Thailand withdraws from the League of Legends event at the Asian Games, possibly due to the ongoing national stigma surrounding the Tokyogurl cheating scandal..

The Thai eSports Association announced on its official Facebook account on Tuesday that its national team will not participate in the League of Legends e-sports competition at the 2026 Asian Games.

The Thai eSports Association did not disclose the reasons for the team's withdrawal, stating only that it was due to a sharp reduction in funding and policy changes.

However, both Esport Insider and Sheep Esports believe this is closely related to the recent exposure of Tokyogurl, the Honor of Kings Thai esports female national team player, who blatant cheated during the Southeast Asian Games, and was even revealed that her entire career was built on cheating by having someone else play for her.

Both online media outlets added that, as of press time, the Thai eSports Association was still actively recruiting new players for its national team to participate in other esports events.

However, the Thai public generally feels regret and confusion regarding the national team's decision not to participate in the League of Legends competition.

Many netizens believe that other players on the Thai national esports team should not be deprived of the opportunity to compete and bring honour to the country solely because of Tokyogurl's actions.

Incident Summary

On December 15th, during the first round of the women's Honor of Kings tournament between Thailand and Vietnam at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), hosted by Thailand, Tokyogurl insisted on requesting permission before the match to use "settings she was more familiar with" despite being banned by the referee.

During the match, viewers and referees noticed discrepancies between the screen displayed on her phone and the actual gameplay. In some instances, even after the game had paused, her phone continued to move, prompting the referee to question her.

Unexpectedly, when questioned, Tokyogurl attributed the issue to "unknown connection problems causing severe lag," denying any cheating.

Although Thailand ultimately suffered a 0-3 defeat to Vietnam, Tokyogurl's unusual performance raised numerous suspicions.

Further contradicting her claims, Tokyogurl's performance was incredibly poor, almost as if she had never played Honor of Kings before, further fueling suspicions of cheating. 

During the match, the Thai player even gave the middle finger to the camera with a grin, seemingly showing disdain for her opponent.

The following day, Tencent, the Thai eSports Association, and the Thai Olympic Committee announced that Tokyogurl had indeed installed "unapproved third-party software" or "modified software" on her phone, and had cheated in the match. They decided to impose a lifetime ban on her, and TALON announced the immediate termination of her contract.

However, since the incident, Tokyogurl has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, claiming that a malfunction during the match caused her to suffer a panic attack and be hospitalized. She even went so far as to say, "If I really cheated, we wouldn't have lost the match," and deleted all her personal social media accounts.

As a consequence of this controversy, Thailand's spot in the finals was taken by Laos due to their withdrawal.

Subsequently, her teammates and the director of the Thai eSports Association also revealed that Tokyogurl never trained in person with her teammates, insisting on training remotely online, further fueling suspicions of her past cheating. 

Cheerio, a Thai semi-professional esports player who participated in the 2024 Bangkok eSports tournament, later admitted that he was the culprit who helped Tokyogurl cheat.

About Tokyogurl

Tokyogurl, 24, whose real name is Naraphat Warasin, became a professional Honor of Kings  esports player in 2024, primarily playing as a bottom laner (ADC).

Due to his resemblance in fashion style with famous Chinese female singer Sa Dingding and his looks to Lee Tae-eun, a former member of the K-pop girl group RaNia, Tokyogurl quickly gained nearly 30,000 followers across multiple social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook after her debut.

In late 2024, Tokyogurl became a member of the TALON Academy team and was promoted to the main team as a stand-in next year.

During his time as a substitute, Tokyogurl's outstanding performances led to her immediate promotion to the starting bottom laner on the TALON Honor of Kings team, and he is hailed as one of the most promising rising stars in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

However, all the positive image she built has now been ruined by her cheating during the Southeast Asian Games.

Image source: Internet / Esport Insider