Lessons from the “Tokyogurl” scandal: clever cheating or lax oversight by the 2025 SEA Games organizers?
On 18 Dec 2025 GMT+7, a hot topic emerged in Thai sports and esports when Napath Warasin, known as “Tokyogurl,” a national esports athlete representing Thailand, was found using third-party software during the women's RoV competition at the 2025 SEA Games. She was immediately removed from the event, sparking a nationwide controversy.
Her actions violated Article 9.4.3 of the esports technical manual, concerning unauthorized software use or hardware modification during competition, which is a serious breach of Fair Play principles.
Subsequently, Santi Lothong, president of the Thailand Esports Association, went live to officially announce the withdrawal of the Thai women's RoV (AoV) national team from the 2025 SEA Games as accountability for the incident.
Recently, J Warapat Arunpakdee, a Thairath reporter, interviewed Thanon Thanakornprapa, or “Khun Pong,” president of the Esports Association for Education and Youth Development (CEYDA), in a Thairath Newspaper Column titled “Lessons from the ‘Tokyogurl’ Scandal: Clever Cheating or Lax SEA Games 2025 Organization?” to determine if the fault lay solely with the athlete or if it reflected structural issues in the 2025 SEA Games competition setup.
Khun Pong explained that the esports national team selection differs from traditional sports, employing a “the winning team becomes the national team” system, rather than selecting top players from various clubs as in football, due to time constraints, packed professional leagues, and the importance of team chemistry.
However, a key weakness is game patch updates, meaning the team winning the qualifiers might not be the best fit for the patch used in the actual SEA Games competition.
Key issue: use of "personal mobile phones" during national team qualifiers.
A major concern is the allowance of personal devices during national team selection. Khun Pong questioned why a national-level competition does not use standardized centralized equipment capable of system locking and cheat prevention.
Khun Pong admitted he spoke with Tokyogurl after the incident; she acknowledged downloading third-party applications onto her actual phone. Regardless of intent, simply having prohibited apps on the device constitutes a rule violation.
More alarming is that this method was not complex or a high-level hack but merely downloading an app outright, highlighting clear vulnerabilities in competition control systems.
No screen recording, no professional standards.
Khun Pong also noted that national-level competitions should implement screen recording systems for retrospective checks. In this case, evidence came from an external person's clip, not from the competition system itself. “Had professional standards been applied, this incident would never have happened.”
He compared the event to an exam where students easily bring cheat sheets, not a “Mission Impossible” level hack.
Damage to national image requires systemic fixes.
Khun Pong emphasized that beyond punishing the offending athlete, the more critical issue is reforming the entire competition system from selection through the actual event. “The country’s image is damaged, and the dream of positioning Thailand as an esports destination is directly impacted.”