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Swedish Counter-Strike 2 player and commentator Tilde ‘ 7liciousCSGO’ Byström is going viral after she posted a photo of herself at her day job making sandwiches.
Byström posted the photo to X on November 19 with the caption, “After 10 years in esports, I’m officially a sandwich maker.”
She gave the camera a cheeky thumbs up, showing her workstation filled with sandwiches that she’d put together in brown paper bags.
The post acted as a cheeky nod to the current state of the esports industry, showing that, despite her knowledge of Counter-Strike 2 and her experience in the scene as both a professional player and commentator, she still has to work a regular 9-5 to make ends meet.
In just under 24 hours, Byström’s tweet garnered over 300K likes and has been viewed over 18 million times. It even caught the attention of American chain Pizza Hut, who commented, “Pizza maker is also fire.”
“YO!” she replied. “I know how to make a pizza.”
7licious explains the real meaning behind her viral sandwich-making photo
We caught up with Byström on November 20 to ask her about the viral post. During our discussion, she told us that the photo was both a playful jab at the insults she’s heard from male players and a cheeky comment about the current state of professional women’s CS2.
For context, one of CS2’s biggest women’s circuits, ESL Impact, ceased operations after Season 8 in October, saying the “current economic model is simply not sustainable” to continue.
Over the last few years, several major Counter-Strike teams have also dissolved their women’s rosters, with the likes of NAVI saying the business model for their women’s CS2 group “seems unsustainable and does not allow for long-term planning.”
“The post was actually meant as a joke, because as a gamer, I’ve heard, ‘Go back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich,’ like a million times,” she explained.
“But it is also true that I work by literally making sandwiches from 5 – 10 AM most mornings. It’s a combination of a joke, but at the same time, to be able to survive and pay rent and still play CS2, especially in the current state of the scene for women’s CS, I have to also work a normal job, and pretty much always had to have side jobs while pursuing my dream!”
In the past, Byström has played for a number of high-profile esports organizations, including Evil Geniuses Gold and Ghost Gaming. However, they haven’t been able to offer her a full-time salary that she can live on.
For Byström, her ultimate dream is for women’s Counter-Strike to evolve to the point where the esport can have mixed leagues with both male and female players.
“I’ve been playing full-time in Evil Geniuses. I’ve also been in other organizations and getting a salary, but not any that is covered for full-time. I started streaming in 2015 and then started to focus on the professional aspect from 2019. The dream for me is that women’s CS can evolve so much that we can, in the future, have mixed teams!”
