The ESL is moving to address concerns about performance-enhancing drug use in eSports after Counter-Strike: GO player Kory “Semphis” Friesen publicly acknowledged that he and his (now former) Cloud 9 teammates all used Adderall during a professional tournament.
“We were all on Adderall,” said Friesen during an interview with Mohan “Launders” Govindasamy. “It was pretty obvious if you listen to the comms.” In response, the interviewer noted that “everyone does Adderall at ESEA LAN, right? Just throwing that out there for the fans. That’s how you get good.”
Govindasamy’s nonchalance about the idea of pro players using performance-enhancing substances is not shared by representatives of professional eSports organizations ESL, which sponsored the event in question and is now making a public show of stepping up their anti-doping game in the wake of Friesen’s statements.
“We’ve known for some time that performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) would be a challenge we would need to face eventually as the professionalism and stakes increased across the board in eSports,” ESL representative Anna Rozwandowicz told Eurogamer today. “PEDs are a topic we are discussing at an organizational level and will be one that we need to address industry wide going forward to maintain the integrity of our sport.”
Speaking to Gamasutra, Rozwandowicz stood by her statement to Eurogamer and said that the ESL expects to make another announcement this week about the action it will take to address the issue of doping in eSports, something Eurogamer itself investigated in some detail for its feature on how winners might use drugs.