CS Sticker Meme Encyclopedia — Cursed Penmanship

There’s a sticker from the 10th Anniversary capsule called “Cursed Penmanship.” It shows a disheveled-looking guy covering one eye as he carefully checks a document. So what exactly is he doing?

Take a close look: this man is the guy, Booth the Arms Dealer—the one selling you guns every match. The document he’s reviewing is a “Trade Up Contract,” or what we usually call “trade-ups.” Why is he checking a Trade Up Contract? Let’s break down this easily overlooked feature in detail: trade-ups. After playing CS for so long, have you ever managed to get the skin you wanted through trade-ups?

A Trade Up Contract lets you take ten skins of the same rarity tier and “fuse” them together, randomly giving you one higher-rarity skin from the possible next-tier outputs for those inputs. Keep in mind that the odds for each possible output depend on the skins you choose to trade up. For example, if you’re aiming for a Printstream, the more lower-tier Printstream-related skins you put in, the higher the chance of hitting Printstream; the fewer you add, the lower the chance. Some skins aren’t the highest rarity, but because they have no next-tier output, they can’t be used for trade-ups. One example is Cobalt Quartz from Lake: it sits at the top of The Lake Collection, with no higher-tier weapon above it.

Old Trade Up Contract

I previously bought a bunch of Cobalt Quartz skins for trade-ups, only to find out they don't have a higher-tier output and can't be used in trade-ups, so I raffled them all off. Also, regular skins can't be used in the same trade-up as StatTrak™ skins, Souvenir items can't be used in trade-ups, and any stickers on the ten input guns disappear into the “furnace”—they won't carry over to the skin you get.

Skins with no higher rarity above them, and Covert skins, can't be used in trade-ups.

High-level trade-up players can even use formulas to calculate the resulting weapon skin's wear/float value. By controlling that, you can trade up into the exact wear/float value you want, like a birthday or a special anniversary float.

Although the skin you get is decided by probability, higher odds don’t guarantee the hit. The result is still randomly determined based on the lower-tier weapons you put in. There was once a player who bought nine Mjölnirs, but also added a Hoogai, because they wanted to trade up into a Gungnir with a specific wear/float value. In the end, the Hoogai beat the nine Mjölnirs, and they paid a massive cost just to get an MP7 | Bloodsport. The risk and reward are still something you have to judge for yourself. Since the trade-up process is irreversible, the Chinese version calls it “Cursed Penmanship.”

This sticker was inspired by the old-school CS Trade Up Simulator. Back then, it wasn’t like today’s trade-ups: you had to pick the ten weapons you wanted to trade up, sign the document by drawing a few strokes with your mouse, and only then could you confirm it. After Booth the Arms Dealer reviewed it, the contract got stamped, and one weapon selected by his higher-ups would be sent to your inventory. The whole thing had serious ceremony to it. But that trade-up process disappeared into history with later updates. Now you just hit confirm and the trade-up goes through. That said, plenty of players still open the console to cover the skin they hit, then reveal it bit by bit for that scratch-card thrill.

Old Trade Up Contract video

So in the old trade-up setup, the idea was that these contracts all had to be reviewed and approved by Booth the Arms Dealer. Since it wasn’t a full “signature” and you could basically scribble whatever you wanted, the creator said: “If you ever tried doing trade-ups back then, admit it—you drew something inappropriate when submitting the contract. Cheers to all the countless signatures that poor arms dealer had to witness!” The sticker is called “Cursed Penmanship,” a phrase referring to cursed-looking handwriting. Here, the joke is that Booth the Arms Dealer might have been scared of reviewing some “NSFW content” and getting his stream shut down by GabeN.

The creator also made Holo and Glitter versions of it:

Booth is also a scratch-resistant meme: wear/float value can scrape away the Trade Up Contract, but you can't scrape Booth off.

If you’re a veteran who’s tried the old-school Trade Up Contract, feel free to tell the newer players what it was like down in the comments and share your trade-up stories~

Related Skins:
1.https://buff.market/market/goods/cs2/Sticker%20%7C%20Cursed%20Penmanship
2.https://buff.market/market/goods/cs2/Sticker%20Slab%20%7C%20Cursed%20Penmanship