A Thai player in the AOV women's team was expelled from competition in the SEA Games 2025. The entire squad then withdrew from the contest. Here's what happened.
An Arena of Valor (AOV) player from the Thailand women's team was caught breaking the rules of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), prompting officials to expel her from competition.
The team consequently withdrew from the contest, giving way to Vietnam's gold medal win in the game that was Thailand's strong suit in esports.
Joebert Yu, the Filipino official serving as an esports technical delegate, explained what exactly happened.
"One of our international technical officials (ITO) caught one of the AOV women from Thailand, [she] downloaded a third-party app," Yu told Cignal's Doreen Suaybaguio.
The official took a photo and reported it to Yu.
"The rule was, if you download a third-party app you get expelled."
Consequently, the Thailand Esports Federation and the National Olympic Committee of the host country was informed of the matter.
"But the president of the Thailand Esports Federation, because he felt that as host country, he felt that this should be upgraded to the whole team. Because he felt that as Thailand, they should have a high standard, highest standard in terms of hosting," Yu explained.
On December 15, Thailand lost to Vietnam and was supposed to take on Laos next in the semifinals
But with the entire team withdrawing, Laos advanced to the gold medal match. Vietnam won.
"Based on what I've seen so far, although I don't understand some of the Thai language, they didn't blame the official," Yu said. "It's just unfortunate that that's what she did."
"And hopefully, this is just a personal, I hope she can recover. I hope she can be forgiven. I hope she comes back from this."
The men's AOV tournament will begin on Thursday, December 18. The Philippines will face Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos in the preliminaries.
(With reports from Doreen Suaybaguio/Cignal)
Katrina Alba is a sports journalist and producer, notably with SportsCenter Philippines before taking on her current role at One Sports.
She primarily writes about basketball and volleyball, with experience covering the SEA Games, Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup.
Outside of work, her hobbies include running, swimming, pickleball, yoga, arnis, and krav maga.