Thailand hosted the 33rd SEA Games amid significant upheaval. A late change in government stalled the event's budget, leaving infrastructure projects in Chonburi and Songkhla incomplete. The festive mood was further dampened by historic flooding and the passing of Queen Sirikit, while a shortage of professional staff hindered operations at remote venues.
Diplomatic tensions between Thailand and Cambodia reached a breaking point during the Games. Citing security concerns, the Cambodian delegation withdrew all athletes the day after the opening ceremony.
This unprecedented exit forced the cancellation of several martial arts and team sports events that no longer met the minimum participation requirements.
A technical error during the Dec. 9 opening ceremony at Rajamangala Stadium sparked diplomatic friction when a giant LED screen displayed an inaccurate geopolitical map.
The map of Vietnam omitted Phu Quoc Island as well as the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. The Organizing Committee immediately issued a formal apology to the Vietnamese delegation, attributing the mistake to an outsourced service provider.
The reception arrangements were plagued by incidents involving national flags and anthems. During the men's football match between Vietnam and Laos on Dec. 3, the stadium organizers were unable to play the national anthems due to a hard drive malfunction in the audio control system. Players and fans from both teams had to sing the national anthem without music, prompting the organizers to issue an apology.
In the calendar for the Thailand-Indonesia match in Group A of the women's football event released a few days earlier, the Laotian flag was used for Indonesia and Vietnamese for Thailand.
A horrific incident occurred during the swimming backstroke event when the flag signal system was not positioned at the standard distance of five meters from the pool end wall.
In backstroke events, swimmers cannot see ahead, so organizers hang backstroke flags on a horizontal line to signal the approaching turn or finish, helping athletes adjust their pace and strokes.
As the flags at the SEA Games event were placed too close to the wall, swimmers from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia in the 100m backstroke final did not slow down in time, resulting in them hitting their heads hard against the pool wall while turning. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.
In athletics, Ta Ngoc Tuong, the silver medalist in the men's 400m on Dec. 12, did not have his national record acknowledged, and organizers later confirmed a timekeeping system error. At the Supachalasai Stadium, the Vietnamese athlete finished second with a time of 45.53 seconds, 0.40 seconds behind Joshua Atkinson (Thailand). Both times were better than the SEA Games record (46 seconds).
Tuong surpassed his own previous Vietnamese record of 45.59 seconds. After verification, the organizers stated that the timekeeping system did not meet World Athletics Federation standards and therefore his achievement was not recognized as a record or considered for qualification for international events.
Pencak silat was plagued by controversial refereeing. On Dec. 15 the Malaysian delegation reacted strongly after their fighter Nor Farah Mazlan was declared the loser to her Thai rival in the quarterfinals of the women's 55kg category, despite the match ending in a 60-60 draw.
Believing the score was biased, the Malaysian delegation argued fiercely, leading to a scuffle and assault of the referee, forcing intervention by security.
On Dec. 16 the Pencak Silat Federation of Thailand accused Vietnamese fighter Nguyen Minh Triet of "lying on the floor to pressure the referee" during the men's 65kg semi-final against Muhammad Izzul Irfan Marzuki (Malaysia). According to the Thai side, the strike was not illegal and the injury was not serious; Triet was disqualified because he was unable to continue competing.
The women's football final on the evening of Dec. 17 witnessed an absurd error by a linesman.
Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy scored a spectacular diving header, but Lao referee Phutsavan Chanthavong raised the flag for offside. Slow-motion replays showed a Philippine defender was some two meters ahead of Thuy. Because VAR technology was not used at the football event, the decision could not be overturned.
In the men's singles bowling semi-final, Vietnam’s Tran Hoang Khoi was ordered to stop in the middle of a match despite being well ahead and on track to defeat his opponent, Napat Buspanikokul.
The organizers admitted to a matchmaking error, forcing Khoi to restart the game against Filipino Jesus San Jose. The Vietnamese representative accepted the decision and defeated San Jose to advance to the final, where Khoi reunited with Napat and won the first ever gold medal for Vietnam in bowling at the SEA Games.
The Bowling Federation of Thailand explained the incident stemmed from a technical error in the matchmaking process, which was handled by the Asian Bowling Federation. The matter was resolved after an apology from the host country.
The esports cheating scandal also rocked Thailand and the region. Woman player Warasin Naraphat, nicknamed Tokyogurl, was disqualified for serious technical violations.
The Thai esports association confirmed that the markswoman for the Arena of Valor team used unauthorized third-party software in the match against Vietnam on Dec. 15, violating the technical manual.
This software was allegedly used to automatically capture screenshots and send data to interfere with the competition. After Thailand lost 0-3 to Vietnam, suspicions of cheating spread on social media, were investigated by the professional department and reported to the organizing committee.
The verification led to the highest disciplinary action against Warasin. Due to this scandal, the Thai esports association decided to withdraw the entire women's Arena of Valor team from the SEA Games.
