On December 18, 2025, Valve pushed a Counter-Strike 2 update that immediately caught the attention of collectors and Major-watchers alike: Budapest 2025 champion autographs finally arrived, and the playoff souvenir system gained a new twist. The official release notes call out two line items, Budapest “Champions Autographs Capsule” availability and the activation of “Highlight Souvenir Packages” for playoff matches.
The timing is not accidental. In the same Budapest-themed CS2 blog post (“The Year of the Bees”), Valve tied the content directly to Team Vitality’s Major victory, packaging the celebration into sticker finishes and replay-style souvenirs that preserve key moments from the arena stage.
1) What Valve Added in the Budapest Patch
Valve’s patch notes dated December 18, 2025 (mirrored by SteamDB) are blunt and celebratory: “Champions Autographs Capsule is now available for purchase, congratulations to Team Vitality!” This officially marks Vitality as the Budapest Major champion in-game, via a dedicated capsule.
The same notes also confirm the second pillar of the update: “Highlight Souvenir Packages can now be acquired for the Playoff matches.” Instead of souvenirs being purely static memorabilia, the highlight system aims to connect items to specific match moments.
On December 19, 2025, the CS2 update was reposted on the official Counter-Strike site (csgo.com) with the same two key bullets. In practice, this means the Budapest content drop is both official and unified across Valve’s communication channels, with no ambiguity about what shipped.
2) Vitality’s Budapest Win and Why the Capsule Landed Now
Valve’s “The Year of the Bees” blog entry frames the content as a direct extension of the grand final story. The post confirms Team Vitality won the Budapest Major and connects that outcome to the release of the champions autograph capsule and the playoff highlight souvenirs.
The Budapest grand final also had a historical hook: it was described as Counter-Strike’s first-ever BO5 Major grand final. That format alone gave Valve a bigger narrative canvas for commemorative items, because there were more maps and more turning points to memorialize.
According to the same context, Vitality dropped map one and still won the series 3, 1, with Dust II, Inferno, and Overpass referenced in Valve’s recap framing. In other words, the capsule doesn’t just arrive “because it’s tradition”, it’s positioned as the in-game stamp on a notable, format-defining final.
3) Inside the Budapest 2025 Champions Autographs Capsule
Valve states the capsule includes four finish tiers: “Paper, Embroidered, Holo, and Gold stickers…” That tiering matters for collectors because it defines rarity expectations and the ceiling for high-end variants.
Third-party listings add practical purchase context. One breakdown (cs.money) claims the capsule price is unchanged, “one dollar per capsule.” While pricing can vary by region and store presentation, the claim aligns with how Valve historically prices similar Major capsules.
Item-page style summaries (via csgoskins.gg) also specify the capsule’s contents and commercial model: it “Contains 20 Stickers,” is “Released December 18th, 2025,” and notes that “50% of the proceeds… support the included players and organizations.” That revenue-share phrasing is important because it reinforces the Major ecosystem’s link between in-game sales and team/player support.
4) Highlight Souvenir Packages: What “Highlight” Means in CS2
In Budapest’s rollout, Valve explicitly flips the switch for playoffs: “Highlight Souvenir Packages can now be acquired for the Playoff matches.” Rather than being generic souvenirs, these packages are designed to produce items associated with highlight reels from specific games.
Third-party reporting describes the outputs as “charms featuring playoff highlights,” with some outlets (bo3.gg) adding that highlight types may include moments like a “team’s entrance onto the stage.” Those descriptions are not Valve-authored, but they illustrate the broad category of “highlight” moments fans expect to see captured.
A concrete example from an item listing spells out the intent: a Budapest highlight charm “commemorates the StarLadder Budapest 2025 CS2 Major Championship and features a highlight reel,” and it can celebrate a particular series such as the semifinal between Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan. The key takeaway is specificity, these souvenirs are meant to point to a real match and a real clip package, not just a tournament logo.
5) How Many Highlights Exist, and Why Counts Don’t Fully Agree
Because highlight souvenirs are tied to individual moments, collectors immediately ask the obvious question: how many are there? Community and market trackers have published totals, but the numbers vary depending on methodology.
One source (csgoskins.gg) claims a count of 373 souvenir charms “showing highlight reels of the playoff matches.” Another source (cs.money) instead cites 352 total highlights for Budapest, while contrasting it with Austin at “600+.” None of those totals are presented as official Valve figures, so they should be treated as estimates.
The disagreement is still useful: it signals that the Budapest highlight pool is large but likely smaller than Austin’s, at least by third-party tracking. For buyers, that can influence perceived scarcity and how quickly certain match-specific highlights become harder to find on the market.
6) The Budapest Update Was Prepared Weeks Earlier (Sticker Slabs and the Major Hub)
Budapest’s champion stickers and highlight souvenirs didn’t appear out of thin air. A November 12, 2025 pre-tournament patch set up the Major “items pipeline,” including the Budapest Major hub and the mechanics that would later support new collectible formats.
That same pre-event patch introduced Sticker Slabs, an item concept that turns stickers into attachable charms, giving players another way to display cosmetics beyond weapon surfaces. SteamDB mirrors the official text around this rollout, making it clear Valve was building the infrastructure before the trophy was lifted.
Coverage at the time (e.g., Hotspawn) also reiterated a crucial promise: playoff souvenir charms would be available after the tournament. The December 18/19 activation of “Highlight Souvenir Packages” reads like the fulfillment of that earlier setup, now that match data and highlight sets can be finalized.
7) Budapest Repeats a Proven Formula From the Austin Major
Budapest’s release structure, champion capsule plus highlight souvenir packages, has a precedent. Reporting around the July 2, 3, 2025 Austin Major patch describes the same “Highlight Souvenir Packages” concept and a champions capsule tied to Vitality, suggesting Valve is standardizing this post-Major content cadence.
From a product-design point of view, this repetition is strategic. Champion stickers satisfy the traditional collector loop, while highlight souvenirs create a “moment-based” loop that can keep playoff matches culturally alive beyond the broadcast.
For players who skipped Austin, Budapest effectively communicates Valve’s direction: modern CS2 Major cosmetics are no longer just logos and autographs, they’re increasingly about replayable narratives, packaged into capsules and match-tied souvenirs.
CS2’s Budapest drop is a clean, two-part celebration: Team Vitality gets an official champions autograph capsule with four finish tiers (Paper, Embroidered, Holo, Gold), and playoff viewers/collectors get access to Highlight Souvenir Packages that connect items to specific matches and highlight reels. Valve’s own notes and blog framing make it clear these are meant to be the definitive in-game mementos of Budapest 2025.
At the same time, the community’s early counting and categorization, 352 vs 373 highlights, “600+” comparisons to Austin, and descriptions of what qualifies as a highlight, shows how quickly these systems become a collector metagame. Whether you’re buying for support, nostalgia, or resale, Budapest reinforces the new CS2 Major pattern: championships are remembered not only by who won, but by how the moments are preserved in your inventory.