Esports Pro Player Caught Having Boyfriend Play for Her
The suspicion is that her entire career is fake
The SEA Games are a multi-sport event involving nations from Southeast Asia, and among the many competitions are esports. The 2025 edition took place last December in Thailand and was rocked by a major and somewhat bizarre scandal, involving one of the home teams and raising questions about how digital sports are conducted.
Tokyogurl, the Fake Player
Among the various video games at the SEA Games is Arena of Valor, an international version of Honor of Kings (a mobile MOBA developed by Tencent that has a massive following in China). In the women's tournament for Arena of Valor, during a match between Thailand and Vietnam, judges noticed something was amiss: the hand movements of a very strong Thai player did not match her in-game actions.
The player in question is Naphat Warasin, better known by the nickname Tokyogurl, and what happened is almost unbelievable: the judges discovered she was in contact via Discord with her boyfriend, a former Arena of Valor pro named Cheerio, who… was playing in her place. Tokyogurl was immediately disqualified, and the Thai women's team withdrew from the tournament, which was then won by Vietnam.
For his part, Cheerio later admitted his guilt (via Bangkok Post). As for Tokyogurl, she had built a career around esports, but after the incident, one cannot help but wonder to what extent her achievements were her own. Her deception, however, did not go without consequences: her professional team, Talon, fired her, and the international publisher of Arena of Valor, Garena, disqualified her for life from competitions.