Tokyogurl and her boyfriend cheated their way into the SEA Games as men continue to fantasize about beating women in esports tournaments
It’s a bit of a distant memory, but remember when that woman on the Arena of Valor team was caught cheating at the 33rd SEA Games? Well, the truth behind the situation is even crazier, bringing the situation back into the spotlight once more.
Back in December 2025, Warasin “Tokyogurl” Naraphat was caught using unauthorized software and having third-party involvement while competing at the SEA Games. After getting caught cheating, Tokyogurl was disqualified (even though Thailand had just lost 0-3 to Vietnam anyway). The rest of the team continued to the Lower Bracket Final, but Thailand ultimately decided to withdraw from the women’s tournament altogether.
Even though Tokyogurl denied any wrongdoing – and even claimed it was due to her being sick and panicking mid-game – it seemed like a pretty cut-and-dry case of cheating and banning. However, it’s now come out that she was, in fact, cheating, but with help from her boyfriend.
In fact, her boyfriend had been playing for her this entire time. Tokyogurl had made it to the SEA Games without ever having played a game by herself.
Tokyogurl’s boyfriend admits to cheating at SEA Games
Tokyogurl’s boyfriend goes by Cheerio. He’s a semi-pro esports player who’s competed in tournaments before, although nothing as big as the SEA Games.
After months of silence, Cheerio took to TikTok to admit he was playing for Tokyogurl at the prestigious international tournament.
“I want to come out and clarify the issues that have happened in the past during the SEA Games period and other competitions, where everyone suspected that a third party was playing in place during several matches. I admit that it’s true,” he confessed.
“I didn’t intend for things to escalate to this point and cause disappointment to many people. I humbly accept all criticism and the consequences that follow, without any excuses.”
After Cheerio’s groveling apology, Tokyogurl shared one of her own: “I’m sorry.”
Not only is Tokyogurl banned from Arena of Valor tournaments, but the President of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation has stated that it’s taking legal action against Cheerio and Tokyogurl. So it’s being taken quite seriously.
Why are dudes so obsessed with beating women in esports?
My initial thought when I learned of Tokyogurl and Cheerio was: Why? I am not quite sure what the benefit of doing something like this is.
But then I thought back to the time the Fortnite community decided to be a transphobic pile of shit after the Milk Cup. The responses were quite telling. Instead of congratulating Vader for not only winning a pretty impressive tournament but finding a community that accepts and supports her, incels all over X accused her of “pretending to be a woman” so she could beat all the girls at the Milk Cup.
And this got me thinking: Subpar, insufferable men that don’t feel worthy of other men due to various shortcomings want to feel better about their lowly status by beating women at random stuff. That’s why they think trans women are doing the same thing: projection. This is their own fantasy, not the fantasy of trans women.
You see men constantly claiming they can beat up a female wrestler or get more points than her at tennis or win a Counter-Strike tournament, and you wonder: “Why is that even on your mind? Why do you care?” Maybe it would make them feel better about themselves to actually have a chance for once in their life. Or maybe they want to prove women aren’t good at things to make themselves feel better about getting constantly rejected. I can’t tell you. But this seems to be a pattern.
Remember Vaevictis eSports, the all-female League of Legends team that competed in the Russian League (LCL) in 2019, emerging without a single win? The team was made up of female players that weren’t even the highest rank in the game and they were all support players. It seemed basically built to fail – and it was. It was a stunt to essentially mock women and point out that they can’t play video games as well as men.
As the insults and think-pieces rolled in, the Vaevictis eSports players were quick to point out that it wasn’t about gender at all.
Former member Anastasiya “HellMa” Pleyko said: “Take five men with diamond rank, put them against these teams, and they play just as bad as we do. I know a lot of women who are better and would have performed better. “
As the harassment and mockery continued, Riot Games disqualified the team for its performance.
A year later, an all-female Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament was infiltrated by a man dressed in feminine clothing. All to get one-fifth of the winning team’s $600.
The tournament, Legion of Valkyries CS:GO May 2020, required players to have a webcam on. The male player wore a black wig, glasses, and a mask. When he was asked to remove the mask, the tournament organizers immediately saw he was a man.
Despite the blatant disrespect, most people online found this funny. Many joked that he was “transgender” and should have been allowed to compete. Women’s esports are clearly not taken seriously, and men found it funny to make a mockery of the event. I’m assuming he was hoping to wipe all the women in the tournament to prove how much better he was than female CS:GO players. To prove what? I’m not sure. I guess that he’s not a total loser? To prove that he has more skills than other random players in a small tournament?
Beats me.
I don’t know Cheerio and I cannot tell you what his exact line of thinking was when he decided to cheat at the all-female Arena of Valor tournament at the SEA Games. My assumption, however, is that he is unable to reach his esports goals against other men and felt that this was an easy opportunity to win some money and beat competitors while he’s at it.
Again, the team had lost 0-3 against Vietnam while Tokyogurl was “competing.” Guess it wasn’t as much of a free win as Cheerio had thought. But even if it were, now what? He gets to tell people that he failed to beat anyone with the same advantages as him and had to compete against a scene with less support and fewer resources instead?
Congrats??
I’m not here to tell you if men are better at esports or not. I don’t really care. I am shocked that this even occupies a part of their brain at all. I’m shocked that they spend time thinking about how they’d be able to beat random women at a random game.
SSSniperWolf 2.0
Remember SSSniperWolf? She currently makes lazy “reaction” videos while putting on an irritating fake baby voice. And somehow, that’s enough for people to forget where she came from: pretending to play games to bait simps.
Years ago, it came out that she wasn’t playing Call of Duty or any of those games. It was her boyfriend’s gameplay. She wasn’t competing for money, so it wasn’t as career-breaking as it should have been, but I think this also deserves a mention in this article.
Why?
Because her boyfriend was, once again, a jealous, snivvly loser. Compared to Sssniperwolf, nobody was very interested in watching him play. A man playing Call of Duty? Boring. A hot woman playing Call of Duty with her cleavage showing? Subscribe! This concept makes many men salty, even though it’s the same men who subscribe to these women. Make it make sense.
Nobody would watch this dude’s gameplay unless he were a sexy woman. So he agreed to do streams and make content with her. Now, he was helping make money and getting attention. Just like Cheerio would never make it to the SEA Games, but now he could make it to the Games as a cute woman.
The real question is: Who is providing Snoop Dogg with the gaming footage?
Anyway, that’s the end of my rant. At the end of the day, Cheerio apologized and he wasn’t all that great against the other teams at the SEA Games anyway. But I can’t help but think about this continued obsession with these surplus men fantasizing about playing in women’s esports tournaments when nobody is even concerned about this. Just go get therapy between your solo rounds of Fortnite and leave everyone alone.
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