New Armory Collections by Halloween? CS2 Stickers from the Steam Workshop: Cryptids and Pop Art
The Cryptids theme in Call to Arms-ory has only strengthened our prediction: if Valve is gathering submissions for a collection about monsters in the fog and creatures nobody has ever gotten a good look at, the obvious release date is October 31. It’ll be easy to tell. If the Armory update really is lined up for Halloween, “last chance to buy” labels should start showing up next to some of the current collections soon. If they don’t, the release is sliding closer to Christmas.
In that case, we’ll simply have more time to dig through the Workshop, and right now there’s plenty to see: yetis, Nessie, and giant octopuses sit side by side with comic books, postage stamps, and music players straight out of the 2000s. Last time we covered the skins submitted to the contest. Now it’s the stickers’ turn: five picks each from Cryptids and Pop Art, where the references land at first glance and the scraped states are as well thought out as the designs themselves.
Cryptids
Sticker | LET ME (Holo)
- by minikgoddess
Alt+F4 is the classic “advice” veterans give newbies with a straight face: game lagging? Just hit this combo and it’ll fix everything. Everyone knows what really happens, except the person on the receiving end. The artist turns the meme into an abduction scene: a flying saucer beams up a character with pistols and a briefcase full of cash, and the holo “LET ME ALT+F4” reads like a plea from someone with nothing left to play for this round. The author sums up the mood in one line: sometimes you just know when it’s time to leave. It’s a sticker for the rounds that can’t be saved, and we’ve all had plenty of those.
Sticker | Akkorokamui (Holo)
- by ♡ sukey ♡
Eye stickers have always been in demand in CS2, and the designer works the trope into the contest theme. The concept draws on Akkorokamui, the giant red octopus of Ainu folklore, along with Japanese legends of a long-fingered woman, while visually the author took cues from torn anime-eye car decals. A girl peers through a ripped surface as tentacles writhe around her. The real fun starts when you scrape it: the background and tentacles vanish entirely, leaving only the eyes, which shift from amber to violet-blue. It’s essentially two stickers in one.
Sticker | Yeti Strike (Foil)
- by Dip
The author took the most recognizable image in the game, the CS2 logo, and swapped the counter-terrorist for a yeti. The striding silhouette reads instantly, and the golden leaves and deep blue backdrop in Foil turn a joke into a surprisingly serious emblem. Playing with its own brand is exactly the kind of move Valve loves and has pulled more than once, so this one has a real shot at making the collection.
Sticker | Smoke-Nessie (Glitter)
- by RWZ火
Here, the Loch Ness Monster rises not from a lake but from a tipped-over smoke grenade. Its neck, humps, and tail are all billows of smoke, the canister literally reads SMOKE NESSIE, and a C4 is beeping right next to its head. Watch where you throw those smokes next time. We love that the author didn’t just draw a famous cryptid but built it out of a game mechanic, nailing both CS and the contest theme at once. The scraped state is thought through too: the smoke clears and the outline of Nessie’s skeleton shows through.
Sticker | The Watcher
- by Evgen 70 reg
It’s already here. A gaze breaks through the surface, leaving a web of cracks behind, and from the darkness of the hole, an eye is watching you. The designer built on the defining trait of cryptids: they watch from the shadows but never fully show themselves. Slap it on your gun and let the enemy feel someone’s unblinking stare. Extra props to the author for showing upfront how the sticker looks on different skins. For a sticker like this, which has to blend into someone else’s design, that’s the best demo you could ask for.
Pop Art
Sticker | She Strikes
- by Wanda
One look hits harder than lightning. That’s how the author describes the piece. A comic-book woman’s face is set into the shape of a lightning bolt, a tear smearing her mascara: a direct nod to Roy Lichtenstein’s crying heroines, without whom pop art is hard to imagine. The rainbow outline adds motion, and when you scrape it, the bolt fades but her gaze remains. The unusual shape slots easily into a layout, so it’s bound to find a home in sticker crafts.
Sticker | WASD Keys (Holo)
- by yavor.rusev
The most legendary keys in shooter history, done pop-art style: a pink-to-blue gradient, a neon outline, and bold letters on the keycaps. The whole effect rides on the holo, which comes alive as you rotate it. From one angle the keys look almost flat; from another they seem to rise off the sticker as chunky 3D cubes, with pink and blue flowing from one face to the next. The keys themselves seem to change shape with the viewing angle. It’s a simple idea carried by the execution, and anyone who’s ever sat down to play CS will recognize it.
Sticker | Cute Eyes
- by TORPLAS
A narrow strip that looks like it was cut straight from a manga page: anime eyes with heart-shaped pupils, crisscrossing strands of hair, and a lilac background. The magic happens when you tilt it. Shift the angle slightly and she blinks, then winks with her left eye, then her right. The result is a living sticker that reacts to every move of your weapon as you inspect it. The idea is so obvious it’s surprising nobody thought of it sooner.
Sticker | Splash Route
- by dwern
The designer turned a nod to Poolday, the legendary fan map every old-timer remembers, into a postage stamp: “heritage series,” 2001, a 21¢ face value, pool floats, and a rubber duck. The year on the stamp may be a reference too, since the map dates back to the early 2000s. Pop art and retro print design blend naturally here, and once scraped, the stamp disappears, leaving a sign that reads “ATTENTION! NO TAZERS IN THE POOL.” It’s a parody of pool rules with a Zeus x27 twist: electricity and water, as we all know, don’t mix. This one is bound to hit the veterans right in the feels.
Sticker | Smells Like B Site (Paper)
- by Zerdon
The Nirvana reference works on two levels. The name riffs on Smells Like Teen Spirit, the band’s biggest hit, and it might be the best name in this roundup. The “cover art” on the screen recreates the Nevermind album cover: a character floats in deep blue water like the famous baby, except instead of reaching for a dollar bill on a hook, he’s holding a C4. The author packs it all into an iPod, where “Now playing” becomes “Now planting.” When scraped, the screen image disappears and leaves an empty window you can fill with any other sticker, giving us one more ready-made base for crafts.
Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
