, Field-Tested (FT) is the cheapest way to own the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web: no other wear of this pistol costs less. Floats in this wear run from 0.15 to 0.38. The rank is Restricted, and the pistol drops from the eSports 2014 Summer Case.

What the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web looks like in Field-Tested

The base is a saturated red, overlaid with dark webs: thin, broken threads converge on a few centers and spread across the slide, the frame and the grip panels. They are applied as a film under a semi-gloss lacquer, so a long highlight runs along the top edge of the slide. There are exactly two colors, red and near-black, and the whole picture rests on the contrast between them.

In Field-Tested the slide edge, the bevel of the frame and the lugs under the barrel lighten first. The paint there wears through to pale metal, and the web threads on those patches break up. The flat of the slide and the grip stay red, so the design still reads as a whole. Toward the upper end of the band the gloss is muted and the red looks flatter than it does in the clean wears.

Where the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web came from

The finish has no Workshop author: Valve drew the webs in house. The treatment is older than this pistol. It first appeared on knives from the original CS:GO Weapon Case in 2013 and reached the Desert Eagle a year later. The collection came out on July 10, 2014, and in Valve's skin catalog the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web carries number 232.

Three other regular weapons received the webs: the CZ75-Auto, the R8 Revolver and the SCAR-20. On those it is Mil-Spec rank. Only on the Desert Eagle is it Restricted.

What to check before buying: pattern matters more than float

Where the webs fall is not fixed on this finish. The film settles onto the body differently each time, so two listings with the same float can look quite different. The dearer copies are those where a whole web lands in the center of the slide, where the design shows both in the inventory and in first person.

What to check:

• the pattern: where the webs landed, and whether at least one sits whole on the slide;


• the float: it tells you how far the light edges have spread;


• stickers on the body and any name tag.

The 0.15 to 0.38 stretch is long on the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web, and copies at its two ends look noticeably different.

What the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web costs in Field-Tested

Factory New costs about fourteen times as much, and Minimal Wear about three and a half times. Below this wear the price does not fall at all: Well-Worn costs roughly a tenth more, and Battle-Scarred costs the same. There is nothing to save by dropping to the scruffier wears.

The Desert Eagle has fourteen Restricted finishes, and the Crimson Web sits above the middle: eight cost less, five cost more. The nearest one below is Heritage, about a third cheaper. Above it the gap is sharp: Emerald Jörmungandr and Sunset Storm cost dozens of times more.

Getting the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web

No other case holds this finish. It drops only from the eSports 2014 Summer Case. A trade-up contract for the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web takes ten skins of the next rank down. The output lands in this set when the inputs belong to it.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the Desert Eagle | Crimson Web

The Desert Eagle | Crimson Web 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.

The red field does not suit every sticker: red and maroon ones get lost on it, while white, black and gold read at once. The webs are fine graphics, and a large sticker covers the whole design. For a craft in CS2, leave the frame above the trigger guard and the bottom of the grip to the stickers, and keep the center of the slide open.

Who this wear suits

This wear makes sense when:

• you want a Covert Desert Eagle for CS2 at the finish's lowest price, since the clean wears cost many times more;


• the pattern matters more than perfect edges, because the webs are intact on the flats;


• you are willing to go through listings for a well-placed web.

The closer the float is to 0.38, the wider the light bands along the edges and the more often the threads break at the corners. At the start of the band, the wear is confined to the bevels of the frame.