Video Gaming League Will Start Drug Testing Gamers
It looks like taking performance enhancing drugs in professional gaming is getting out of hand, and the Electronic Sports League is looking to put a stop to it. I don't know, I just never thought that performance enhancing drugs in gaming would actually be an issue, but, after professional gamer Kory Friesen admitted that he took the ADHD drug Adderall to boost his performance and then claimed other teammates did the same, ESL decided to take action. Friesen told Govindasamy:
“I don’t even care. We were all on Adderall. I don’t even give a fuck. It was pretty obvious if you listened to the comms. People can hate it or whatever.”
ESL has now teamed up with two major anti-doping sports group to help regulate the drug use. I can only imagine the other gamers are wishing Friesen would have kept his mouth shut. The program will be developed with Europe’s NADA (Nationale Anti Doping Agentur), and WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) will help enforce and administer the policy worldwide. Do you think Friesen gives a fuck now?
For those of you not familiar, Adderall is a branded prescription drug that comes from amphetamines. Apparently it boosts concentration and gives the players faster reactions. At the same time, Friesen explains that it also makes it harder to process instructions from other players.
Like any sport, you've gotta keep things fair, so if gamers are taking drugs to improve their skills, then implementing a program like this makes complete sense. Below you'll find the full press release on the matter with all of the details.
Read it over and let us know what you think about drug testing for professional gamers.
The popularity and visibility of esports has grown exponentially in recent years, but this combined with the increasing size of prize pools has also made the temptation of rule-breaking even greater.
As the world’s largest and oldest esports organization, ESL has an ongoing commitment to safeguarding both the integrity of our competitions and that of esports as a whole - we wish to ensure we can provide a fair playing field for all participating players.
With this in mind, today we are announcing the beginning of the steps we’ll be taking as an organization in order to determine enforce guidelines and rules surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) at ESL events.
Joining forces
In order to maintain the spirit of fair play within esports, ESL has partnered with NADA (the Nationale Anti Doping Agentur, which is headquartered in Bonn, Germany) to help create an anti-PED policy that is fair, feasible and conclusive while also respecting the privacy of players. ESL will also be meeting with WADA (the World Anti Doping Agency, based in Montreal, Canada) so they can be actively involved in the making, enforcing and dissemination of this policy to additional regions such as the US, Asia and Australia.
The expertise of NADA and WADA will help ESL to produce a PED prevention program that will encompass all players participating in competitions organized, hosted or produced by ESL. This program will help ensure that all players are provided with the information and structural support they need to help them manage the physical and emotional pressure of professional gaming.
Taking action
In the meantime, we will taking immediate action to ensure that ESL’s company values of exemplary sportsmanship and integrity are maintained. As such, we will be administering the first PED skin tests at ESL One Cologne this August, with a view to performing these tests at every Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League event thereafter as soon as the official PED policy is established and tournament rules updated accordingly.
We will remain proactive in ensuring all professional players and organizations involved in ESL competitions will be kept informed of the initiative’s progress. Updates on changes to tournament rules including the list of banned substances, methods of testing and potential disciplinary actions for players caught using PEDs and/or admitting to having used them will be provided to players via their respective team managers and/or owners.