WHAT IS THE REASON FOR
THE BAN?
The implementation of
such stringent drug testing for video gamers may seem extreme, but it is a
necessity given the increasing popularity of the sport over the past five
years.
Last year alone, the
2014 League of Legends championship attracted more than 27 million viewers on
ESPN, which made it more popular than game seven of last year’s baseball World
Series and the NBA Finals decider.
In addition to its
climb into the mainstream, Esports offers lucrative prizemoney that far exceeds
what is offered by some world’s biggest sporting events.
In fact, last week the
winners of an international tournament for the video game Dota 2 shared in a
prize pool of more than $A13 million.
With such large sums of
cash on the line, organisers hope to provide a fair playing field for all those
involved in the tournaments.
In hopes to protect the
integrity of its competitions, the organisation had always prohibited the use
of drugs, alcohol and other performance enhancers, but they had never
physically tested for them.
This all changed last
month when a professional Counter-Strike player made a shock admission.
When speaking to the
media, Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen detailed how he and other members of his team
were using the psychostimulant Adderall during a major tournament in March,
where players competed for $250,000 in prizemoney.
Following the claims,
Esports kickstarted a policymaking process to adjust the rules surrounding drug
testing.
“The popularity and
visibility of esports has grown exponentially in recent years, but this
combined with the increasing size of prize pools has also made the temptation
of rule-breaking even greater,” it wrote in a statement.
“As the world’s largest
and oldest esports organisation, ESL has an ongoing commitment to safeguarding
both the integrity of our competitions and that of esports as a whole.” 
HOW WILL IT WORK?
The Electronic Sports
League will begin the testing at the world’s largest Counter-Strike: Global
Offensive tournament, which begins this weekend in Germany.
In order to prepare the
implementation of the new rules, the organisation supplied gamers with a list
of all the banned substances, so they knew what drugs/medications to avoid.
Furthermore, ESL had to
decide what the most effective method for testing participants would be.
“We initially announced
we will be working with skin tests, but upon further investigation and
consultation with the authorities, we came to the conclusion that saliva tests
are better fit,” ESL wrote in a statement.
“Tests will be
performed at our discretion at any time during tournament days and will take
place in a designated testing area.”
As ESL One Cologne will
be the first tournament to drug-test competitors, the organisation said it
would only perform a select number of randomised tests.
“However, we don’t want
to exclude the possibility of performing a larger number of tests among
all/majority of players at a later stage,” ESL said.
“Should the testing
policy and method change, we will inform the players accordingly.”
In the instance where a
player has a legitimate prescription for containing one or more of the banned
substances, they will need to provide organisers a letter from a physician
explaining why they need the specific medication.
“They have to disclose
this to us as soon as possible, but no later than the first match is scheduled
to start,” ESL said.
Those found guilty of
using illicit substances will face punishments including point deductions,
disqualifications or even two year bans from all ESL events.
“We will look at each
case separately and once again ensure player’s full privacy.”
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