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Professional Video Gamers to Be Tested for Doping
- joshuapants 11y agoMakes sense. That said, will they not admit anyone who has a legitimate reason for prescription stimulants?
- thaumasiotes 11y agoWhy would we want to officially bias competitions toward people with ADD diagnoses?
- bitJericho 11y agoBecause we don't want people abusing drugs.
- thaumasiotes 11y agoI fail to see how a policy of "you can't compete if you're taking meth" promotes drug abuse.
- alexnking 11y agoGood point - this could create an incentive for people to stop taking the medication that they need just so they're allowed to compete.
- kenzokai 11y agoOn the other hand, if legitimate use is allowed, there are doctors out there who will give you a prescription for faked symptoms.
- maccard 11y agoThis is a problem in regular sports too
- eru 11y ago> "It would be fair to have two Tours de France - one for the asthmatics and one for non-asthmatics," he said. "The funny result would be that the asthmatics would be much faster." From http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-07-20-3694433468_x.htm http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/cycling/2007-07-20-369...
- maccard 11y agoIndeed - I competed in amateur rowing while in University (and was legitimately asthmatic) and at least 4 of the people in my crew became asthmatic during the time that we were training together...
- jon-wood 11y agoDosage for controlling ADD compared to that used in a performance enhancing manner is quite drastically different.
- ectoplasm 11y agoCan you quantify the difference?
- chisleu 11y agoNo, because it isn't true. 10-20mg of adderall will treat ADHD in a hyperactive, but it will make a non hyperactive capable of repetitive tasks that require focus. I absolutely love the stuff, but I have high blood pressure which it aggravates, so I can't take it. It isn't worth a stroke.
- eCa 11y agoIn WADA-controlled sports you can get TUEs[1] to solve that problem. [1] Therapeutic Use Exemptions[2] [2] https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/therapeutic-use-exemptions https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/thera...
- eterm 11y agoProps to ESL for doing this. Some of this has come about because of how casually some csgo players have discussed how they load up on adderall just before matches. Hopefully they can clean this up not neccessarily just for the sake of competetive integrity but also to protect the health of the young competitors.
- hukep 11y agoI don't like the concept of word 'doping'. It is just the word which represents a chemical substance to stimulate body for a better performance. There is however such a hate in using this word. In the past even caffeine in the coffee was considered to be a doping. It is not nowadays Everybody should be allowed to use any chemical substance for himself as he wish. He should be responsible for his own action. If he destroys his health, he should pay for it not the society. There are also people who lives on revealing the 'doping sinners'. It is such a waste of money. People cmmon create something reasonable. Don't waste your time looking for a 'doping' to accuse others for taking it! I take a 'doping' so what?
- iMark 11y agoI wouldn't want to compete against people who are prepared to destroy their health to win.
- girvo 11y agoThen you're not going to be able to compete. Basically all professional sports require someone to push themselves beyond regular human limits, and give up future health to get there even without drugs.
- dustyleary 11y agoI'm interested to know if this is really true. I don't think non-contact sports require someone to sacrifice health, except for wearing out their body... And I'm not convinced they wear out their body more than manual laborers. And there is definitely a qualitative difference between a 16 year old working hard as a teenager to make it as a professional athlete, and perhaps wearing out their body by the end of their career as a professional athlete (say, 30 years old on average), compared to a 16 year old using substances that would count as "doping" to most people. To put it plainly: A 16 year old boy who shows promise as a professional athlete can work hard, realize that they're not cut out for the big leagues after college (22 years old), and go on with their life with basically no ill effects aside from the chance of a major injury sustained during their sport. Whereas a 16 year old boy who shows promise as a professional athlete, works hard, and also dopes for 6 years until he's 22, and then realizes he's not cut out for the big leagues, has probably irreparably damaged his health.
- joe5150 11y agoStatler: are the gamers doping? Waldorf: if you ask me, they're all dopes! Oh ho ho ho ho!
- bluecalm 11y agoThe problem is that many performance enhancing drugs are used to treat legitimate conditions. It will always be easier to get doctor prescription for some players than it would be for others. If you ban Adderal/Ritalin/Modafinil (although the last one is very questionable when it comes to performance benefit but still very useful for motivation/energy when putting long hours practicing) and allow medical exemptions you will end up with privileged group who have access to the "right doctors". If you ban it and don't allow medical exemptions you will eliminate people who need those drugs to function normally. I would prefer the latter out of the two: you need a drug to function - tough luck you can't compete but I prefer just allowing wider spectrum of drugs to begin with.
- mmcru 11y agoI think the problem with a total ban is just the sheer number of people with diagnoses. For example, I read recently that something like 6% of adults have ADHD (I don't have a source, correct me if that is way off). I personally wouldn't be surprised if the incidence was higher among young geeky types. And Adderall isn't even the only drug that these types of competitions should be worried about. You can only ban so many people from competing without really starting to affect the potential number of players, which isn't something that private gaming-tournament organizations are going to want to do.
- bluecalm 11y agoI agree. I even more hate the situation where knowing the right doctors or even living in a country with more prescription-happy ones gives you advantage though.
- JamesBlair 11y ago>we wish to ensure we can provide a fair playing field for all participating players By restricting access to performance enhancing drugs to those who have the connections to get around the screens that the ESL end up using to try and catch people? Here's a radical thought: it's a fair playing field if everyone takes adderal before the match.
- orf 11y ago> Here's a radical thought: it's a fair playing field if everyone takes adderal before the match. Is it fair though? What about people who don't want to (or can't) take adderal before a match. It's no more fair, it's just another playing field. One with more drugs rather than less.
- jeeva 11y agoIt's equal opportunity, at the very least. To my mind that _is_ more fair. ...but I disagree with the idea of doping up the entire competing body, for what it's worth.
- beambot 11y agoSo... Why not caffeine too?
- _pmf_ 11y agoOlympic shooters are forbidden to use beta blockers.