A rising Esports talent made it onto her country’s national team and signed to a prominent Esports agency, all without playing a single video game.
Warasin Naraphat, otherwise known as Tokyogurl, was a promising star of Thailand’s national Esports team.
Naraphat had managed to earn her place on the team, which planned to compete in the Southeast Asian Games while also signing a contract with Talon Esports, a reputable Esports organization based in Hong Kong.
Tokyogurl has reportedly built a solid reputation in the game Arena of Valor, a multiplayer online battle arena game that is one of Southeast Asia’s most popular titles, according to the blog Rude Vulture.
The rising Esports star seemed to have everything going for her until it all fell apart.
It turns out that she had fooled everyone into believing that she was a professional Esports player, when in reality, she’d never actually played the video game.
Instead, she employed remote assistance technology, which allowed her boyfriend, a former professional Arena of Valor player, to play the game while Naraphat faked playing it.
Naraphat’s boyfriend, known by his gamer alias Cheerio, admitted to playing the game for the Esports player remotely.
“I admit that I did it,” Cheerio said, and he apologized, saying that he would accept all criticism and consequences, the Bangkok Post reported.
Cheerio also apologized for bringing shame on Thailand and said sorry to “all those affected by (his) selfish action.”
Event organizers noticed discrepancies between Naraphat’s hand movements and what was happening on-screen during the live broadcast in 2025.
Officials reportedly paused the match and investigated the matter, in which they discovered that Naraphat was using Discord to see the person playing remotely in her place.
She then attempted to mirror the hand movements in an attempt to deceive the judges.
Following the revelation, Naraphat was forced to actually play the game, in which her performance bombed.
Thailand ended up losing the match, and the National Olympic Committee banished Naraphat from the competition.
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