Sorry, gamers, if you have a thing for speed and playing eSports, you might be out of luck: the Electronic Sports League (ESL) has set forth initiatives to ban the use of illegal substances within their organization.
In a statement issued and posted on their website, ESL highlighted their commitment to the integrity of fair game(r play):
As the world's largest and oldest esports organization, ESL has an ongoing commitment to safeguarding both the integrity of our competitions and that of esports as a whole — we wish to ensure we can provide a fair playing field for all participating players ... With this in mind, today we are announcing the beginning of the steps we'll be taking as an organization in order to determine enforce guidelines and rules surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) at ESL events.
In most traditional sports like football, baseball and the like, PEDs usually refer to drugs like anabolic steroids, which athletes use to bulk up despite side effects like drastic hormonal imbalances and increased cancer risk. When it comes to eSports, PEDs tend to fall along the lines of illicit or illegally-prescribed substances like Aderall, which can aid players in paying attention and focusing on the game at hand as well as serving as a prevention of exhaustion. If misused, these drugs can induce heart failure, hair loss and hallucinatory after-effects.
To combat PED use, ESL is teaming up with the National Anti Doping Agentur (NADA) located in Bonn, Germany and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) based in Montreal for the eSports league's upcoming ESL One Cologne 2015, the world's biggest standalone Counter-Strike competition.
While a punitive rubric has yet to be issued, ESL has taken steps to caution players who are caught "self-medicating:"
"Updates on changes to tournament rules including the list of banned substances, methods of testing and potential disciplinary actions for players caught using PEDs and/or admitting to having used them will be provided to players via their respective team managers and/or owners."
Photo: Tony Webster | Flickr
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