Yesterday the Electronic Sports League (ESL), one of the world's biggest and most prestigious professional gaming organizations, announced plans to introduce measures to prevent its competitors from using performance enhancing drugs (PEDS).
In an official statement to the press, the ESL said:
"In order to maintain the fair play spirit of our sport, ESL has partnered with NADA (Nationale Anti Doping Agentur, located in Bonn, Germany) to help research and determine an anti-PEDs policy that is fair, feasible and respects the privacy of the players, whilst simultaneously providing conclusive testing results."
The ESL's decision comes in the wake of the revelation that a majority of the world's top E-Sports players make use of drugs like Adderall in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Last week Kory Friesen, a professional Counter-Strike player known around the world by his in-game name "SEMPHIS", admitted to Motherboard that he and other members of his team Cloud 9 made use of Adderall in a tournament with over $250,000 in prize money.
Even before the new testing plans were revealed, the ESL's rules indicate that playing under the influence of drugs and other substances is prohibited:
"To play a match, be it online or offline, under the influence of any drugs, alcohol, or other performance enhancers is strictly prohibited, and may be punished with exclusion from the ESL One." Says the official rule book.
However Friesen says that nearly everyone in the competitive scene plays with the aid of banned substances. Here's an excerpt from his interview with Esports journalist Mohan Govindasamy:
Govindasamy: Everyone does Adderall at ESEA LAN [eSports Entertainment Association League events] right?
Friesen: Yeah.
Govindasamy: Just throwing that out there for the fans, that's how you get good.
Friesen: And you can hear it in the comms right? That's what was so funny to me. Like [people saying] "shit comms [are] so hectic." So yeah that might clear up some of the questions of why it was like that.
