Pro CSGO team accused of “insider trading” after buying their own stickers ahead of bankruptcy

Copenhagen Flames’ CSGO team has been accused of “insider trading” after buying their team’s very own in-game stickers just before the organization announced its bankruptcy. 

CSGO stickers are no joke. They may seem quite trivial to the broader game, but CSGO’s own economy is absolutely massive, trading millions of dollars in skins every single day. 

Anybody who knows the stories of the Katowice 2014 IBuyPower and Titan Holo stickers knows that all too well, as certain in-game cosmetics have sold for six-figure sums in the past.

Increasing the price of some skins, is the fact various orgs are no longer around. Teams that were once in the game, collapsed, and their stickers for making a major rose in price as the years went on. 

Many skin traders and players learned that if an org folds, or exits the scene, it’s a pretty good investment to buy their stickers in hopes of the price going up in the future. And it seems, a few Copenhagen Flames players realized just that as well. 

Copenhagen Flames announced they filed for bankruptcy on May 2. The home for young Danish players, who made their way to two separate majors and a playoff run, is shutting its doors amid the esports winter. 

And after much discussion in the CSGO community, skin trader Dennis Davis, pointed out that a few CPH Flames players were mass buying their team’s sticker just before the bankruptcy announcement went out. 

In a tweet from skin trader Satsdart on April 30, he talked about how he was getting a lot of orders from Buff, a skin trading website, by CPH Flames players, which he found amusing. Specifically in the screenshots, we can see players Asger “farlig” Jensen, Thomas “TMB” Bundsbæk, and Rasmus “raalz” Steensborg. 

It eventually became clear to Statsdart why they were buying up the stickers en masse. He would go on to reply to Dennis Davis’ tweet with a video showing his massive trade history with the three players, all consisting of CPH Flames team stickers. 

Naturally, many CSGO fans and skin traders called it “insider trading”, as they seemingly knew of the bankruptcy news before the general public, and began stocking up on cosmetic items before the value would increase. Anomaly, YouTuber and skin trader, commented, “ain’t no way, insider trading.” And OhnePixel commented a very short, “sus.” 

However, there are no rules or guidelines in Steam that disallows “insider trading” like this, which means the three players are completely allowed to do so under Valve’s authority.