Traditionally, performance enhancing drugs have been most associated with physical sports, where steroids or growth hormones are used to build an advantage in strength, stamina, or to help cut weight before a contest. ESL will begin PED skin tests at ESL One Cologne in August, and roll out testing at every Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League event thereafter.
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E-sports organizations will be enforcing new anti doping policies for athletes.
Last July 14, 2015, professional “Counter Strike: Global Offensive” player, Kory “SEMPHIS” Frisen, had openly admitted that he and his team were using Adderall during the ESL One Katowice tournament last March 2015, according to his interview with Motherboard via GameSpot. Streaming services such as Twitch and Youtube have even created an audience for competitions which has in turn led to corporate sponsorships and other similarities with traditional sports. The prize money involved in these tournaments is high enough to warrant due diligence on behalf of the administrators to be sure that the teams are playing as fairly as possible.
The drugs that are prescribed for attention deficits are most commonly Adderall, Ritalin and Modafinal.
Competitors will be kept informed about the new regulations, list of banned substances, methods of testing, and consequences for doping, the ESL said.
For the first time ever in history, we will witness a competitive video-gaming organization test players for PEDs or performance enhancing drugs.
You may be wondering what kind of drugs could an eSports player use to get an edge over other players.
“We will taking immediate action to ensure that ESL’s company values of exemplary sportsmanship and integrity are maintained”. Drugs and alcohol are already banned at ELS hosted events.
“The developing perceivability and fame of e-games, and additionally expanding prize pools, make it not just all the more enticing for groups and players to break the guidelines, additionally all the more harming to our game in general when they do”, the association said in an announcement.
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The Electronic Sports League will be partnering with NADA (National Anti-Doping Agentur) in Germany to “research and determine an anti-performance enhancing drugs policy that is fair, feasible and respects the privacy of the players, whilst simultaneously providing conclusive testing results“.
