Warasin “Tokyogurl” Naphat has already made quite a name for herself as a member of Thailand’s national competitive scene and also among the roster for the national team for the 2025 Southeast Asian Games. But her bright future suddenly darkened when it was discovered that she didn’t really play the game. An Arena of Valor tournament on December 15 caught tournament officials by surprise when they noted a buzzkill between her physical hand movements and the high-level gameplay actually happening on her display monitor. Immediately, the investigation into a cover-up revealed that Naphat was screen-sharing via Discord through a remote session allowing a hidden accomplice to control the character in real-time while mimicking the motions of a professional player.
The fallout after the revelation fell sharply and heavily throughout the Thai national squad. All members of the team withdrew from the tournament even though it qualified for the finals because of the disqualification. In the days after, the space behind the “ghost player” turned out to belong to another Arena of Valor competitor known as Cheerio. Cheerio, in a public apology posted to TikTok, said he was behind the actual controls, claiming he never expected the scheme would reach a level where it would jeopardize the integrity of a national representative team.
The discovery, however, had happened on stage, and the signs of fraud had tainted it through the months leading to the event. Teammates later reported several red flags that were ignored during team formation, such as Naphat’s habit of avoiding face-to-face training camps and colorful hands thrown to avoid exposure during her personal livestreams. It is probably the most serious indictment against the credibility of the selection process that Naphat was included into the national roster on the basis of online reputation and streaming presence alone, without the rigorous formal tryouts that are characteristically required for such a prestigious position.
For both, such a disaster is probably a career-ending moment. Aside from the lifetime ban from RoV Esports, the president of the Thailand eSports Association openly stated that the organization intended to go against Naphat and Cheerio to the fullest extent of the law. For a community that had spent years fighting for legitimacy as a recognized athletic endeavor, this incident was a severe reminder of how vulnerable digital competition was and the needs of improved oversight in talent recruitment.
