Items support the event.
Valve’s own announcement establishes the revenue-to-prize-fund connection.
THE LOOK IS THE PRODUCT.
Cosmetic.
Commercial.
The absence of extra damage does not make appearance economically irrelevant.
Seven Majors supply a measurable record of skins in elite play. Tournament announcements supply the bookmaker relationships. Valve’s own rules show how actively the company protects access to cosmetic appearance.
491maps / 280 match series
960,770weapon-inspect records
98.70%inspect records with non-default skins
01Seven Majors.
RECALCULATED FROM THE PUBLISHED CSVs
Seven Majors.
The appearances in play.
The source covers the final-16 stage through the grand final at these seven events. An inspect input—commonly F—turns the weapon into an object to look at. The records count that input behaviour, including knives; they are not a count of kills or competitive advantages.
7 Majors · 491 maps · 948,232 / 960,770 skinned inspect records (98.70%) · 557 / 559 player–Major records with a skin (99.64%)
WEIGHTED SHARE / SELECTED EVENTS98.70%
inspect records with a non-default skin
948,232 / 960,77012,538 default inspect recordsNon-default skinDefault skin
PARTICIPATION IN THE RECORDED ACTIONS
Two default-only records.
One square = one player–Major record. 559 records across 7 Majors; repeat players count again at each event.
557 with a skinned inspect / 2 default-only
The bars count either actions or player–Major records, as selected. The squares always count player–Major records. A default-only record is not an audit of everything that person owned.
| Major | Maps | All inspect records | Skinned inspect records | Player–Major records with a skin | Default-only player–Major records |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stockholm 2021CS:GO | 70 | 102,683 | 101,22198.58% of inspect records | 78 / 78 | 00.00% |
| Antwerp 2022CS:GO | 71 | 106,006 | 105,49499.52% of inspect records | 78 / 79 | 11.27% |
| Rio 2022CS:GO | 68 | 136,221 | 134,47498.72% of inspect records | 79 / 79 | 00.00% |
| Paris 2023CS:GO | 67 | 106,224 | 104,49698.37% of inspect records | 77 / 78 | 11.28% |
| Copenhagen 2024CS2 | 73 | 155,740 | 154,13998.97% of inspect records | 79 / 79 | 00.00% |
| Shanghai 2024CS2 | 72 | 160,544 | 155,81097.05% of inspect records | 84 / 84 | 00.00% |
| Austin 2025CS2 | 70 | 193,352 | 192,59899.61% of inspect records | 82 / 82 | 00.00% |
| Total | 491 | 960,770 | 948,23298.70% | 557 / 559 | 20.36% |
WHAT THE COUNT ESTABLISHES
Skinned weapons are almost universal in the observed player–Major records. Two default-only records do not mean only two professionals owned no skins, or that every Major in Counter-Strike history was measured. The small share concerns this dataset and this behaviour.
Method, denominators and inspect duration+
The player unit is the dataset’s nickname within a Major. Repeat appearances count again; this is not 559 unique people. Skinned means a non-zero paint-kit field. The event totals and player classifications are independently summed from the two linked CSVs.
The source also sums 733,185.415 seconds of skinned inspect-input intervals: 203.66 player-hours. This sums players who may act simultaneously. It does not measure broadcast screen time, completed animations, viewer attention or sales conversion. CS:GO and CS2 record inspect input differently, so the duration totals are not a like-for-like trend in advertising exposure.
Weighted aggregate percentages are recomputed from counts. They are not averages of event percentages. The original dossier also contains separate glove and loadout-price analyses; their different samples and units remain in that source.
02The competition and
THE COMMERCIAL CONNECTION
The competition and
the item economy are connected.
In September 2013, Valve announced a $250,000 DreamHack prize pool supported by a portion of in-game item sales. The company explicitly connected purchases of appearances to the professional competition.
Professionals inspect the items.
The seven-event sample records repeated use of non-default skins in elite play.
The look can become the aspiration.
A fan can want a recognisable appearance without seeking better weapon performance. Measuring the resulting purchases requires audience and transaction data.
The relevant economic question is what users pay to obtain that appearance, including paid random outcomes and resale. The New York complaint expressly addresses items with no gameplay effect. Cosmetic describes the function of the reward; it does not settle the commercial or legal question raised by the transaction.
03Which gambling business?
THE PUBLIC CLAIM AGAINST THE LICENSE
Which gambling business?
Forbidden from when?
Valve’s March 2026 response presents a broad prohibition on gambling-related tournament participation and sponsorship. The publicly available licence contains a more specific boundary.
Conditional permission.
Betting sponsorship messages are acceptable with a licence valid for the targeted territories, or a foreign licence explicitly permitted there. Official-language feeds without geoblocking also determine targeting.
A separate prohibition.
The licence excludes sponsorship dependent on Valve’s game economies or violating its agreements, including case-opening, skin-trading and inventory-related businesses.
These clauses cannot be described as a single ban on all betting businesses.
08 DEC 2025 · 23:03:20 UTC
A dated rule change—not a retroactive explanation.
Valve’s Git commit 8594dc0 expressly required ranked and unranked tournament operators to observe §2.4(e). This dates the added obligation in the Tournament Operation Requirements; it does not establish when the licence clause first appeared.
The applicable TOR version is tied to each event’s Additional Information deadline. Establishing the first prohibition and its effect on an older contract requires the dated licence, event deadline and any exception.
202120222023202420252026
ANNOUNCED COMMERCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
GG.BETStockholmPGL Major
GG.BETAntwerpPGL Major
UnikrnParisBLAST Major
1xBet / GG.BETCopenhagen Major / BLAST Premier
PGL × 1xBetAnnounced term: 2025–2026A two-year betting partnership
DOCUMENTED POLICY RECORDS
TOR adds the §2.4(e) obligation.
Valve states a broad gambling-sponsorship prohibition.
The announced betting partnership spans the rule-change period. The legal question is which sponsor category each rule covers and when that rule applies—not whether every betting business was prohibited.
The organisers sold the integrations publicly.
The table records the announced sponsor relationship and its surface. A team booth, an event contract and a series partnership are separate arrangements.
2021Sweden
Stockholm Major
GG.BETExclusive betting partnership, confirmed retrospectively in PGL’s 4 April 2022 announcement.
04 APR 2022Belgium
Antwerp Major
GG.BETPGL announces broadcast support, live odds and bookmaker offers; also covers the Bucharest RMR.
29 MAR 2023France
Paris Major
UnikrnBLAST announces a global partnership including the Major, with broadcast integration and event branding.
02 MAY 2023France · team relationship
G2 / Paris Major activation
CSGORollOperator announces jersey branding and a slot-machine-themed activation at G2’s Major booth.
22 JAN 2024Includes London & Copenhagen
BLAST Premier season
GG.BETBroadcast betting odds, predictions and physical/digital branding. This series deal is distinct from a Major contract.
01 FEB 2024Denmark
Copenhagen Major
1xBetPGL names its betting partner for the first CS2 Major and describes media and financial support.
12 FEB 2025First event: Cluj-Napoca, Romania
PGL / 2025–2026 partnership
1xBetPGL announces a two-year global betting partnership, advertising placements and broadcast rights.
What the European venues require us to check+
For Stockholm, Antwerp, Paris and Copenhagen, identify the sponsor’s contracting entity, the dated event licence, each broadcast language and target territory, and the applicable national advertising permissions. A city name or brand logo alone does not resolve those questions. Neither do similar names establish that two brands share an operator.
The announcements establish commercial integration around the tournaments. They do not disclose Valve’s approval of each agreement. That approval and supervision trail is exactly the record this investigation calls for.
PGL’s historical press URLs currently redirect to its news index. The cited releases and dates were retrieved from indexed copies of PGL’s own announcements on 10 October 2026. BLAST’s 2024 page separately corroborates GG.BET’s Stockholm and Antwerp partnerships.
THE QUESTION FOR VALVE
Publish the boundary you actually enforced. Which sponsorships were permitted, refused or ended; who reviewed them; under which dated clause; in which territories? The account-ban total answers none of these questions.
04Optional to purchase.
THE ENFORCEMENT OF APPEARANCE
Optional to purchase.
Actively protected from substitution.
Valve’s own rule reaches private-only appearance.
Its server guidelines prohibit simulated unowned items, expressly including appearances visible only to the player. Valve records permanent GSLT restrictions in January 2016 for noncompliant server operators.
“Yes. Regardless of who can see the items, mods should not generate/simulate items that are not owned by a player.”
Valve’s answer to question 2 about visibility in server mods.
A legal demand names the skins themselves.
The published, redacted letter bears Melling, Voitishkin & Partners’ name and says it represents Valve. It asserts rights in software, trademarks and the appearance of weapons, knives and gloves, demanding cessation and warning of compensation claims and referral to law enforcement.
Touch Skins’ own website states that it received a demand from Valve’s representatives in Russia and decided to close its site and software. The redacted letter hides the addressee; the project’s statement separately establishes its reported closure.
This is a published pre-litigation demand and the recipient project’s account, not a court finding. The record does not establish that a skinchanger cannot interact with anti-cheat systems.
THE ECONOMIC CHOICE
RETURN TO THE ENFORCEMENT CASECommercial for the platform. A violation for the user.Account restrictions, opaque reasons and the right to a review ↗
Valve treats access to appearance as something worth enforcing. That choice belongs beside its claim that cosmetic items impose no gameplay disadvantage. A person unable to afford a coveted look can still face the boundary protecting its exclusivity.
05107 RECORDS
THE PUBLIC RECORD
Inspect the evidence.
Sources cited in this article appear first. Select “All records” to inspect the complete 107-record register shared by the investigation; the dedicated evidence files retain their own detailed registers.
No matching records. Try a different term or select “All records”.
Research method and source status+
Reviewed 10 October 2026. Major percentages are recalculated from the author’s published CSVs, with both event and player denominators retained. Sponsor entries identify the announcing organisation and date. Legal correspondence is attributed to the published copy and the project’s separate statement.
Measured inspect use, commercial interpretation, announced sponsorship and enforcement outcomes are distinguished at the point of each finding. The original seven-page investigation and its evidence files remain available through the navigation.