But few people still remember, before all this,
They don't have four gold stickers or player signatures; each weapon only comes with one, yet it still opened.
They come from the first Major in CS:GO history. And these are not only the first souvenirs in CS:GO history, but also. Even more surprisingly, these souvenirs, created thirteen years ago, possess many even.
When people talk about souvenirs, their attention tends to focus more on star player signatures or the modern souvenir system, while these "", which truly marked the beginning of CS souvenir history, are gradually being forgotten by time.
In 2013, Valve hosted the first Major in CS:GO history—DreamHack Winter 2013 (The 2013 DreamHack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship). Sixteen top teams from around the world gathered in Jönköping, Sweden, to compete for a total prize pool of $250,000, officially marking the beginning of CS:GO Major tournament history. Ultimately, fnatic defeated the then-dominant Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP) 2:1 in the grand finals, claiming the first Major championship in CS:GO history and inscribing their name as the first champion in Major history.
(JW (center) with his teammates at DreamHack Winter 2013. Image credit: DreamHack)
On November 27 of the same year, Valve released the first souvenir package in CS:GO history—the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package—in the "Out with the Old, In with the New" update.
Unlike today, there were no Viewer Passes or map-specific souvenir packages back then. The entire tournament featured only this single type of souvenir. Players simply needed to watch the live match broadcast—either through the in-game GOTV or by linking their Steam and Twitch accounts to watch the official Twitch stream—to have a chance of randomly receiving this souvenir package.
(Player receives the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package)
This souvenir package contains a total of 90 weapon skins, but what truly secured its place in the history of CS cosmetics was not the weapons themselves, but the fact that it introduced the concept of stickers to CS:GO for the first time.
The 2013 DreamHack stickers were not only the first set of stickers ever introduced into CS, but also marked the beginning of the entire sticker system. The tournament featured six different designs, each available in two versions: Normal and Foil, totaling 12 stickers.
CS:GO First Tournament Stickers (DreamHack Winter 2013)
Unlike the stickers players are familiar with today, these could not be obtained individually, nor did sticker capsules exist. They would only randomly appear on weapons when opening the DreamHack 2013 Commemorative Pack.
More interestingly, these stickers are not generated in a fixed manner. For each souvenir, the sticker placement, rotation angle, size, and even the scratch level are completely random. Some stickers come pre-worn, some are placed off-center, and others are generated at a larger or smaller size than normal.
It is worth noting that Valve did not officially introduce the ability to freely move and rotate stickers until 2024, and the feature of random sticker size variation has never returned. Therefore, as of now, the 2013 DreamHack souvenirs remain the only souvenirs in CS history to feature a random sticker size mechanic.
(Blue Snowflake - Shining at Position 3 on P250)
As you can see, although the stickers are all generated in the third slot, their wear levels, rotation angles, and sticker sizes all vary. This is precisely what makes the 2013 DreamHack souvenirs so unique—aside from the sticker designs themselves, the sticker appearance on each souvenir weapon is unique.
(Shooter-Normal in Tec-9's Slot 2)
In this set of examples, the difference in sticker sizes is more pronounced. Even with the same Shooter (Consumer Grade) sticker applied to slot 2, there is a noticeable variation in size across different weapons. Notably, to this day, CS2 still does not offer a feature to adjust sticker sizes, and this random sizing mechanic was exclusive to the 2013 DreamHack souvenirs.
｜Chapter 2｜
｜Rarity and Collectible Value｜
The reason 2013 DreamHack souvenir items are so rare is not due to their inherently low drop rates, but because the souvenir packages are continuously dwindling over time. After the tournament ended, no new 2013 DreamHack souvenir packages were produced; every time one is opened, there is one less in existence. After thirteen years of continuous openings, very few unopened souvenir packages remain today. This not only continuously drives up the collectible value of the 2013 DreamHack souvenirs, but also means that the high-tier items inside the packages, which already had low drop rates, have become even scarcer in circulation. Currently, according to statistics, only 34 2013 DreamHack souvenir packages are listed for sale on the open market, with prices ranging from $920 to $2,210 (approximately 6,600 to 16,000 RMB).
The price performance of high-tier skins stands out even more. For example, a Factory New MP9 | Crimson Nova paired with a Mountain (Foil) sticker, although the sticker is applied to the handle position (Position 4)—a slot generally considered less valuable by collectors—currently has only one unit publicly listed for sale at around 4,500 RMB. Even with a less advantageous sticker position, its listed price remains approximately four times higher than that of other Major souvenirs of the same tier.
In addition to this, the pricing of the 2013 DreamHack souvenirs is inherently complex. Due to the large number of "one-of-a-kind" items or extremely rare special combinations, many items have almost no comparable sales records for reference. Among these, one of the key factors influencing the price is the match source recorded by the souvenir (Match Information).
The categorization and descriptions of match sources are primarily based on Auror3k's "A Complete Guide to 2013 Souvenirs". The image compilation, Chinese translation, and explanations of certain content were completed by myself (@terZ67).
Based on currently known information, 2013 DreamHack souvenirs can be roughly categorized into the following types based on their tournament source:
It is generally believed that its rarity can be roughly categorized as follows:
Grand Final (Grand Final, highest count)
Semifinal
Quarterfinal
Group Stage
Exhibition Match
No team information (Teamless / Unknown Match)
Pre-Event Match
No match information
Among them, only one souvenir completely lacking any match information has been found so far, making it one of the rarest sources among all 2013 DreamHack souvenirs.
Compared to common sources like grand finals and semifinals, the items truly sought after by collectors are often those from exceptionally rare, special match sources. These memorabilia are not only limited in quantity, but some even originate from Valve's internal test matches or lack any team information, meaning almost every single one holds unique collectible significance. Below are some of the most representative special sources currently known.
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On December 11, 2015, CS:GO's Winter Update officially released the R8 Revolver. However, when Valve updated the weapon drop pool, it inadvertently caused a bug in the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package that persists to this day—two R8 skins that should not have belonged to 2013, the R8 Revolver | Bone Mask and the R8 Revolver | Amber Fade, were incorrectly added to the drop pool of the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package.
In the DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Package drop pool, the R8 Revolver | Amber Fade is in the Classified drop list.
Among them, the R8 Revolver | Bone Mask has been confirmed to be obtainable from the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package, and this bug also appeared in the EMS One Katowice 2014 Souvenir Package. According to statistics from the public FloatDB database, as of now, only 9 bugged R8 Revolver | Bone Masks have been publicly registered, with 7 originating from the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package and 2 from the EMS One Katowice 2014 Souvenir Package. Notably, following the 2026 CS2 souvenir system update, players can specify weapons to create souvenirs, resulting in a large number of new R8 Revolver | Bone Mask souvenirs appearing in the database. However, the publicly recorded bugged R8 Revolver | Bone Masks actually unboxed from the old souvenir packages remain at just these 9.
Among them, the unboxing processes of two EMS One Katowice 2014 versions were publicly recorded by Sparkles and Heyzeus, respectively; however, to date, there is still no publicly recorded unboxing video for any R8 Revolver | Bone Mask from the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package. Although several collectors have attempted to open the 2013 DreamHack Souvenir Package in recent years, none have successfully unboxed an R8 Revolver | Bone Mask.
The red circle is from 2014 Katowice, and the rest are from DreamHack 2013.
Currently, there is only one 2013 DreamHack Bug variant R8 Revolver | Skull Mesh available for sale on the public market, featuring a Shooter (Holo) sticker, publicly listed at $19,999.99 (approximately 144,000 RMB).
Another skin that also appeared due to this drop pool bug is the R8 Revolver | Amber Fade. Unlike the Skull Mask, the Amber Fade is a Classified skin, which inherently has a lower drop rate; furthermore, by the time the R8 was added to the game in 2015, the number of remaining DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Packages was already extremely limited. Therefore, although it was indeed present in the drop pool of the DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Package, to date, there are no public records of anyone successfully unboxing the bugged version of the R8 Revolver | Amber Fade. Notably, the DreamHack 2014 Dust II Souvenir Package suffers from the same drop pool error. However, to date, there are no public records of anyone unboxing the bugged R8 Revolver | Amber Fade from either the DreamHack 2013 Souvenir Package or the DreamHack 2014 Dust II Souvenir Package.
It exists within the game data, yet no one has ever truly seen it.
In 2024, collector Megalodon provided several rare 2013 DreamHack souvenir packages, which were opened by streamers including ohnePixel, ArrowCS, Sparkles, Heyzeus, xQc, Nadeshot, and TimTheTatman, in an attempt to find the never-before-seen R8 Revolver | Amber Fade. However, in the end, history remained unchanged.
Perhaps, in some inventory somewhere in the world, the last few 2013 DreamHack commemorative packs still lie quietly.
They may never be opened.
Perhaps, during the next unboxing, the first genuine DreamHack 2013 Souvenir R8 Revolver | Amber Fade will finally come into existence.
Until that day arrives, it remains the last secret yet to be uncovered in the history of CS skins.
This article is dedicated to the place where the story of CS memorabilia began.
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References: Auror3k "A Complete Guide to 2013 Souvenirs" | FloatDB | CSFloat | Steam Community Market | BUFF163 | csgoskins.gg | Some images sourced from: m00nsta_tv
Except for a few cited images, all screenshots, stitching, translations, annotations, and post-editing in this article were completed by @terZ67.