Gaming and Esports Professional Victor Davila Charged With Two Felonies in Utah

Credit: Victor Davila

The Esports Advocate has learned that Victor Davila was arrested in Logan City, Utah, on Aug. 18 (Friday), for allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer posing as an 13-year-old girl for sex. 

Davila, who is currently serving as a sales manager under contract with gaming-focused group Tampa Never Sleeps, was let go from MSI last month, and is well-known in the collegiate esports, event production, and influencer spaces, as well as the fighting game community in the United States.

Logan City Police allege that Davila (a California resident), drove to Logan City, Utah, to meet up with a 13-year-old girl (a police officer posing as a teenager as part of an online sting operation) after talking with her on a popular chat app on Friday. During the conversation, police allege, Davila told the teenager that he was visiting the city and looking for casual sex. 

Police further allege that when the undercover officer told Davila that they were 13-years-old, he still said in the chat that he would like to have sex. He was reluctant to meet, fearing that he could catch a charge—but when the undercover officer told him that he should not show up, he still agreed to meet, despite acknowledging the risks, according to an affidavit. When he showed up at the agreed upon location, he was arrested.  

Davila’s phone, which allegedly contained those messages was taken as evidence.  Davila was later booked on Friday by Logan City Police on one charge of attempted rape of a child (a first-degree felony) and enticing a minor (a second-degree felony).

Davila is currently in the Cache County jail awaiting a hearing for bail. A spokesperson for the Logan City Police Dept. told TEA via email on Thursday afternoon:

“Mr. Avila is still incarcerated in the Cache County Jail.  I cannot speak for the County Attorney and do not know when he will be arraigned or his bail status.”

Davila, who was at EVO last month (likely promoting his clients), is well-known in the fighting game community due to his time at MSI working on events and partnerships. In July he was let go from the company after more than two years. During his time there, he served in multiple roles including events and partnerships manager and as a retail merchandising manager. In his role as an events and partnerships manager, he worked with partners, influencers, and more to promote the MSI brand, and helped create a presence for the company at events in the United States such as CES, Dreamhack, PAX, E3, and more, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also served as a liaison between MSI and the collegiate esports space and played a pivotal role in MSI’s sponsorship of Combo Breaker 2022 and Offline TV. 

While Tampa Never Sleeps did not respond to our request form comments, CEO Tong Lee issued a brief statement on social media Thursday:

“We were informed last night that Victor Davila has been charged with very serious crimes,”  Lee wrote. “He helped us with sales for the last two months, but in light of these abhorrent charges, we are immediately ending our association with him.

On a personal note, I am disgusted by this news. We met earlier this year and I never could have imagined this is the kind of person he is. I will be working harder to ensure people like this don’t have a place in our community.”

In addition to Tampa Never Sleeps, Davila has had past associations/business dealings with Offline TV and American musician, singer, and songwriter Park Jae-hyung (better known as EAJPark). 

TEA has reached out to Park Jae-hyung for further comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.

Before joining MSI, Davila worked for a number of collegiate esports-focused companies. He also founded (and later sold) gaming and esports-focused events company Space Productions, and the Utah Collegiate Esports Conference and the Utah State Esports. 

While the Logan City Police Dept. alleges that Davila committed these acts and have charged him with crimes, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty by American legal standards.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Thursday, Aug. 24, at 6 p.m. ET with additional comments and a correction (we referred to “Tampa Never Sleeps” as “Miami Never Sleeps”). We apologize for the error.