In athletic competitions such as boxing, tennis, golf, and etc., athletes are constantly subjected to testing for performance enhancing drugs. It makes sense because sometimes some drugs give players an unfair advantage of others who aren’t on drugs, kind of ruining the spirit of competition in the process.
Given how video gamers who compete in big time leagues are now recognized as athletes, we suppose it was only a matter of time before they were subject to the same testing. Of course these aren’t for drugs that alter one’s physical strength, but rather mind enhancing drugs such as Adderall.
This comes on the heels of professional Counter-Strike player Kory “Semphis” Friesen who during an interview revealed that he and his team had taken Adderall during a recent tournament in Poland. So much so that the Electronic Sports League has announced that the league will now begin to test players for drugs, although they did not detail how they would be going about doing that.
However this is something that will be happening, so players who have relied on drugs to compete will probably need to stop. In the meantime Friesen and his team, Cloud 9, won’t be punished for their transgression, namely because apart from the admission, there’s no way of telling if they did take drugs since it would have been passed from their bodies already.
[Image Credit – JB Reed/Bloomberg News]