SteamDB revealed on August 7 that there’s a new highest stage Steam account on this planet, supplanting the long-reigning (and considerably controversial) champ, St4ck. On a latest broadcast, Counter-Strike streamer ohnePixel calculated that this person, stasik, wanted to have spent north of $500,000 {dollars} to succeed in stage 5,101, and he is since pumped that as much as 5,960. Stasik additionally boasts a number of uncommon Counter-Strike skins commanding practically $9,000 every, together with ones with crude messages and slurs organized on the facet by way of in-game stickers.
If you happen to’re like me, you is likely to be questioning what the hell any of this implies, and why somebody would pay life altering quantities of cash to crank up their Steam profile stage. I’ve had my account for a very long time, play a variety of video games, however barely work together with Steam as a social media platform, leaving me at a paltry stage 14. The true energy gamer meta is to buy buying and selling card boosters and seasonal badges on Steam to juice that quantity.
Which, it have to be stated, doesn’t have a right away sensible profit, simply bragging rights for the highest power-levelers tracked by SteamDB. It jogs my memory a variety of NFTs, investing money right into a digital signifier with no tangible worth, however potential entry into a wierd alternate financial system. Whereas it largely seems to be an absurd type of conspicuous consumption, sustaining a excessive Steam stage does additionally appear to be a type of networking, a approach of proving you are a severe buyer amongst the crazy-expensive Counter-Strike pores and skin buying and selling set: “I will not discuss enterprise except you are over Degree 100.”
OhnePixel usually estimates the worth of a profile’s Steam stage by calculating the price of badge purchases required to get there. On this case, he eyeballed stasik’s off what St4ck paid to succeed in stage 5,000: $500,000-$700,000. Stasik has since raised the account’s stage even additional than when ohnePixel checked in, making the overall price even increased—and that is not even counting the worth of different gadgets and skins tied to the account.
Talking of different gadgets and skins, stasik’s Counter-Strike 2 stock has a little bit of a landmine hidden in it. Amid quite a few multi-thousand greenback skins, yow will discover a virtually $9,000 “Manufacturing unit New” M4A1 Howl with stickers organized on the facet to spell out a racial slur. Along with being extraordinarily odious and distasteful, the gesture places stasik’s account prone to a doubtlessly everlasting group ban, a very absurd transfer given the sheer sum of money injected into the account.
Stasik declined to talk on to ohnePixel, however has a public Steam profile and linked Instagram with practically 15,000 followers, each of which confer with a “Discord Kitten”—one other person with the person identify “Начальник пыли” (Russian for “Chief of Mud”)—with an identical couple’s profile that hyperlinks again to stasik. Each stasik and his presumed paramour checklist the United Arab Emirates as their nation of residence.
Additional on, stasik’s Steam account additionally makes reference to a different person taking challenge with them and individuals who communicate Russian. A since-deleted remark, preserved in ohnePixel’s video, by Reddit person Formal_Palpitation14 on a thread about Stasik’s account presents a possible, although unverified clarification.
Claiming to be Steam associates with stasik, they wrote: “He talked about to me he had some beef ongoing with the man referred to as MoneyLead [The third highest-level Steam user] and the way he instructed him it is not really easy to stage up and maintain 1st/2nd place… then he simply wished to indicate him how straightforward it really is that if cash is not an issue.
“Now Moneylead deleted/blocked everybody he had in his associates checklist who was associates with stasik.”
Take that with a grain of salt, but it surely does match with stasik’s obscure posting and sudden rise by way of the Steam stage ranks. Relating to stasik’s allusion to discrimination in opposition to Russian audio system, MoneyLead has quite a few Ukranian flag emojis on his profile, and a bio that reads: “Glory to Ukraine. The world should cease this terror.” Additional down, there’s the spoilered message, “Not settle for VAC BANED [sic] REP BAN and beneath stage 100 and russian.”
That is fairly the story, however I am undecided I can draw any necessary life classes from it. I hope these conspicuously rich avid gamers, if they’re certainly feuding, can be taught to provide peace an opportunity, and I additionally hope that they cease placing slurs on their Counter-Strike weapons.
