The Electronic Sports League (ESL) has moved faster than expected toward combating the abuse of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during professional esports tournaments, and the organization has announced that it will begin randomly drug testing players.

“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.” an ESL spokesperson said. “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.”

The spokesperson said that the ESL would be partnering with the Nationale Anti Doping Agentur (NADA) and the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) to create new policies and procedures for dealing with drug abuse.

“The expertise of NADA and WADA will help ESL to produce a PED prevention program that will encompass all players participating in competitions organized, hosted or produced by ESL,” the ESL spokesperson said. “This program will help ensure that all players are provided with the information and structural support they need to help them manage the physical and emotional pressure of professional gaming.”

The spokesperson continued: “ESL will remain proactive in ensuring all professional players and organisations involved in our competitions will be informed about the current status of this initiative. This will include the list of banned substances, the methods of testing, and the disciplinary actions for players caught using PEDs and/or admitting to having used them.”

“We were all on Adderall”

The decision to begin drug testing comes little more than a week after professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Kory “Semphis” Friesen admitted during an interview that he and other players frequently use the prescription stimulant Adderall during professional matches.

“We were all on Adderall,” Friesen said. “It was pretty obvious if you listened to the comms. I don’t know. People can hate it or whatever, but tons of people do it.”

Adderall, which is a type of amphetamine, is commonly used to treat people who have ADHD, but it can also be abused to remain alert for long periods of time and improve concentration. For this reason, Adderall use has become common among college students who use it as a “study drug” before or during tests.

Image credit: Electronic Sports League (ESL) via Facebook