Earlier this month a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player claimed he and his teammates had used the performance-enhancing drug adderall during a recent ESL tournament.
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It might surprise you that the ESL is having to take this step, but it’s actually a first; other pro leagues and circuits like The worldwide and LCS don’t test their competitors either, though it’d be insane if they weren’t at least considering it after this.
Widespread use of attention-focusing drugs like Adderall has been something of an open secret in the eSports community for a while; eSports consultant Bjoern Franzen publicly warned of rampant eSports pill-popping last year and an excellent Eurogamer exposé on the problem from April included many anonymous players admitting to widespread drug use.
The source spoke with the Daily Dot and asserted that the ESL is now working with the World Anti-Doping Agency and National Anti Doping Agency to get urine-based drug testing off the ground.
“We focused immediately on kickstarting a policy-making process and adjusting the rules”, Rozwandowicz said. “Activities and performances can all be explained within the range of physiology, and as using the physiological approach, eSports must be directly influenced by any doping activity in terms of performance”. “Full blown drug tests at esports events are far away, but that doesn’t mean we can’t and shouldn’t try to tackle the issue”.
The action taken by ESL can be seen as a direct response to former Cloud9 team member Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen. Instead, ESL will do the next best thing, which is to implement an anti-doping policy. “Our aim is to perform those tests at every event in the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League competitions”, the organizer said.
ESL will use the expertise of NADA and WADA to create a PEDs prevention program, which will be distributed to all players participating in esports competitions organized, hosted or produced by ESL. Rozwandowicz continued. “The goal of this program is to ensure players are provided with information and structural support to help them manage the physical and emotional pressure that the highest level of competitive gaming puts on many of them”. “We can’t punish someone if we are not 100 percent sure he is guilty”, the group says.
ESL will remain proactive in ensuring all professional players and organisations involved in our competitions will be informed about the current status of this initiative.
Expect Adderall to make the banned list, though.
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The player – Cory “Semphis” Friesen – and his team will not be punished or stripped of their winnings, despite their admission.
