Valve didn't wait around – a major update dropped two weeks before the Major kicks off. The IEM Cologne Major 2026 hub is now live, bringing stickers, a Viewer Pass, and Pick'Em. But the real headline is that sticker capsules are dead. Gone for good. In their place is an entirely different system, and it changes everything.
What is IEM Cologne Major 2026?
The Major takes place in Cologne, with 32 teams competing for a $1,250,000 prize pool. It runs from June 2nd through the 21st. This marks ESL's 11th Major as an organizer. Cologne last hosted a Major a decade ago; ESL's most recent was Rio 2022 – now IEM Cologne is back as a Valve Major.
Capsules are gone. Welcome to the Major Shop
Valve has completely overhauled the Major store: sticker capsules have been scrapped in favor of a new token-based system that lets you buy any sticker directly. Want a FURIA holo logo or a donk foil autograph – just pick one and buy it. No RNG, no blowing money on stickers you don't want.
Prices aren't fixed – they shift based on demand. Popular stickers go up in price, unpopular ones drop. 100 tokens cost $0.99.
There's also a price drop protection: if a sticker falls by more than 25 tokens within 24 hours of your purchase, the difference gets refunded to your balance. A sensible safeguard given that the market is live.
In total, 772 new stickers have been released for Cologne 2026 – team and player options, available in Paper, Holo, Foil, and Gold versions.
Viewer Pass and Pick'Em
Purchasing the Viewer Pass gets you a Challenge Coin and access to the Pick'Em Challenge. The coin can be upgraded from Bronze through Silver, Gold, and Diamond – each upgrade rewards 300 tokens to spend in the Major Shop on stickers or souvenirs.
With an active pass, you're also added to the global leaderboard – so you can see how your Pick'Em picks stack up against your friends'. You have 11 days from the update's release to lock in your predictions, so make sure to get them in before the Major starts.
Souvenir-O-Matic: craft your own souvenirs
This is genuinely interesting. Souvenirs now work in a completely different way: instead of random drops during matches, players craft them themselves 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 with gold team stickers, an autograph, and the map.
You can preview the final result before confirming. One important thing to keep in mind: any stickers already applied to the weapon are removed before conversion. So if there's anything valuable on the gun, peel it off first.
The cost of a souvenir depends on two factors: demand for the specific gold stickers and the rarity of the base weapon. That means rare guns featuring autographs from top players will carry a noticeably higher price tag.
Another consequence of the new system: Souvenir quality is now on par with Normal quality, which boosts the value of souvenir skins that previously sold for significantly less than their standard counterparts.
Souvenirs in Trade-Up Contracts
Souvenir items can now be used in trade-up contracts alongside regular ones. The souvenir attributes are stripped in the process, and the result is a standard item one rarity tier up. It's a niche use case, but it opens up new options for anyone sitting on a pile of unwanted souvenirs from past Majors.
Revenue share and Souvenir Charms
50% of all revenue from the Major Shop and Viewer Pass is distributed as royalties between the tournament organizer, the teams, and the players. Nothing new mechanically, but it's good to see the principle carried over into a fully revamped system.
Souvenir Charms for Cologne 2026 are also returning – but won't be released until after the tournament wraps up.
Technical fixes
Alongside all the tournament-related changes, the patch fixes an incorrect score display in the scoreboard timeline during overtime, removes a weapon pickup prompt on objects that can't actually be picked up, increases flashbang brightness for first-person spectators, and resolves a particle flickering issue with burning tires in the extended graphics settings preview.
The new Major Shop is arguably the most radical change to Major monetization ever. Cutting RNG out of sticker buying and giving players a direct choice is something players have been asking Valve to do for years. How the dynamic pricing holds up in practice – we'll find out from day one of the tournament.
IEM Cologne Major 2026 starts June 2nd.
