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Update 7/23/2015:
This is for counterstrike but SC2 may see this day soon too.
Poll: Should psychostimulant medication (like Adderall) be allowed?No (1675) 79% Yes (436) 21% 2111 total votes Your vote: Should psychostimulant medication (like Adderall) be allowed? (Vote): Yes
(Vote): No
**Please read before taking the poll!
Most of you should be familiar with the performance enhancing drugs that plague professional physical sports leagues around the world. From football to baseball, hockey to lacrosse, players have consistently used steroids to give themselves an unfair advantage over the competition. As a result, most of the professional sports leagues have adopted rigorous drug testing regimens, ensuring that all the players are on a 'level' playing field.
It was recently brought to my attention, by none other than FnaticMSITT1, that there are indeed Starcraft 2 players who regularly take performance enhancing drugs at tournaments, some of which are as high-profile as the GSL. A significant number of professional players indeed take Adderall and other similar drugs before important matches to enhance their ability to concentrate - undoubtedly giving themselves an unfair advantage.
With that said, it is clear that some consideration must be brought to this topic. Is it fair to allow certain players the privilege of taking psychostimulant medication, giving them the ability to completely remove themselves from their surroundings and be totally focused on the game?
It is true that all players have the opportunity to purchase and consume drugs like Adderall, but do we really want to force all players to pay for costly drugs, with adverse side effects, just so that they are able to compete fairly?
I have great concern for the integrity of e-sports, and hope to hear your opinions on this potentially controversial topic. With your feedback, we will be able to reach the best possible resolution to this pressing issue.
Your fellow e-sport enthusiast,
TeKtoniK
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Absolutly not. It gives an advantage to whomever dopes. We do not want to encourage a situation where everyone takes drugs just to keep up, which can become a major health situation.
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I can't see how something like this would be enforced, but I indeed voted No.
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On April 06 2011 10:11 Talin wrote:
I can't see how something like this would be enforced, but I indeed voted No.
How about the way it is enforced in every other sport.
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I would say no as well but I can't see them implementing any sort of drug testing anytime soon. I can't see them making pro gamers piss into a cup to see if they have taken anything. That just sounds weird. Don't think e-sports has evolved enough to that point yet.
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Don't make rules you can't or won't enforce. I think that mandatory drug testing would not be worth the modicum of fairness it would provide -- it's a pain in the ass, costs money, and risks drama -- and without that, it's unenforceable.
Also, it's not true that it's "undoubtedly" giving anyone an unfair advantage. Needless to say, nobody has publicly tested or measured anyone's video gaming performance under Adderall or any other nootropics in a controlled environment, and nobody understands the mechanism and effects of these sorts of drugs well enough to say exactly what they are and are not going to help you with.
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On April 06 2011 10:11 Talin wrote:
I can't see how something like this would be enforced, but I indeed voted No.
Another problem is adderall is a very easy prescription to obtain. even if this were enforced it would still be abused IMHO.
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If it's prescribed to me, I'm taking it. The day MLG, GSL etc. are allowed to ban prescriptions is the day these organizations get sued for discrimination against the disabled. It's too bad your outlook on medication is limited to abuse, however I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of these players are not "doping" but rather following their doctors instructions. The idea that no player could possibly need Adderral outside the game is as foolish as it is shortsighted. Those that are prescribed Adderral are done so with the assumption and idea that it will put them on the same level of concentration as those that are lucky enough to be born with perfect genes.
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Of course people are abusing adderall in an environment like this, have you ever been in a college library at test time I'm not at all saying whether I think it is OK or not. I'm saying it is impossible to completely and practically enforce a standard, with the easy availability of abusable level amphetamine prescriptions. There are definately both legitimate and illegitimate users of medical amphetamine at EVERY event.
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If you have a prescription there shouldn't be a problem, but using it to gain a competitive advantage is bad io
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I think it's a no brainer vote in that we don't want eSport (or gaming, or computers or anything remotely like that) connected with either drugs or doping. I do however think that there are several ways to battle this of which none are realistically optimal at the given point in time.
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No way to enforce, and like I've said in another thread about this same topic, there's no god damn difference between drinking a red bull and popping an adderall except the degree. Both improve concentration and altertness. Ban caffeine too?
You can't. Deal with people taking mind roids it does nothing for the integrity of the game except make players play better and make games more exciting to watch.
edit: I don't even see how its debatable really. You can't enforce it, you can't figure out who is truly "suffering" from that horrible adhd syndrome, you can't pick some players that have prescriptions for it to let play and not others. Just won't work.
Deal with it and enjoy the higher quality of games you get to watch.
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big misconception that adderall makes you better. Only thing it would do is help people concentrate the entire game without their mind slipping off the game and think about the crowd etc..
being a former halo pro i know that 85% of the pros take adderall consistently at tourneys and the owners know it. which is why tests will not be enforced at mlg. remember adderall does not make you a better player. if it provides more exciting matches i dont see what the problem is. Amphetamine-based medications are banned in South Korea. They cannot be obtained at a South Korean pharmacy and are illegal to import. if you think you cannot beat someone because they are on adderall. take it yourself or get pwnd bro
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I don't think it should be allowed, but I don't want leagues/players being placed into drug screens after matches. It would be impossible to enforce except maybe at LAN events. (I said LAN...lol)
I guess what I'm saying is that it should be discouraged by the community. Of course if you actually use it for medication purposes that's fine but I will not be a fan of any player that uses these drugs solely to secure an advantage. I think it's bad sportsmanship if you try to secure an advantage with these types of drugs.
Now I won't pass judgement on players drinking MtDew or RedBull (hell they could be sponsored) but I still feel that its somewhat unsportsmanlike if you're only doing it to get an edge on the other player.
My bottom line: Don't place a ban the substances, however their use should be discouraged.
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I think that SC and all esports in general should be held to the same sporting code that other sports are held to face, especially if it wants mainstream acceptance.
If we look at the state of cycling and boxing currently, all of them have had doping problems, and have had spectacular falls for grace. People are ostracized and sometimes prosecuted from sports because of doping.
Testing may be difficult, but it needs to be done, especially as esports are exploding.
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You cant really a) enforce it and b)some (read most) were using it because they were prescribed it by a doctor to help with concentration.. so yes simply for those reasons..... also how much of an improvement would it really be? its not really the same thing as crystal meth ect..
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Hope Blizz doesn't find out I really want to keep my ladder wins.
On a more serious note I've taken adderall every day for the last.... 16 or so months and here's what I'll say. Does it give you an advantage? It sure does. If you get knocked out of a tournament by someone on adderall and you try to say "well if you didn't take adderall then you would have lost" then you're just an idiot. The advantage it brings to starcraft is nothing like steroids in baseball or anything like that. I would say the biggest advantage is that you could easily take one when you get tired and suddenly you wouldn't be tired anymore. As soon as tournaments become 24 hour events, go ahead and ban it. Until then, get a prescription for a legal drug.
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On April 06 2011 10:24 twstdletz wrote:
Of course people are abusing adderall in an environment like this, have you ever been in a college library at test time I'm not at all saying whether I think it is OK or not. I'm saying it is impossible to completely and practically enforce a standard, with the easy availability of abusable level amphetamine prescriptions. There are definately both legitimate and illegitimate users of medical amphetamine at EVERY event.
Funny you should mention something like this because I was thinking the same exact thing. I had a college roommate sophomore year who was on perscription adderall due to his ADHD. I never really thought anything of it, until he had a paper due or was studying to take a test. He would, purposefully, double down on his dosage so it would give him a mental boost to concentrate and study longer than, I would consider, possible under normal circumstances.
I never said anything, but when I thought about it, it would really bother me to know that, while he does put in hard work and dedication, he also uses drugs to get an advantage. Does anyone put a little asterisk next to his grades to denote that he used drugs to get ahead? Obviously not. So that means we can be compared on the same scale, and that was just not fair.
Still bothers me to this day.
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On April 06 2011 11:09 I_am_that_bad wrote:Show nested quote +On April 06 2011 10:24 twstdletz wrote:
Of course people are abusing adderall in an environment like this, have you ever been in a college library at test time I'm not at all saying whether I think it is OK or not. I'm saying it is impossible to completely and practically enforce a standard, with the easy availability of abusable level amphetamine prescriptions. There are definately both legitimate and illegitimate users of medical amphetamine at EVERY event. Funny you should mention something like this because I was thinking the same exact thing. I had a college roommate sophomore year who was on perscription adderall due to his ADHD. I never really thought anything of it, until he had a paper due or was studying to take a test. He would, purposefully, double down on his dosage so it would give him a mental boost to concentrate and study longer than, I would consider, possible under normal circumstances. I never said anything, but when I thought about it, it would really bother me to know that, while he does put in hard work and dedication, he also uses drugs to get an advantage. Does anyone put a little asterisk next to his grades to denote that he used drugs to get ahead? Obviously not. So that means we can be compared on the same scale, and that was just not fair. Still bothers me to this day.
Does it bother you when people take proteins while working out as well?
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I can only speak from a Canadian legislative perspective on this (I am a practicing pharmacist in Canada) -- but if you are illegitimately obtaining and using amphetamines (such as Adderal, for example) without a prescription, you are contravening the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which carries unpleasant legal ramifications. So if this describes an individual, I think they have more to worry about than computer games.
Of course I'm not naive enough to think the law will stop drug abusers from illegally obtaining and using, and although I haven't thought of it before, I'm not surprised people would try it in the context of competitive gaming. (Afterall it's my understanding students will use illegally obtained controlled substances to help them study/stay awake.)
Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that whether or not these drugs will help a SC player is a matter of speculation or anecdotal evidence. So should we care? Of course -- I'm sure everyone agrees that we'd like our fellow competitors to not have an artificial edge due to cheating (everyone except for the cheaters, that is!). But what can we do?
Important points to consider:
- At least in Canada, Adderal, Ritalin, and other potentially abused psychostimulants also have legitimate uses and may be used by a Starcraft player who is being appropriately treated for his ADHD, for example.
- Strict enforcement, with testing, is obviously out of the question. Someone already touch on this. Too costly, time consuming, potential for excess drama and upsets... and we don't even clearly know what the measurable advantage is, if any!
So, they could make posted rules disallowing misuse of stimulant drugs (prescription and street), right? Perhaps. At worst, it would be a useless formality. At best, it would raise awareness of the issue and help create a culture of nonacceptance towards the practice.
tldr - The law already covers this; users gonna use, despite fact we don't really know the true advantage they get; and can't be enforced.
Now, understanding these facts and issues... what do we do??
Do we promote awareness of this and remain vigilant, watching for abuse? Point out and ostracize accused abusers (could lead to wrongful accusations and a whole tidal wave of disaster)??
Do we accept that this practice is a problem with (maybe??) just a select subset of individuals, preferring not to draw attention to the issue, lest it encourages more people to try and gain unfair advantages?
TL forum... discuss.
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EPT
