Just recently, a female professional esports player from Thailand was caught up in a scandal involving account sharing and match-fixing, sparking widespread outrage and condemnation throughout the esports community. This revelation not only shook Thailand’s esports community but also dragged her teammates into the controversy.
Across the globe, the esports industry is a rapidly growing emerging market. Many game companies offer substantial prize pools to attract top players to compete against one another, generating massive profits through staggering viewership numbers. However, such a fiercely competitive environment occasionally attracts opportunists looking to take shortcuts. While most cheaters choose to secretly use cheats or other illegal third-party software, a recent case involving remote “account farming” has come to light.
According to the *The Bangkok PostAccording to the latest report from 》, Warasin Naphat, a female esports player from Thailand known as “Tokyogurl,” is a member of Thailand’s national esports team and competed in the *Arena of Valor* event at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games. However, during a match on December 15 of last year, referees noticed a clear discrepancy between Tokyogurl’s in-game actions and the actual movements of her hands, raising serious suspicions.
However, after an in-depth investigation by the organizers, they were shocked to discover that she had not played the game herself at all during the competition; instead, she had used Discord screen sharing to allow another player to remotely control the game and impersonate her in the competition. Tokyogurl was subsequently disqualified on the spot, and her team—which had already qualified for the finals—had no choice but to withdraw from the tournament after being implicated in such a serious scandal. Although Tokyogurl continued to insist on her innocence at the time, more details gradually came to light afterward.
Another “Arena of Valor” esports player, Cheerio, later posted a short video on TikTok, admitting that he was the “hired gun” Tokyogurl had brought in and that he had shared his screen with her during the match. In response, he issued a public apology, stating that he hadn’t expected the situation to escalate to this extent and that he was willing to accept all the consequences. As for Tokyogurl, she later posted a brief “I’m sorry” on her personal Facebook page, implying that she had admitted to cheating.
After this incident came to light, Tokyogurl’s contract with her team was immediately terminated, and RoV Esports imposed a lifetime ban on her. However, given that she never personally participated in any matches from start to finish, the likelihood of her returning to the esports scene in the future seems slim to begin with. Cheerio, who assisted her in cheating, will also face similar consequences. As of now, the president of the Asian Esports Federation, who is also the chairman of the Thai Esports Association, has stated that he will “pursue this matter to the fullest extent” against both individuals and has not ruled out taking legal action.
According to reports, Tokyogurl’s teammates had actually noticed many strange and suspicious things even before the competition, such as the fact that she had never participated in the team’s offline training camps and deliberately kept her hands hidden during online “live streams.” What is certain is that the vetting process during the official competition turned out to be much stricter than she had imagined, and she was ultimately caught red-handed on the spot due to her poor acting. Furthermore, follow-up reports also mentioned that Tokyogurl had not actually participated in any tryouts but was recruited to join the national team solely because of her online fame.
Source: KOCPC Chinese