THOUGHTS | THE TOKYOGURL SEA GAMES SCANDAL

Being a MOBA team’s carry is a double-edged sword. For one thing, his or her teammates have to babysit the player at the start of the match. Every free gold available has to be given to the player. They even need to sacrifice their lives so that the carry remains unscathed. In a game like DOTA 2, all the fun items like Aegis of the Immortal or Cheese are given to the carry because these mean an extra life and more damage in team fights and base raids.

However, a carry also needs to be handled with care because he or she will be important during team fights and when pushing the enemy team’s base. The carry needs to have as many powerful items as possible, be leveled up to the max, and have enough skills not just to kill, but to evade attacks, disrupt the opposing team’s flow, and be versatile enough to move around the entire map to make his or her teammates look good. Basically, the carry is the team’s designated superstar, and frankly, a team will live or die based on his or her performance.

This is why I am kind of stoked that Mujin, one of my favorite YouTubers, covered the eSports scandal that rocked the 33rd SEA Games. Arena of Valor’s Warasin “Tokyogurl” Naraphat was caught cheating in front of her home crowd, was subsequently banned from the game, and had her sponsorship deals stripped.

I have never played Arena of Valor, but I love DOTA and have dabbled with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends. Watching the video, I did not know she was a member of Talon eSports, which is an organization I first heard of because of DOTA 2. Mujin presented numerous facts and research to demonstrate why this scandal was a significant issue.

That said, there were red flags that can be seen as the Thailand Sports Commission’s fault. Not just the Thai eSports Commission, but the entire sports commission in general. Mujin never said anything negative about how the Thais hosted the event. Yes, all host teams have home-court advantage, but this also means they have influence over facilities, structures, and players.

Yes, I said players.

The commission can weed out players they think might embarrass them, and they also have the power to at least tinker with the players other countries will bring in.

I have to bring this up because I saw the Gilas Pilipinas squad scramble for players as officials tried to nerf the roster by excluding naturalized players and other Filipino Americans. JP Erram was even initially excluded from the roster because Thai officials thought he was Indian. Spoiler alert, he is not. At the start and toward the end of the gold medal match, Gilas Pilipinas endured some very questionable calls.

In the combat matches, it was evident that participants had to practically knock their Thai opponents out to score a decisive victory. And it was not just the Filipino contingent that had questions. Internally, many Thai people were uneasy about hosting the SEA Games because some facilities were questionable and there were political issues involving Cambodia. I was even annoyed because when I watched the baseball livestream, it felt like the game only had three cameras. You could not see if players were stealing bases, and you could not figure out who was safe or out because the cameras were always wide-angle shots.

Tokyogurl is popular and may have been an integral part of promoting the eSports side of the SEA Games. I get why Talon missed her violations, but in the SEA Games, I think the officials should have been more vigilant about why she was missing live practices.

This was not just an eSports tournament.

It was also an opportunity to make your country proud.

After all the pre-event controversies, the last thing the federation needed was a cheater who also dragged her boyfriend into the mess. And I know what you are thinking: the boyfriend is guilty as well. However, he had to come out because he was the one playing her games, and this made it even clearer how badly she tried to hide her stress when she learned she would be using the tournament mobile device and would have to play the game where she was seen as the star.

She scored a lot of deals and had the chance to compete against the best in Southeast Asia because of Arena of Valor.

The best thing she could have done was simply learn the game, especially if she was bold enough to accept an opportunity as big as this.

And if you think about it, she messed up not only her team, but also the entire country. Cheating allegations when you are playing for flag and country leave a stain that will be remembered for a long time.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Talon decides to disband their entire team because of the events they participated in that had her in it.

I think one of the reasons baseball is not as popular in the Philippines, despite our good world ranking, is because of the Little League scandal that happened 34 years ago. Thailand could have still played in the gold medal match, but they decided against it because winning a medal in that situation might have been worse in the long run.

And the thing about eSports is that the list of games depends on the host country. The 2027 SEA Games will be held in Malaysia, and they did not get a medal in either the men’s or women’s Arena of Valor events. The last time DOTA 2 was played in the SEA Games was when the Philippines hosted in 2019. League of Legends was played when Vietnam hosted in 2021, while League of Legends: Wild Rift made the cut when Cambodia hosted in 2023.

Basically, the host country will play the games they are good at, as well as deny the opportunity to play games they know they have a zero chance of winning.

The bottom line is that Arena of Valor may not even return in the next SEA Games. So what Tokyogurl did here did not just affect the people who would do anything to be in her spot. It also affected other players across the entire SEA region.

For Thailand, her participation was a double-edged sword. Yes, she was a big name and many perceived her as one of the best, but I do not think they fully understood the damage her presence would eventually cause.