WCG Tournament Director Admits Drugs In E-Sports

SlappingOysters writes "In the lead up to the World Cyber Games finals in Germany, Gameplayer has an incredible interview with Tournament Director Alex Walker in which he freely admits knowledge of participants taking illegal drugs to enhance their performance. The interview came in response to a previous article by the site in which they examined whether there was a need to bring drug testing into professional gaming events to ensure a level playing field. Walker said, 'I've seen a number of players at national tournaments who came in "baked" (that's stoned for the uninformed) purely so they could play better. In most cases they did, although obviously they couldn't just pull out another joint midway through. In one WCG, a player I knew took amphetamines an hour before his match to boost his reflexes.'"

Comments

Effects of Cannabis

[eldavojohn]

'I've seen a number of players at national tournaments who came in "baked" (that's stoned for the uninformed) purely so they could play better. In most cases they did ...

Um, I'm not a regular drug user but how are the effects of Cannabis beneficial to gaming?

Acute effects while under the influence include euphoria, increased appetite, anxiety, short-term memory loss, and circulation effects which may increase risks of heart attacks.

I understand how drugs that affect your nervous system -- like uppers -- can increase your reaction time and muscle twitching for those games involving twitch skills. And nobody can shred on a guitar like an coked up hair band ... but how does a drug that made my college roommate double up in laughter and fail at communication make someone better at video games?

Re:Effects of Cannabis

[faloi]

but how does a drug that made my college roommate double up in laughter and fail at communication make someone better at video games?

Best guess? If you spend all your free time practicing the game while high, you're more accustomed to playing it that way. Playing it when you're not high entails a different playing experience to overcome. Not so much that smoking a joint helped them play better because of the effects of the drug, but it got them to a more "normal" state to play the game.

Re:Effects of Cannabis

[TheRealMindChild]

This is one of those cases where, people writing the articles on "The effects of Cannabis", probably have no real experience with it. This isn't a troll, or some crazy delusion. Just follow me for a second.

Cannabis can certainly be beneficial in not only "gaming", but anything where there is undo pressure on you. The calming effect on your nerves, on your racing mind, on your anxiety can potentially be much more of a positive than the "bad side effects" are negative.

Don't believe the propaganda.

Re:Effects of Cannabis

[gnick]

That sounds like a reasonable explanation if you're assuming that they really are trying to improve gameplay through the effects of the drug. I haven't toked up in ~7 years, but I used to game stoned a lot. I was convinced that it improved my focus and can't entirely throw that assessment away now - I would get lost in the game. Maybe being stoned helped, maybe not - I never did any kind of comparison 'cuz I'd toke up before playing every single time.

Perhaps a more likely cause for smoking before playing tournament though:
* A lot of games (most?) are just more fun stoned.
* It's easy to game for endless hours while you're baked.
* If you play for a huge amount of time, you're going to get good (baked or not).
* If all of your experience with the game was spent stoned, you're going to want to be in the same state of mind while competing that you were when "practicing".
* So, you smoke before a tournament and achieve the same level of success that you've experienced at home.

Re:Effects of Cannabis

[Il128]

The biggest effect of being stoned is the ability to not over react to difficult situations and the enhanced ability to remain calm and be decisive. At least for me, being being stoned keeps me calm and sure of my decisions. Both are keys to victory.

Baked

[whisper_jeff]

They didn't come in baked so they could play better - they came in baked because they're stoners. If they were at home watching tv, they'd be just as baked (and it's not so that they could watch tv better though I'm sure being stoned makes some of the crap on tv seem better...).

Re:Baked?

[Guido von Guido]

Using "baked" to mean "stoned" is actually fairly common. It's certainly not random, and any hijacking took place long ago. It's slang, of course, but that used to be true of "stoned" as well.

I was more annoyed at the clumsy parenthetical aside explaining what it meant.

Re:Marijuana isn't a performance enhancer, jackass

[TheRealMindChild]

It gives you the munchies, makes you paranoid, and makes you giggle every time someone says "420" but it doesn't make you better at HaloDo you know what you are saying here? That black people love fried chicken and will steal my TV, that Mexicans will steal my job and eat lots of tacos, and that all Gays use Macs.

It is a sweeping blanket statement that comes from uninformed bigotry. I've never had the munchies, I've never gotten paranoid, and I certainly don't giggle. Neither has anyone else that I have had a smoking experience with. These are horribly inaccurate stereotypes thrown out there to make it seem like Marijuana being illegal is less ridiculous than it really is.

Sure, it has its undesirable side effects. So does drinking too much coffee. And to say that there can't possibly be any good effects from pot are only spoken by the sheep. The problem ultimately is, only the people who smoke will know what they are... because people like you have your mind made up, and nothing in the world can change it.

Re:Marijuana isn't a performance enhancer, jackass

[Jonah Hex]

Dear sir, as I read your comment I thought of several well reasoned arguments as to why your first sentence was flawed. As opposed to firing back blindly I continued until the end, which made up my mind that rant or not, I had to reply immediately. By the time I had "Reply"'d I had totally forgotten my original arguments and decided to go get some timbits, coffee and have a smoke. While outside I was totally freaked out by the guy moving things to a truck, who kept nodding to me every time he passed despite my saying good morning to him once. Inside again I was refilling the sugar jar for my coffee when a variation in the bag's opening caused some to spill over my hand, I immediately burst into gales of laughter while thinking to myself it was a damn good thing I do the pouring over the kitchen sink. Man I'm so stoned!

I have been smoking marijuana since I was 12, am now 36, and work for one of the top hardware/software companies in the world running other people's Wintel backends. Today in my home office I'm building several servers remotely, attending meetings, and taking emergency calls. For further reference, see the excellent Penn and Teller show Bullshit!, episode The War on Drugs, especially the sections on the stock trader who works on the NYSE floor. He smokes several joints daily, all of which are provided by the US Federal Government for his possibly fatal bone spurs. There really are professionals out in the world who smoke quite regularly, even as often as several times a day.

Jonah Hex

Effects of Cannabis!

[midnitewolf]

For what it's worth, this is analogous to a well known psychological effect known as state-dependent recall.

The effect specifically refers to the improved retrieval from long term memory experienced when the memory retrieval takes place in the same mind-state (in this example, of drug influence) that the memory was deposited in....

But my own experience of gaming while stoned will attest to a very similar (and strikingly simple) revelation, not strictly limited to memory retrieval: When you learn to play a game stoned, you play that game better while stoned.