The Shanghai 2024 Major Capsules are here!
The Shanghai 2024 Counter-Strike Major stickers have been released, bringing some interesting design updates to the autographs. While these changes aren't revolutionary, they represent some meaningful improvements to the existing formula of borderless stickers.
Notable Design Changes
My favourites from the Shanghai 2024 Major autographs
Team-Colored Outlines
The main update to this year's signature stickers is the addition of team-colored outlines. Each player signature now features an outline matching their team's primary color - for example, NAVI player signatures include a yellow outline. This change helps distinguish signatures while maintaining connection to team identity.
Adjusted Background Elements
The team logos in the background have received a slight opacity adjustment. This subtle change creates better contrast between the signature and the background elements, making the autographs more readable without completely sacrificing the team branding.
These two changes combine to create a mild 3D effect. While not groundbreaking, it's a step in the right direction for signature sticker design, offering better clarity than previous iterations.
Cultural Integration
An interesting development in this Major's signatures is the increased presence of local market references. Several players have incorporated Chinese characters into their autographs, reflecting the Shanghai setting of the tournament or references like Insani's NI HAO (translates to hello). This cultural integration adds a unique touch to this Major's sticker collection and shows growing awareness of the Asian CS community.
Aleksib, Insani and Fallens Shanghai 2024 autographs
New Signature Process
The signature collection process has seen significant changes for Shanghai 2024. Players were required to create their signatures under direct supervision of the Tournament Organizer, with multiple attempts allowed to perfect their autographs. According to the Living BIG vlog, this new approach gave players the opportunity to refine their signatures on-site, limiting the use of designers, which were heavily used for the Paris 2023 signatures and more consistent autographs across the collection.
Pick'Em Challenge Update
The Shanghai Major's Pick'Em Challenge introduces a new coin design featuring a Chinese dragon, fitting the tournament's location. It looks pretty sleek in basically all versions:
The Shanghai 2024 CS2 Major coin in bronze, silver, gold and diamond
Sticker Generator
The main sticker generator at cs-sticker.com has of course already been updated to include the new Shanghai 2024 Major signatures, allowing users to preview names with the new signature styles. Head over and try it out ✨
Final Thoughts
While these sticker updates don't reinvent the wheel, they show Valve is listening to community feedback about signature clarity. The changes are incremental but positive, suggesting future majors might bring even further improvements to sticker design.