karrigan Won the Cologne Major But Gets No Sticker. kyxsan Does.

karrigan just won the IEM Cologne Major 2026. He was the captain, the IGL, the one who held that trophy on stage. He has no sticker in the game. kyxsan, who was benched before the tournament even started and watched it from home, does. It sounds absurd. Here is why it happened.

Valve locks the sticker roster when teams submit their lineups during qualification, long before the Major begins. Falcons qualified for IEM Cologne 2026 with kyxsan as their active player. On April 20, karrigan officially joined and kyxsan was benched the same day. The sticker roster had already been submitted. That meant kyxsan's name was locked in, and karrigan's was not. The playing roster was locked on April 22, so karrigan was on the server for every single match. But for stickers, it was already too late.

Open the CS2 sticker shop right now and you will find a kyxsan Cologne 2026 sticker. The man who benched him, led his former team to the title, and lifted the trophy is not there. It is one of the more bizarre quirks of how Major stickers work, and karrigan is not the first player this has happened to. It will probably not be the last either.