Do they currently have drug testing in eSports?

kbrickley

kbrickley

Supreme [H]ardness
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I was curious that with the current brouhaha over the women's league in eSports that is intended to meet the membership requirement that the sport accord has on "promotion of women":

a document describing the main achievements of the candidate over the last three years,
and its fields of priorities, among the following list:
§ athletes
§ coaches
§ anti-doping / medical
§ promotion of women
§ sport administration
§ communication / marketing
Click to expand...

But when I looked up the actual requirement I saw the anti-doping/medical piece also. Do they currently do drug testing? If not, is that the next thing that is going to send the Internet off the deep end?
 
Hey it can be serious if cash and prizes are at stake. Im willing to bet Adderall would give quite an edge..
 
Yep. There is drug testing, and if you aren't taking, you get booted out! :D
 
I don't think its so much that they have active testing. Its that they encourage players to don't do crack, cause crack is wack.

Don't smoke pot, cause its not hot.

Don't listen to rhymes, cause the po-po no gots the times.

Considering that Mtn Dew is one of the largest sponsors, and thats a goddamn drug addiction in itself, I doubt highly its an issue.

Taking that into consideration, I've heard all the wonderful things about Adderall. I might have to try that shit. I mean, I can not focus at work anymore, I spend 2 hours working and 10 hours surfing the net, oh wait, fuck it, that is my job.
 
Yeah that could explain some of the behavior I seen in videos for sure...
POP a bunch of stimulants and get a edge while at risk for a stroke at the same time.
I'm on some pretty bad stuff myself not sure what it's like to be totally clean I skip doses on my days off.
 
Comixbooks said:
Yeah that could explain some of the behavior I seen in videos for sure...
POP a bunch of stimulants and get a edge while at risk for a stroke at the same time.
I'm on some pretty bad stuff myself not sure what it's like to be totally clean I skip doses on my days off.
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You should probably get some help.
 
It appear that they did not have this in WCG when I participated 10 years ago.

I'm not sure if drugs can turn you better anyway like in real sport.
 
BiH115 said:
You should probably get some help.
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I'm going to go out on a limb and say he has. An addict doesn't "skip doses" voluntarily on weekends. That's a common practice for people subscribed Adderall/Ritalin/Vyvanese. Since it's a mixture of amp-salts, many refer to it - and others - as being bad simply because of what it is. However, those with ADD need it for a therapeutic reason and will skip a dose if they don't need to concentrate for that day (no work/school).
 
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Plenty of players used to take amphetamines back in the day. It has some positives, though I personally prefer weed only.

I think drug testing is pointless these days. In any sports. Everyone with half a brain knows the Olympics are as fake as you can get, same with every other sport. Testing is basically a tool to take out competition, nothing more.

Carmac published a really great article about drugs in e-sports on esreality.com like 10 years ago. I will try and find it later. My google-fu doesn't work as well with ixquikck :)
 
sadly I'm no pro-gamer... work and life gets in the way of that fantasy dream.

No drugs either - sure, booze and smokes occasionally but weed/meth/coke/pills/whatever... I just don't see the point in any of that stuff.

I do remember 8-10 years ago in college... adderall being one of the reasons I made the deans list. No I didn't have a prescription, just good friends. I remember inquiring about getting a legit prescription and was told it would cost like 800 dollars or something for all the tests. Yeah screw that. Not sure of the social stigmas attached to that stuff too, I'd feel a little retarded if I told everyone "yeah I have ADD", as well as, the long term effects of taking something that's equivalent to legal speed. How much would it suck that 20 years down the road, I'd be in my early 50's and my brain is totally fried due to taking that stuff now?

As a 32 year old now -- I'd love to be able to focus all the time, but guess it's just not in the cards. On my off days I'll chug a delicious Monster Orange Khaos and get in the zone for the BF4 action on PC, or do some serious internet surfing or whatever for a home improvement project I'm on.

Honestly - I wish there was a way to get tested for easy/cheap and find out if those sorts of things would actually help.
 
With all the side effects I experienced from Dexedrine, I imagine that it's only a "performance enhancer" for those people that don't really need it and that can get by taking doses irregularly. And yes, even back in the mid 90's it was a very common practice to stop taking it on weekends to partially limit the side effects.
 
I've been a pharm tech for over 5 years now. I see people on stuff like this every day. Most people on it are completely normal. I do believe adult adhd is over-diagnosed though.

CNS stims like Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin are Schedule 2- the highest class of legally prescribed drugs, in terms of abuse potential. My pharmacy does about 500 prescriptions daily on average. We used to be at over 1000 before competitors sprang up all around us. People write fake prescriptions quite often for controlled substances. I have never seen a fake prescription for a CII stim. The fakes are almost always CIII opioids like Vicodin. Sometimes we get fakes for harder stuff like Oxycontin, Opana, etc; but there is much more of a paper trail involved that probably scares a lot of people off. I think that speaks volumes about the condition of our current rankings of drug abuse potential.

Taking more than a therapeutic dose of an opioid pain med can cause intense euphoria on the level of (and sometimes exceeding) that experienced by heroin. Taking more than a therapeutic dose of Adderall does give the user euphoria, but at the cost of extreme discomfort in the form of anxiety and restlessness.
Euphoric feelings from opioids seem to follow a direct logarithmic scale of good feelings, until a certain point when respiratory depression kicks in and normal breathing patterns cease; which can lead to lack of oxygen to the brain causing death. On the other hand, the dose/abuse curve for stims is more of an inverse logarithmic curve because of the cognitive and peripheral stimulation that is just plain uncomfortable. Mostly noted are intense jitteriness, anxiety, insomnia, etc.

The point I am trying to get at is stimulant drugs are not useful for competitive e-sports play because they cloud judgement and cause impatience. If anyone here is on a CII stimulant and has purposefully or accidentally taken a double dose of your meds, try holding a site with an AWP in CS:GO and let me know how that goes after a minute and 30 seconds of waiting.

I will entertain the idea that stimulants could be used to cram in long hours of practice, but as a performance enhancer I call bs.
 
Yeah I'm a addict but not by choice I get sever Insomnia if I stop taking them I've tried everything just a side effect of certain Atypicals.
 
I don't know much here, but what I know about League of Legends and its e-sports program is that officially speaking they frown upon drug use of any kind, especially during competitive play. However, there are teams and specific players who seem to enjoy expressing their love for pot who seem to get along in esports just fine. A good example is Team Dignitas. Imacutiepie even lights up on stream occasionally.
 
Dark12 said:
I will entertain the idea that stimulants could be used to cram in long hours of practice, but as a performance enhancer I call bs.
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Uhhhh...you do realize that hours of practice leads to...enhanced performance, right?
 
erf said:
Uhhhh...you do realize that hours of practice leads to...enhanced performance, right?
Click to expand...

Uhh... I think the OP was asking about drug use as a performance enhancer during competitive play.

Almost all stimulants are out of your system in 3 days anyway. Unless you think players should be tested during online play as well..
 
Dark12 said:
I've been a pharm tech for over 5 years now. I see people on stuff like this every day. Most people on it are completely normal. I do believe adult adhd is over-diagnosed though.

CNS stims like Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin are Schedule 2- the highest class of legally prescribed drugs, in terms of abuse potential. My pharmacy does about 500 prescriptions daily on average. We used to be at over 1000 before competitors sprang up all around us. People write fake prescriptions quite often for controlled substances. I have never seen a fake prescription for a CII stim. The fakes are almost always CIII opioids like Vicodin. Sometimes we get fakes for harder stuff like Oxycontin, Opana, etc; but there is much more of a paper trail involved that probably scares a lot of people off. I think that speaks volumes about the condition of our current rankings of drug abuse potential.

Taking more than a therapeutic dose of an opioid pain med can cause intense euphoria on the level of (and sometimes exceeding) that experienced by heroin. Taking more than a therapeutic dose of Adderall does give the user euphoria, but at the cost of extreme discomfort in the form of anxiety and restlessness.
Euphoric feelings from opioids seem to follow a direct logarithmic scale of good feelings, until a certain point when respiratory depression kicks in and normal breathing patterns cease; which can lead to lack of oxygen to the brain causing death. On the other hand, the dose/abuse curve for stims is more of an inverse logarithmic curve because of the cognitive and peripheral stimulation that is just plain uncomfortable. Mostly noted are intense jitteriness, anxiety, insomnia, etc.

The point I am trying to get at is stimulant drugs are not useful for competitive e-sports play because they cloud judgement and cause impatience. If anyone here is on a CII stimulant and has purposefully or accidentally taken a double dose of your meds, try holding a site with an AWP in CS:GO and let me know how that goes after a minute and 30 seconds of waiting.

I will entertain the idea that stimulants could be used to cram in long hours of practice, but as a performance enhancer I call bs.
Click to expand...

I have met people taking them to try to get an edge and you are right for the most part. They gain some in reflexes and focusing, but it also causes hyperfocusing and impatience which are easily exploitable weaknesses. I've played against people taking them in Halo and I destroyed them by exploiting their impatience and hyperfocusing. Anything that isn't standard play will throw their game off. Throw a grenade in one spot and they focus on it as you flank from the side for the easy kill.

The only way these drugs are going to help you is if you have needed them legitimately, otherwise caffeine is a much better option as far as drugs go.

Also to answer the OP. Yes there have been eSports competitions that have tested for drugs before. I remember it being an issue in StarCraft 2 for a while. But testing is very uncommon because most eSports don't have enough money for it to be practical, and it isn't as widespread of a problem as it is in physical sports.
 
I can say from experience that being high on cannabis while playing video games most certainly increases performance. Personally, I was much more focused while high vs sober. If there's no drug testing for competitive play there should be.
 
sharknice said:
I have met people taking them to try to get an edge and you are right for the most part. They gain some in reflexes and focusing, but it also causes hyperfocusing and impatience which are easily exploitable weaknesses. I've played against people taking them in Halo and I destroyed them by exploiting their impatience and hyperfocusing. Anything that isn't standard play will throw their game off. Throw a grenade in one spot and they focus on it as you flank from the side for the easy kill.

The only way these drugs are going to help you is if you have needed them legitimately, otherwise caffeine is a much better option as far as drugs go.
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What you say is no doubt true, though regularity fixes those issues to a point where players are no longer as good when they're sober but are familiar with and able to overcome some of the inherit weaknesses of playing "high".
 
It's all about public relations, and cost vs. reward. The reason traditional sports primarily test is due to public relations to address the perception of drug use (perception, not actual use), all other reason's are indirectly related and secondary. Because the primary audience of traditional sports leans against drug use (and the perception of drug use) organizations will and are willing to incur the costs (and issues) associated with drug testing. Even then however this is only done to the extent of addressing public perception.

The e-sports audience is different. Specifically the e-sport audience (and I'd say gaming demographic as whole) is much more indifferent (if not supportive) of drug use (certain drug use). Therefore the pressure to implement testing versus the cost to do so simply is not there, as such you are unlikely to get similar drug testing (and any real pressure to do so) compared to traditional sports organizations.

For example I wouldn't be surprised if there would actually be significant backlash if esports organizations were to test and heavily penalize for marijuana use (even more so if it were random and out of competition). However this type of testing is standard and accepted among major sports organizations in North America. Simply put the viewpoints of the "public" being addressed is rather different and therefore priorities are different.
 
limitedaccess said:
It's all about public relations, and cost vs. reward. The reason traditional sports primarily test is due to public relations to address the perception of drug use (perception, not actual use), all other reason's are indirectly related and secondary. Because the primary audience of traditional sports leans against drug use (and the perception of drug use) organizations will and are willing to incur the costs (and issues) associated with drug testing. Even then however this is only done to the extent of addressing public perception.

The e-sports audience is different. Specifically the e-sport audience (and I'd say gaming demographic as whole) is much more indifferent (if not supportive) of drug use (certain drug use). Therefore the pressure to implement testing versus the cost to do so simply is not there, as such you are unlikely to get similar drug testing (and any real pressure to do so) compared to traditional sports organizations.

For example I wouldn't be surprised if there would actually be significant backlash if esports organizations were to test and heavily penalize for marijuana use (even more so if it were random and out of competition). However this type of testing is standard and accepted among major sports organizations in North America. Simply put the viewpoints of the "public" being addressed is rather different and therefore priorities are different.
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I think the variable here is whether the registering body forces it or not ... I raised the question because of all the whining over a woman's league tournament, even though that was in reaction to the requirement by the registering body that they promote woman's participation ... the registering body also has a health and drug requirement ... it isn't clear what that would mean to the sport which is why I was curious ... as you mentioned, the audience of eSports might be even less enthusiastic about that requirement than they were about promoting women's gaming ... it will be interesting to see how it plays out as eSports continue to push to be registered as an official sport (and take all the baggage that goes with that)
 
It's amazing how many people need subscription drugs to pay attention in school, but can drink gallons of energy drinks and can play video games for days at a time.
 
It's amazing how many people need subscription drugs to pay attention in school, but can drink gallons of energy drinks and can play video games for days at a time.
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This... which leads the the real problem. These kids aren't taught deisciplin and something as simple as take care of your studies while in school then you can do whatever at home.

Instead the conversation goes something like this:

Little Jimmy is ADD and can't focus while in school.

Really? He sure is shit can focus on that Nintendo DS for hours. Maybe he needs some disciple as to the importance of school.

The response... No, No, No, you don't understand it doesn't work that way.

ADD, ADHD etc is more often than not an excuse for lack of discipline.
 
Comixbooks said:
Yeah I'm a addict but not by choice I get sever Insomnia if I stop taking them I've tried everything just a side effect of certain Atypicals.
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Meditation slows down your brain waves. You can start with point meditation ( lighting a candle or incense stick and staring at the flame ).

I tried Sant Mat meditation, which is reciting mantras ( 5 holy names ). It was OK. I did not like the religious dogma surrounding the meditation:

http://www.sant-thakar-singh.net/

What really helped was studying the healing aspects of internal martial arts; the Taoist healing circles and learning taoist breathing techniques:

http://www.energyarts.com/taoist-breathing

Taoist breathing is deep breathing into your stomach ( rather than your diaphragm ). The idea is to visualize a balloon in your stomach, when you inhale, you want to inflate the balloon and when you exhale, you deflate the balloon. You are basically deep breathing into your solar plexus chakra area. You need to line up the chakras in your body ( spine and head ) and there's an internal alignment that is not always mentioned: placing the tip of the tongue on the roof of your mouth, like you are pronouncing the letter 'L'.

I studied the art for 8 months, at the Toronto, Canada branch. One of my teachers is a Psychologist and teaches sitting meditation and Taoist breathing, to people with post traumatic stress disorder.

The lineage holder of the art is American, so most of the branches are in the States:

http://www.jiulongbaguazhang.com/

I liked this as an intro book to internal martial arts. The book briefly mentioned Taoist and Buddhist breathing techniques.

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Spiritual...4UM_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405332299&sr=1-3
 
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