Thai female athlete banned from competition: "If I had cheated, I would have beaten the Vietnamese team."

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - Thai esports player Warasin Naraphat has denied cheating and asserted that she suffered from severe psychological pressure leading to the incident in the women's RoV event at the SEA Games 33.

“Let me explain briefly. If I had cheated, I would have beaten the Vietnamese team already. How could I have cheated? I competed on my own, but I was under so much psychological pressure that I panicked. I was just taken to the hospital and only just got my phone back in use. Connecting the phone with a cable absolutely cannot be used to share the screen or cheat in any way,” Warasin Naraphat wrote on social media.

Tokyogurl's equipment was checked during the competition (Photo: Droidsans).

The case of female Arena of Valor (RoV) player Warasin Naraphat (in-game name: Tokyogurl) being disqualified for cheating in the Arena of Valor (RoV) game has shaken the Thai esports community.

According to the organizers, the female athlete installed unauthorized software on her competition device, allowing someone else to play on her behalf during the Playoffs match (Bo5) against the Vietnamese team on December 15th.

During the match, the organizers unexpectedly paused the game for an investigation after detecting unusual behavior from Tokyogurl. They discovered several suspicious applications violating regulations, took photos as evidence, but allowed the match to continue to avoid disrupting the entire competition.

It is speculated that Tokyogurl may have deleted the infringing app from his phone screen immediately after his phone was checked. Subsequently, many people noticed suspicious behavior from Tokyogurl, such as a noticeable decline in performance, unusually tense body language, constantly covering the screen, and avoiding camera angles.

On the morning of December 16th, the Esports Federation of Thailand (TESF) announced that Tokyogurl had been disqualified from the SEA Games 33 for violating Article 9.4.3 of the SEA Games Technical Manual (related to the use of unauthorized third-party software). Furthermore, Garena RoV Thailand announced a permanent ban on Tokyogurl from all tournaments organized by Garena.

Tokyogurl firmly maintains that he did not cheat (Photo: Khaosod).

Not only was Warasin Naraphat accused of cheating, but he was also criticized for giving the middle finger on live television. Regarding this, Tokyogurl explained: “The middle finger gesture was a joke between me and the person next to me. When I turned around, the camera was pointed at someone else. I was just joking around under stress. I was under so much stress that I fainted and had to be hospitalized.”

The captain of the Thai women's RoV team, Jomkhon Phumsinil (in-game name: Givemeakiss), shared: “I had doubts two days before the competition. Afterwards, the whole team spoke to her, but she reacted very aggressively, got angry, and demanded that the whole team apologize. Tokyogurl insisted she had done nothing wrong.”

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/nu-vdv-thai-lan-bi-cam-thi-dau-neu-gian-lan-toi-da-thang-doi-viet-nam-20251217110450592.htm