Pro Gamers To Be Tested For Doping

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Pro Gamers To Be Tested For Doping

Posted by Soulskill on Friday July 24, 2015 @12:58AM from the do-doritos-count? dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Sports League is the biggest organization for running video game competitions. The league has now announced that they will begin testing professional video gamers for performance-enhancing drugs. The league is getting help in making policies from anti-doping agencies that help regulate athletes in traditional sports. They say, "[W]e will be administering the first PED skin tests at ESL One Cologne this August, with a view to performing these tests at every Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League event thereafter as soon as the official PED policy is established and tournament rules updated accordingly." This announcement comes after a high-profile Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player admitted last week that he and many other players used Adderall to gain an advantage in tournaments.

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They should have a parallel dope league by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:02 · Score: 0

Dope gamerz league ..
1. Re:They should have a parallel dope league by Opportunist · 2015-07-24 03:12 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  And make people display what they take, so we'd finally know what crap actually works.
  I see a huge possibility for advertising in the pharma sector.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What about "legitimate" use? by InfiniteBlaze · 2015-07-24 01:03 · Score: 5, Interesting

Am I mistaken in believing that a large portion of the gaming population suffers from ADD/ADHD and is medicated? Will gamers who are medicated be disqualified from play?
1. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:09 · Score: 1
  
  Even in "proper" sport, you can use banned substances as long as you have a real medical need to use them, and there is no alternative that isn't on the banned list, "Therapeutic Use Exemption", I believe it's called. So I imagine it will be the same deal here.
2. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:23 · Score: 1
  
  You sure about that? I've seen cyclists disqualified for taking flu medication (with prescription and all). Also, if we take into account that ADD is currently a the condition of the moment and it's GREATLY over-diagnosed (if you go to your medic with mild to moderate stress symptoms, chances are s/he'll diagnose you with ADD), I don't think that would be a good idea.
3. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:25 · Score: 0
  
  Even in "proper" sport, you can use banned substances as long as you have a real medical need to use them, and there is no alternative that isn't on the banned list, "Therapeutic Use Exemption", I believe it's called. So I imagine it will be the same deal here.
  Not all banned substances.
  Else every Tour de France rider would have a TUE for Clenbuterol. (And when the hell is Alberto Contador going under the same PED microscope Lance Armstrong was subjected to? Hell, they rode on the same team together, and at least Armstrong never actually failed a drug test. Just because Sir Bedevere catches a witch doesn't mean the witch hunt wasn't a farce.)
4. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:30 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You normally need to get permission from the organization in charge of the competition, which includes a checkup by a physician of their choice. Just having a prescription is often not enough.
5. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:34 · Score: 0
  
  If they have a prescription for it, which is easy as fuck to get, they should be cleared to play. On the one hand it furthers the advantage for players from countries where these prescriptions are easily aquired, on the other hand it prevents illegitimate use.
6. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:34 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  You have to apply for the exemption and get it approved before hand, you can't just go ahead and use the banned substance and then claim exemption afterwards; prescription or not, you'll get banned if you do that.
  I take your point on ADD being overdiagnosed. I don't live in the USA, but I have heard that that is the case there, and maybe in other places as well.
7. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:43 · Score: 0
  
  Ok, that makes sense. Thank you (both)!
  Regarding ADD, I don't live there either, but it's getting here too. Right now there're no diagnostic tests to determine if you have it or not (AFAIK, scientists are working on it, something related to SPECT I believe) so the whole thing is just a questionnaire with a bunch of check boxes, if the physician checks more than a certain number of them you get diagnosed with ADD, even though most of the symptoms are completely indistinguishable from stress symptoms.
8. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2015-07-24 01:49 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  The alternative would obviously be untenable(either forcing athletes to do without medical care 'for their own protection' or just banning every sickie who needs a drug that might be performance enhancing); but a therapeutic use exemption for psychostimulants is going to make the rule more or less a joke(not that I have a problem with that, personally). Getting a diagnosis for which one of the stimulants is the usual treatment is pretty trivial; and they are cheap, have lots of safety data available, and generally don't raise any red flags among doctors. It depends on where you are, of course; but they might actually be among the few drugs that are easier to get legally than illegally.
9. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:34 · Score: 0
  
  Your post is laughable. Class-II narcotics are so extremely difficult and come with so much paper work to proscribe many physicians will not even write those scripts anymore and simply refer you to another doctor.
10. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:43 · Score: 0
  
  On the one hand it furthers the advantage for players from countries where these prescriptions are easily aquired, on the other hand it prevents illegitimate use.
  Pretty much a non-issue then. ADD is overdiagnosed in the US but the US it trailing behind in e-sports compared to pretty much every non-African country.
  Requiring the Asians to get a prescription first should even out the playing field a bit.
11. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  Gamers who have actual ADD/ADHD would benefit from not taking meds when competing in games like these, since these games are heavily dependant on fast reflexes, and those with ADD/ADHD have their reaction/impulsiveness slowed down as one of the effects of these meds due to the different neurochemistry, while those who don't have ADD/ADHD benefit from taking these substances, because they react faster/become more impulsive(and more aggressive)
12. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by ArcadeMan · 2015-07-24 03:06 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  If you go to your medic with mild to moderate stress symptoms, chances are s/he'll diagnose you with ADD
  Depends on your doctor. I went to see mine, and he diagnosed me with SUB.
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
13. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 03:06 · Score: 2
  
  Actually, there are a whole lot of tests other than just the questionnaire, when performed by serious testers: Impulse control tests, memory tests, reaction tests etc etc.
14. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Opportunist · 2015-07-24 03:13 · Score: 1
  
  Ok, now diagnose me of not having ADD with me wanting to have it.
  Good luck.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
15. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 03:28 · Score: 0
  
  Again, those tests give the same results for ADD and stress. If you weren't diagnosed with ADD/ADHD when you were 6, as an adult is an "undiagnosable" condition. If you were diagnosed as a child and you still show the symptoms as an adult, you might still have it, and that's as far as science goes nowadays; but apparently A LOT of adults who didn't have any symptoms of ADD/ADHD when they were kids are suddenly developing the condition, which is a clear indicator that something is going VERY wrong with ADD/ADHD diagnostics. That's why they're trying to use brain scans to have a useful diagnostic test, but those techniques are being researched yet.
16. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 03:31 · Score: 2
  
  Unless you belong to a group that is less than a percent of the population, catching someone pretending is pretty easy for a serious tester, since a serious test battery includes memory, reaction and impulse control tests for example, interviews with family, blood tests etc. Here in Sweden, EEG etc are slowly getting used for testing too.
  Now, if you just go to an average US clinic, on the other hand, yeah, then it gets easier, since they earn more the more patients they prescribe to etc, but that's a completely different issue altogether than what you alluded to.
17. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 03:33 · Score: 0
  
  You are absolutely mistaken. There is no correlation between ADD/ADHD and videogame use.
18. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 03:40 · Score: 1
  
  YOUR post is laughable and contradicts reality. We are diagnosing ADD more and more every year, and it's already well established that we are over-diagnosing. If you graduated college... heck, if you made it into college without having serious (and I mean serious) problems and, all of a sudden, you are diagnosed with ADD, chances are (99.99%) you never had it in the first place. But it turns out that the demographic with the highest rate of adult ADD diagnostics are academics, computer scientists, physicists, mathematicians, software engineers, programmers and the like... suspicious and strangely convenient at the same time.
19. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 03:49 · Score: 2
  
  "Again, those tests give the same results for ADD and stress. If you weren't diagnosed with ADD/ADHD when you were 6, as an adult is an "undiagnosable" condition."
  And you are wrong on both counts, once again. Some types of stress have some symptoms that overlap with ADD(far less for ADHD). However, with the battery of tests I mentioned, as well as blood tests etc, you get completely different aggregate profiles. Also, various neurological disorders can appear or disappear with major metabolism changes associated with age, and if you couple that with an unhealthy living style, of course the risks are increased.
  Also, EEG has been used for decades, and CAT or similar scans have been used for the really difficult cases for at least a decade, so you are not as up-to-date as you like to believe.
20. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Opportunist · 2015-07-24 04:09 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not talking about pretending, the person really thinks he has ADD. It's easy. Read the DSM IV definition, look down the list of symptoms and tell me that you don't have ADD.
  As long as you don't cross examine with a differential diagnosis for other mental conditions, it's very easy to convince yourself you have ADd.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
21. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by AmiMoJo · 2015-07-24 04:12 · Score: 2
  
  Even cold medicine can be performance enhancing and people have been banned for taking it in the weeks before a competition.
  
  --
  const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
  SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
22. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:16 · Score: 0
  
  No they shouldn't. Sports, competitions, and the like are a test of natural ability. If you need a supplement to function at that skill level, you should be disqualified. It's not your *right* to play in a competition with a reverse-handicap. If I were a midget, I can't play in the NBA on stilts. Even if I use stilts in the rest of my waking life, even if they are doctor prescribed.
23. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Once again, that's a standard situation that students are taught as a matter of basic instruction. The impulse control, memory etc are things that no matter of hard conviction can affect. Also, as I mentioned, there's the interview with family etc, including childhood behaviour etc.
  Also, broad spectrum screening is standard in serious testing.
24. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by tnk1 · 2015-07-24 04:28 · Score: 1
  
  I'm not sure that is true. Yes, people with ADD will probably be attracted to video games enough to enjoy them and thereby get enough skill and practice in to become a pro at it.
  However, you don't gain anything from being twitchy and inattentive when actually in competition. You want fast reflexes, especially in a shooter, but if you're playing a team game, you need to know what is going on with your team and focus on your task. Something like Adderall can probably help with that.
25. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Opportunist · 2015-07-24 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  And the family won't lie? We're talking money here, those "pro gamers" can earn some serious dinero,
  And it's easier to fake poor memory than good memory. Along with poor impulse control. I can currently not think of anything ADD related that you can't fake sensibly.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
26. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:30 · Score: 0
  
  Why shouldn't they be disqualified? The whole point of a competition is to find people who are *naturally* extraordinary. If you are naturally handicapped, too bad. You can either compete in your natural state, or not compete. If someone has poor attention skills and it affects their ability to play, that is the definition of not being good enough to win a competition. It doesn't matter if it is diagnosable or not.
  I'm an amazing runner, but I have REALLY bad coordination. That's why I'm not a soccer player. Now if some drug came along to improve my coordination, would it be right for me to take it? What if I was diagnosed with a newly discovered reason for my poor coordination? No! My naturally poor coordination is why I am not a good soccer player. Your ADD is why you are naturally not a good gamer. You have no right to "even" the playing field. It goes against the point of sports.
  It's not your *right* to play in a competition with a reverse-handicap. Nobody owes the handicapped an advantage to be able to compete. Follow that to it's logical conclusion and everybody should finish in a tie or win through pure luck.
27. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 04:32 · Score: 1
  
  ADD/ADHD does not mean that you become inattentive at everything. One of the things with ADD/ADHD is that if something DOES catch your attention, you can do it for hours on end, particularly if it stimulates the brain. It's the mundane routine stuff that tends to be discarded, like household chores etc.
  In my personal experience, Strattera interferes with my ability to perform in some sports, while it helps with my daily life, such as doing household chores.
28. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Shinobi · 2015-07-24 04:39 · Score: 2
  
  And then the family must have constructed a very watertight background, all the way down to age 2. In reality, as opposed to your simple thoughts, those stories end up with all kinds of discrepancies. Point in case, one of the players talked about in this story was busted several years ago, precisely because of all the inconsistencies. He tried to fake a lot of symptoms etc on stream. Yet when he took his Adderall, he was displaying symptoms to the medicine utterly inconsistent with what someone with ADD or ADHD would get. In fact, he got, on stream, symptoms that someone without ADD or ADHD would get from Adderall or amphetamine.
29. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by amicusNYCL · 2015-07-24 05:13 · Score: 2
  
  Am I mistaken in believing that a large portion of the gaming population suffers from ADD/ADHD
  I wouldn't say I "suffer" from it, Bob.
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
30. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 05:31 · Score: 0
  
  "Suck it Up, Bitch"?
31. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2015-07-24 06:44 · Score: 2
  
  You can always it's a part of the treatment for your testicular cancer.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
32. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by SvnLyrBrto · 2015-07-24 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  Nice. But narcotics are not generally used for ADHD. The big two (Ritalin and Adderall) are stimulants. In fact, there aren't even any narcotics in the non-stimulant or other medications lists on WebMD:
  http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/...
  
  --
  Imagine all the people...
33. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by SvnLyrBrto · 2015-07-24 07:04 · Score: 1
  
  > Else every Tour de France rider would have a TUE
  > for Clenbuterol.
  Well, if they're all on it, then no one has an advantage. So what's the problem?
  
  --
  Imagine all the people...
34. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by SvnLyrBrto · 2015-07-24 07:23 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Why bother in the first place? Seriously.
  I think it's well past time to stop pretending that there's some special purity in these competitions, "athletic" or gaming or whatever, and acknowledge them as what they are: entertainment. And the competitors are entertainers. Their job is not so much to win the race or Starcraft match, or to put the ball through the hoop or into the end zone or whatever. Their job is to put butts in stadium seats and eyeballs on the TV.
  We don't drug test Lady Gaga, and take away her Grammy when she tests positive for pot. Robin Williams gets to keep his Golden Globe awards for Mork & Mindy, despite being hopped up on cocaine half the time. And we don't drug test the Rolling Stones before they go on tour and suspend Keith Richards from the first 10 shows when he tests positive for... probably just about everything.
  So really... What's do special about Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds or some Adderall-popping gamer that makes their brand of entertainment any more "pure" than any other?
  
  --
  Imagine all the people...
35. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 07:45 · Score: 0
  
  I think you're on drugs. Such a test is subjective and you may as well measure head size and nose length.
36. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 07:55 · Score: 0
  
  ADD and SUB are CPU opcodes. Your reply proves you don't belong on Slashdot.
37. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Dutch+Gun · 2015-07-24 08:04 · Score: 2
  
  In a sports competition, the entertainment is devalued if the competition is rigged in any way. Competition-based entertainment is the idea that, with enough skill, any of the contenders can win the prize. Doping, cheating, or any other rigging of the competition destroys that sense of possibility, and thus, the core entertainment. It makes the win feel cheaper, and diminishes the audience experience, as there's an expectation of fair play.
  For performers, their only job is to provide an entertaining show for the masses, whether by music or acting, but there's still an expectation of "fair play". If a singer was caught lip-syncing in all their performances and recordings (e.g. Milli Vanilli), then yes, their Grammy should be revoked.
  If you had spent an intimate and passionate night with your significant other, but later learned he/she had taken a lover to bed just prior to your rendezvous, it would probably diminish your perspective on the night, even though it may have been fantastic at the time. Same principle, I think.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
38. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by OdinOdin_ · 2015-07-24 08:42 · Score: 1
  
  Yes there is a formal procedure you have to follow, just having a prescription is not enough.
  
  You need to have that kind of medical evidence for need; and request in advance and gain approval from your sporting bodies testing organisation.
  
  Such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Anti-Doping_Agency and their TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) process https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/science-medical/therapeutic-use-exemptions
39. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by PlusFiveTroll · 2015-07-24 11:11 · Score: 1
  
  >The whole point of a competition is to find people who are *naturally* extraordinary
  Ha, in professional and olympic league sports that's not been true for quite some time. You see it in China where they take young kids and their entire life becomes training. They eat special diets, they take weird drug cocktails that influence their growth. Buy the time they compete they are not on anything you can test for, but they have been grown just for that purpose just like a plant. Ya, a lot of them fail out, and god only knows what happens with them after that point. The issue is now there is no 'even' playing field, the people that have the highest likelihood to get there are going to be the ones that were lucky/unlucky enough to be a trained robot from birth.
40. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 18:33 · Score: 0
  
  Whereas your reply proves you shouldn't be attempting to socialise with anybody.
41. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by KGIII · 2015-07-24 19:16 · Score: 1
  
  I am not sure why but people seem to, in my observation, be prone to making this mistake. They seem to think that "narcotics" means all drugs. Really, narco would be sleep. Cocaine should not really be classed as a narcotic but some due because it induces physical numbness. My understanding is that the numbness was originally defined as a mental state. Opiates are narcotics. Amphetamines are not. The media is not helping. Some drugs fit in multiple categories and that probably does not help either as few are going to be stuffed enough to learn the differences. Cocaine should probably be in the analgesic and stimulant categories I suppose.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
42. Re:What about "legitimate" use? by KGIII · 2015-07-24 19:36 · Score: 2
  
  I have been saying that I would watch a second 'Olympics' where it was known that the participants were taking performance enhancing drugs. It would be awesome. They could have their own records and everything so they would not be competing against those who remained stimulant-free. Obviously we would have to stick to strictly legal drugs, a drawback in my opinion, so we would not be having folks snorting a gram of high-quality coke before going out for a dead-lift competition. At the other end of the spectrum there would be weed smokers doing the triple jump and people on PCP doing shot puts. Even more amusing would be the psilocybin users trying to do free-style swim events. I would be all for that.
  It would be even more amusing if they had the same sort of competition at the Special Olympics. What could be more glorious than Down's Syndrome kids who have willfully ingested high-grade LSD and are now trying to run track? Before you say that they can not make such a choice I would like to remind you that we are already coercing them to engage in the Special Olympics anyways so either they have a choice or they do not. Is it no more "cruel" to allow some of them to participate after ingesting a cocktail of drugs? I say it is not... You're already capitalizing on their behavior, you might as well allow them the freedom to participate in my fictional competition too.
  It is not likely that any of this is ever going to happen. Still, I really would like to see a bunch of meth-heads playing American football and marijuana smoking golfers. Feed a soccer team a bunch of cocaine and watch the ensuing fun! I would go back to watching television just to help pay for such events. I submit that there is no rational person on the planet who would not watch such events. No, not one rational person would be anywhere other than glued to the spectacle. The official sponsorship and advertisements are sure to be an added bonus.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
43. Re: What about "legitimate" use? by Some_Llama · 2015-07-30 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  he's right, when i take a little adderall it makes me sleepy, i can zone out and have symptoms like im sedated, i take what i feel is my dose i become focused and productive and organzied, if i take too much then i get like super add or how normal people behave with a little dose of adderall
Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:06 · Score: -1

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son"
I can't believe there is such a thing as "professional gamer". That's why our society has gone to shit.
Hey loser, get off the couch, grow up and get a real job!
1. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:27 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Football, basketball, soccer, hockey... all those are games. The day professional basketball/soccer players stop bouncing/kicking balls and get "real jobs", that day you can ask the same from professional videogame players.
2. Re:Seriously? by DroolTwist · 2015-07-24 01:32 · Score: 1
  
  U mad bro? Because people are doing what they love and getting paid extremely well for it?
3. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:35 · Score: -1
  
  Society applauds athletes who play games, because it is more readily apparent how impressive their feats are. Also, they are more impressive to look at, whether it be size or attractiveness. Sports like darts, bowling, professional gaming...if a big ol' fat person can do it, people are not impressed, and so it remains a niche sport.
  The fans of pro gaming are mostly teens, some awkward people in their 20's, and some really awkward people in their 30's.
4. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:36 · Score: 1
  
  "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son"
  I can't believe there is such a thing as "professional gamer". That's why our society has gone to shit.
  Hey loser, get off the couch, grow up and get a real job!
  I'd hate to live in a world that meets your approval.
  What about pro sports? What about singers? Actors? Any and all types of entertainment?
  Because the only reason there are professionals in any of those is because people are willing to pay to be entertained.
5. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:47 · Score: 0
  
  Just because it's weird to you, doesn't mean it's weird to everyone else. Society changes.
6. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:54 · Score: 0
  
  Apparent or not, a feat is a feat. They can try and with those prices in the hundreds of thousands or even millions, if they think it is so trivial...
  
  The fans of pro gaming are mostly teens, some awkward people in their 20's, and some really awkward people in their 30's.
  That's stupid. If it were only teens they wouldn't be moving such huge audiences. The mean age is probably in the 20s, and I'm sure plenty of 30-somethings watch eSports. Videogames (as an industry) have been with us for almost 40 years, the majority of people in their 30s (like myself, even though I don't follow eSports) are gamers. It is to be expected that a significant number of them are into eSports. We played the original Starcraft, Quake3 and Counter Strike while in our teens.
7. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:10 · Score: 0
  
  What's that, living in mommy's basement off a Ritalin buzz?
8. Re:Seriously? by Chris+Johnson · 2015-07-24 02:27 · Score: 1
  
  This is a very silly objection, and I'll tell you why.
  I routinely start watching a set of Minecraft youtubers for a thing called 'Mindcrack UHC'. I know the playstyles of many of the players, what can be expected of them, even some of the unusual team-ups worthy of a pro wrestling storyline (hi, Vechs/BTC/Nebs!).
  They are BOXES running around. I have no idea what they actually look like, nor am I really interested.
  Video games have the capacity to become the athletics version of Asian avatar popstars: it helps if there's character customization, but even so, if you want musclebound superheroes doing superhuman feats, reality can't possibly live up to computer generation. You'll find in movies now the big stars and their action scenes are largely videogames, and nobody complains and that's not even interactive. How much cooler is it, if the superhuman avatars are actually being controlled by dedicated human athletes straining their abilities to the limit to prevail? If it's not pre-scripted?
9. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:37 · Score: 0
  
  Doesn't pewdy pie or however you spell his name (I'm not a fan of his) make something like $4 million a year? Yeah, I'm sure he's living in mommys basement.
10. Re:Seriously? by Austerity+Empowers · 2015-07-24 06:45 · Score: 2
  
  Football, basketball, soccer, hockey... all those are games. The day professional basketball/soccer players stop bouncing/kicking balls and get "real jobs", that day you can ask the same from professional videogame players.
  I hope this day comes. All of these "sports", while individually fun to play in to some degree, stop being fun when there's money and spectators involved. I don't know how anyone can watch so-and-so pratfall to draw a yellow card, or billy joe step in front of a ball to get on a base, etc. etc. just to "win". This same gamesmanship has turned video games of almost every variety into a circus show.
  The only way to kill it all dead is not to watch, buy the merchandise or otherwise pay money into the system.
11. Re:Seriously? by paul_metcalfe · 2015-07-24 08:59 · Score: 1
  
  This is true, I tend to watch sports for the fit bodies.
  Same reason I watch porn.
  
  --
  Always read at -1, don't let others decide what you should and should not read.
12. Re:Seriously? by KGIII · 2015-07-24 19:46 · Score: 1
  
  I love watching people play video games but I have not found watching competitions all that fun. I do not even play games any more. I just like watching them. I actually have a PS3 and an X Box One set up for people to play when they stop over. I do not even know how to play any of the games except for a golf game and I do not even really play that. Ah well... I do like watching people play fighting games such as the Street Fighter line of games. I used to play Street Fighter a lot but, still, I do not play at all now though I could probably figure it out. I like watching driving games as well but not the GTA series. I also enjoy watching people play RPGs quite a bit. I think that is my favorite but it takes more time.
  
  --
  "So long and thanks for all the fish."
What's performance enhancing? by XxtraLarGe · 2015-07-24 01:07 · Score: 2, Interesting

Does caffeine count? What about marijuana? It seems like it would dull your reaction time, but it might make you more calm, so it's hard to say. How about coke or meth? Seems like those would make you too jittery.

--
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
1. Re:What's performance enhancing? by lq_x_pl · 2015-07-24 01:15 · Score: 2
  
  Vice ran an interesting article where the author ran some tests to see what the effect of pot on video gaming was. Not particularly scientific, but the anecdotal results are interesting enough.
  I expect that for each for those, there's a point where the benefits of consumption are overwhelmed by the intensifying effect of the drug. AKA, a little helps, a lot hurts. The same holds true for alcohol's impact on one's ability to solve problems creatively (anecdotally, at least).
  
  --
  An internal system operation returned the error "The operation completed successfully.".
2. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:23 · Score: 1
  
  It's all just speculation at this point.
  There are chess tournaments that banned nicotine, and from what I understood tests for doping in e-sports have previously only been done for performance enhancing drugs more commonly used in other sports.
  What ESL decides to go after this time no-one but them knows.
  At this point the people who compete at the highest level in any sport will go to extreme lengths to get an advantage, the reason to ban certain substances is because one shouldn't have to risk permanent damage or life long addiction just to compete. Allowing a performance enhancing drug essentially means that every one who wants to win is forced to take it.
  For e-sports I would say nicotine is a good candidate. While caffeine is addictive to some extent it doesn't cause permanent damage and self-rehabilitation only means that you have to accept headaches for a week or so.
  Nicotine on the other hand is a lot more addictive and unless taken as a patch it is likely that the consumption method will increase cancer risk.
3. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:23 · Score: 0
  
  Most sports allow use of limited amounts of caffeine, large amounts will be counterproductive anyways. I think there is a threshold above which caffeine counts as doping.
  Meth works similiarly to Aderall as they are both amphetamines. Coke does also affect the same brain systems - it is similar to Ritalin.
4. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:36 · Score: 0
  
  Banning caffeine would be troublesome because all major teams and events are sponsored by energy drink manufacturers and they all drink them on stage.
5. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Nidi62 · 2015-07-24 01:39 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Does caffeine count? What about marijuana? It seems like it would dull your reaction time, but it might make you more calm, so it's hard to say. How about coke or meth? Seems like those would make you too jittery.
  IWANCAACA (I Was An NCAA College Athlete-I also just wanted to make up a new acronym). The NCAA considers caffeine a banned substance. If you have a certain amount in your system when tested it is no different than if you had traces of marijuana or steroids in your system. Of course, a couple cans of Coke wouldn't be enough to trigger it. You would have to go to Jessie Spannow levels for it to trigger.
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
6. Re:What's performance enhancing? by QilessQi · 2015-07-24 01:40 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Technically, caffeine is not a drug: it's a major food group.
  
  --
  Koans and fables for the software engineer
7. Re:What's performance enhancing? by bluefoxlucid · 2015-07-24 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  That's all actually scientifically known, with some mean of 3 seconds improvement in times for swimmers when on marijuana versus not.
  
  --
  Support my political activism on Patreon.
8. Re:What's performance enhancing? by drinkypoo · 2015-07-24 01:55 · Score: 1
  
  Does caffeine count? What about marijuana?
  It's interesting you mention those together because a Cafe' Mota is the shiz
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
9. Re:What's performance enhancing? by sound+vision · 2015-07-24 02:52 · Score: 1
  
  I can say anecdotally that methamphetamine does significantly increase FPS performance (back in those days it was CS:S in particular). I didn't keep a log of my kill/death ratio, but I knew what I usually scored, and I knew what I was scoring the night I was tweaked out was better.
10. Re:What's performance enhancing? by TheCarp · 2015-07-24 03:34 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe, it makes some sense. However, have seen similar anecdotal evidence from LSD.
  So long time ago, back when I was a pool player and bar fly....a friend called me up "I dropped acid and am bored, lets go out". We met up at the bar, she was lit but handling it well. We grabbed a pool table and started to play.
  Now, I was shooting a lot of pool back then. I was decent, we all were. This was a girl I used to partner up with at casual tournaments occasionally, so I was very familiar with how she shot....and she fucking KILLED IT that night.
  I have NEVER seen her so on her game as she was tripping face.
  
  --
  "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
11. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 03:38 · Score: 0
  
  Of course marijuana you fucking idiot, it's federally illegal.
  Given that weed causes brain shrinkage, brain damage, and mental illness, you'd have to be fucking insane (or a worthless pothead) to think weed would improve your gaming skill.
12. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:28 · Score: 0
  
  Adderall and meth are very similar. Both are amphetamines. Adderall is prescribed at much lower doses than the typical meth abuser takes.
13. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:45 · Score: 0
  
  Calm is gained naturally through experience. Decade ago (yes I was born int he wrong decade :/) I was quite an adept player in a Player vs Player game. And one of the things that came with my mastery was a sense of calm. Where other players started to panic and press random buttons when under attack, I would have almost perfect Zen, which allowed me to asses the situation and react accordingly. Some times I would even back-seat drive panic-stricken players, that level of calm is almost contagious.
14. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:46 · Score: 0
  
  I know I tend to do a lot better in my gaming if I've had a drink or three. Back in the Quake 2/3 days I would always have a light buzz when competing and it helped significantly. There is a level of intoxication where your reflexes are not compromised but you're more relaxed than normal.
  Main problem with alcohol is that the positive effects don't last very long (30 minutes to an hour). Then you need to drink more otherwise you get tired and start making mistakes. The problem with drinking more is that the previous alcohol is not fully out of your system so it starts stacking up until you're drunk which is no good either. So it's not really a good long term form of doping.
15. Re:What's performance enhancing? by NekSnappa · 2015-07-24 05:00 · Score: 1
  
  I suck at pool until I have a shot or two of tequila.
  
  --
  I want to shoot the messenger!
16. Re: What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 05:33 · Score: 0
  
  Relax man. Rub your shakra, do your chant, take a shot, inhale - exhale. Whatever floats your boat, and allows you to respect others; it helps everybody
17. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 05:50 · Score: 0
  
  ADRENALINE! That shout is a good indicator for overt consumption of the major food group during games.
18. Re:What's performance enhancing? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 07:19 · Score: 0
  
  Oddly enough, my lap times in games like Gran Tursimo 6 and Forza improve after smoking pot.
19. Re:What's performance enhancing? by sound+vision · 2015-07-25 03:13 · Score: 1
  
  I've actually heard the same thing from someone else, that they did really good at pool while tripping. I wonder why that is, maybe it's got something to do with the geometry of the shots, of pattern recognition? I'm no stranger to tripping either, but I've never played pool on a trip, and I can't think of anything else.
20. Re:What's performance enhancing? by TheCarp · 2015-07-25 11:48 · Score: 1
  
  I think pattern recognition is part of it. Think about the effects.
  What does flat white wall do? It stretches, it breathes. Maybe lines or shadows on it dance a bit, maybe the pervasive color line pattern you see behind your eyes projects onto it.
  However a candle flickering through faceted glass, that could become a kaleidoscope of cartoon skulls in a burst of colors.
  I saw a ted talk about the mind and pattern recognition.... how the mind has chains of pattern recognizers and seeing one part of a pattern potentiates another part. LSD is like, every pattern recognizer is potentiated, that is solid, it is liquid, it is flowing, it is breathing.....
  Its like a signal. If you have a weak signal compared to the noise, then you can't distinguish the right patterns, however, if you are in the time and place where strong signals are coming in, then being potentiated towards recognizing them may be a benefit....and the signal is so strong....like a white wall, there just isn't much else it could be.
  
  --
  "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
No performance enhancing drugs? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:08 · Score: 1

Well, there go the Mountain Dew and Monster sponsorships...
1. Re:No performance enhancing drugs? by flopsquad · 2015-07-24 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  I think the greatest lie ever told was that Gamer Fuel(TM) actually is a performance enhancing substance.
  
  --
  Nothing posted to /. has ever been legal advice, including this.
Adderall?... Complicted. by Carewolf · 2015-07-24 01:09 · Score: 3, Informative

I was thinking it would be some ritalin based medicin, and adderall is particularly abused, and maybe shouldn't even be used the way it is. But this is important: It still requires a prescription to get, so in the end by banning it, they would be forbidding people from taking their prescribed medication. Even if it is widely abused, there are a some that needs it.
Even in cycling they allow drugs that are otherwise banned, if a doctor prescribes it and documents the athlete needs it.
1. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by drinkypoo · 2015-07-24 01:22 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  I was thinking it would be some ritalin based medicin, and adderall is particularly abused, and maybe shouldn't even be used the way it is. But this is important: It still requires a prescription to get, so in the end by banning it, they would be forbidding people from taking their prescribed medication. Even if it is widely abused, there are a some that needs it.
  Here's the problem. Since it's a performance-enhancing drug whether you're prescribed it or not, it's simply unfair to permit anyone to take it while prohibiting other drugs. But you can't prohibit something someone's been prescribed. So basically, they're announcing that their games will be unfair from now on... not that I gave a shit before this. If I want to watch someone play a video game, it'll be me. I guess that's why I never got into watching sports, either. I can just go outside and do something.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
2. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:34 · Score: 0
  
  It still requires a prescription to get
  Seriously?
3. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:44 · Score: 1
  
  To someone who really needs it, you can't really call it performance enhancing. Rather, it brings their performance to a normal level that someone who doesn't need it is already at.
4. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:51 · Score: 0
  
  they would be forbidding people from taking their prescribed medication
  No. They'd be forbidding people from taking part in the competition.
5. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by drinkypoo · 2015-07-24 01:53 · Score: 1
  
  To someone who really needs it, you can't really call it performance enhancing. Rather, it brings their performance to a normal level that someone who doesn't need it is already at.
  Life is not full of booleans, it's a complicated place. Some people won't even be at the normal level after they take whatever it is. Some people will be beyond it. And are you checking up on their dosage? For that matter, is their doctor? Lots of people just get prescribed whatever whether it's really appropriate or not, and if they don't complain to their doctor then they just keep getting renewed. The doctor gets paid and gets them out of his hair, so he wins, right?
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
6. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:57 · Score: 0
  
  Stimulants like caffeine and Ritalin enhance one's ability to focus. A normal level of focus is what, exactly? Until it can be measured, it's not clear if a medicated person is at normal, at a slight advantage, or at a distinct advantage.
7. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:09 · Score: 0
  
  It's always been unfair to people who didn't want to illegally use prescription medications.
  Some of us think of that as a bad thing, you know.
8. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:48 · Score: 0
  
  To someone who really needs it, you can't really call it performance enhancing. Rather, it brings their performance to a normal level that someone who doesn't need it is already at.
  Well, what if my body doesn't produce as much testosterone as someone else does naturally?
  Would it be OK for me to take some extra to "even the playing field"?
9. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:07 · Score: 0
  
  Just because a doctor prescribes a drug does not automatically mean that this drug is allowed in competition. In general, it depends on the rules and the jurisdiction. For example, if you look at the USADA athlete guide:
  http://www.usada.org/substances/prohibited-list/athlete-guide/
  banned anabolic agents include prescription drugs such as Androgel. In addition, there are limits to other prescription drugs such as Clenbuterol. In some sports, such as MMA, there was a therapeudic use exemption for things like testosterone replace therapy, which requires a prescription, but this was recently rescinded due to abuse by the athletes:
  http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/2/27/5454342/nevada-state-athletic-commission-bans-trt-urges-fellow-athletic
  Now, this is not to say whether or not bans are good or bad, but mostly to note that the devil is in the details as to what drugs are allowed, prescription or otherwise, and what levels of the remaining drugs are allowed.
10. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:19 · Score: 0
  
  No if you need a prescription to play video games, you shouldn't be allowed to compete. If you need a mask to alter your face, you shouldn't be allowed to enter a beauty pageant. Sports, competitions, and the like are a test of natural ability. If you need a supplement to function at that skill level, you should be disqualified. It's not your *right* to play in a competition with a reverse-handicap. If I were a midget, I can't play in the NBA on stilts. Even if I use stilts in the rest of my waking life, even if they are doctor prescribed.
11. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:24 · Score: 0
  
  Bring performance to a "normal" level? What does that even mean?! The whole point of a competition is to find people who are *naturally* extraordinary. If you are naturally handicapped, too bad. You can either compete in your natural state, or not compete. If you are horrendously disfigured and need a mask to alter your face, you shouldn't be allowed to enter a beauty pageant. If I were a midget, I can't play in the NBA on stilts to bring me up to the average player's height Even if I use stilts in the rest of my waking life, even if they are doctor prescribed. Does it suck that I was born a midget? Sure. Is it unfair, that other people are naturally more equipped for basketball? Sure. But that's the frickin point of sports!! Ol' blade Runner should never have been allowed in the Olympics.
  It's not your *right* to play in a competition with a reverse-handicap. Nobody owes the handicapped an advantage to be able to compete. Follow that to it's logical conclusion and everybody should finish in a tie or win through pure luck.
12. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  My favorite kind of nerd is the one that posts comments on Slashdot, but is somehow above the activity of watching video games or sports.
  Can you try any harder?
  Do you next wish to tell me how little you know about sports, or whatever else you do to try and inflate your "nerd status"? It gets tiring.
13. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by tnk1 · 2015-07-24 04:40 · Score: 1
  
  Adderall is meant to allow ADHD minded individuals able to cope better with life in general. Their disability, if disability it is, happens to be with the larger picture of living, maintaining a job, etc. That is what they have Adderall for.
  That disability has little to do with video gaming, as games tend to be short and very engrossing. That means that someone who *needs* Adderall, may still derive just as much of an enhancement from it as someone who doesn't need Adderall to deal with life in general.
  Think of it being like Viagra. Viagra was originally to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, and if you take it for that, it is a fully medical use to treat a real illness.
  However, your use for it's originally-intended medical purpose doesn't mean that you wouldn't get an erection just like everyone else. After all, that's how they discovered that side effect.
14. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by mattventura · 2015-07-24 08:52 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe if it's some casual shooter with no depth. Most competitive games also test strategy, tactics, or knowledge. You could pump someone full of whatever drugs you want and it wouldn't suddenly make them good.
15. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by PlusFiveTroll · 2015-07-24 11:22 · Score: 1
  
  WTF does naturally even mean?
  If you take two 'master race' parents (because epigenetics) bred them and then trained their child every day and only fed them a very good diet, and they were sponsored their life so didn't have to worry about making a living, would that be natural? By your definition, yes, it's just selective breeding for the purpose of sports. That's the kind of stuff that is happening already.
16. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 12:49 · Score: 0
  
  I bet he uses Arch linux and codes a mean fibonacci function.
17. Re:Adderall?... Complicted. by Carewolf · 2015-07-25 00:35 · Score: 1
  
  they would be forbidding people from taking their prescribed medication
  No. They'd be forbidding people from taking part in the competition.
  Probably depends on the drug. Several types of asthma medication is considered doping unless you have astma. If I remember correctly some 50% of professional bicycle riders officially have asthma.
Just get diagnosed with ADHD and be done. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:11 · Score: 0

All you gotta do is get diagnosed with ADHD and get your script for Adderall. It's done all the time.
Or look at pro cyclists and the number of them with asthma and the need for steroids.
1. Re:Just get diagnosed with ADHD and be done. by Chris+Johnson · 2015-07-24 02:08 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  At that point it becomes a prerequisite: you gotta be a great gamer, know your stuff, practice AND have ADHD. So much of it that you function normally on bucketloads of Adderall. You're the twitchy equivalent of a Kenyan long-distance runner with the toothpicks for legs, you've reached your final form ;)
  It's horrible but it's also interesting. I've studied this stuff a bit. It doesn't bother me when you have categorical advantage but it gets more worrying when part of the 'qualification' is a dark history that leaves the hapless 'competer' human wreckage with nothing to live for but the will to win, forever unsatisfied unless they are crushing their opponents. Yet that's part of the formula, and a surprising amount of sports and entertainment is the wrangling of these freakish entities and trying to keep them from wrecking their teams, their bands, their lives etc.
  You can't get away from this in any competitive sphere including life itself: when it comes down to the cult of the individual, it is ALWAYS possible to guarantee victory if you're okay with it being Pyrhhic. A sense of self-preservation or honoring the sport/context/environment is a handicap, and so you get Lance Armstrong every time, to a greater or lesser extent. That's what winning IS.
  Interesting expressing these thoughts for the first time on a site where (a) there's huge respect for the cult of the winner and (b) there's also an entire subculture of shared cooperating, open source, and truly free software that is literally the opposite approach: trying to tear down all barriers to produce a context where anything is possible to anyone, without obstacle.
2. Re:Just get diagnosed with ADHD and be done. by OhPlz · 2015-07-24 02:31 · Score: 1
  
  Are you suggesting that they don't actually have asthma? A significant percentage of the population has asthma, it's not unexpected that a significant number of pro cyclists would have it as well.
3. Re:Just get diagnosed with ADHD and be done. by Pinky's+Brain · 2015-07-24 03:05 · Score: 1
  
  Anything that can be gamed will be gamed, hell I'm sure some of the lesser riders are told not to game the system so the percentages of "sufferers" doesn't become too obvious.
  10% of MLB players have ADD/ADHD supposedly, yeah right.
Ninth post by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:15 · Score: 0

That Game of War chick enhances my performance, if ya know what I mean.
1. Re:Ninth post by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:29 · Score: 0
  
  I doubt that. What kind of "performance" is even possible alone on the couch in your mother's basement.
2. Re: Ninth post by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:41 · Score: 0
  
  But it's possible on the couch at YOUR momma's house because I'm the one "performing" to her. ;)
3. Re: Ninth post by tnk1 · 2015-07-24 04:43 · Score: 1
  
  His mom is Kate Upton?
Taking course of Complex Analysis by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:22 · Score: 1

I am taking course of Complex Analysis. To understand the subject, textbook should be sold with pack of drugs.
So testing for by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:24 · Score: 1

What, RedBull and Hot Pockets?
Ya Ok.....
1. Re:So testing for by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · 2015-07-24 04:06 · Score: 1
  
  Well, Red Bull actually. Okay, just caffiene, but...
  
  --
  Your ad here. Ask me how!
Drug use should be mandatory by meta-monkey · 2015-07-24 01:26 · Score: 2

I would find sports in general much more exciting if drug use were mandatory. Imagine how entertaining football would be if one team were pumped full of PCP and the other was tripping balls on bath salts?

--
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
1. Re:Drug use should be mandatory by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:41 · Score: 0
  
  PCP, Bath salts. LSD and whatefver that crazy face eater in Florida was on would defiantly make it more interesting if players went cannibal eating each others faces off0
2. Re:Drug use should be mandatory by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2015-07-24 01:43 · Score: 1
  
  I would find sports in general much more exciting if drug use were mandatory.
  Hmmm . . . The phrase "Criminal Drug Evasion" pops into my mind . . . THX-1138
  
  --
  Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
3. Re:Drug use should be mandatory by Chris+Johnson · 2015-07-24 02:10 · Score: 1
  
  Whaddya mean 'if'? ;)
Please Stop by ArchieBunker · 2015-07-24 01:29 · Score: -1, Flamebait

Calling something an "eSport" will not make it a sport. You like playing video games, I understand that. You are in no way similar to what athletes do in terms of training.

--
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
1. Re:Please Stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:39 · Score: 0
  
  Says someone who's never trained for anything more challenging than crawling out of their mom's basement once a week to replenish their Vasoline, tissue paper, and Mountain Dew stock.
2. Re:Please Stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:42 · Score: 0
  
  weak
3. Re:Please Stop by DroolTwist · 2015-07-24 01:43 · Score: 2
  
  A sport doesn't have to involve 6'8" men who weigh 285 lbs with 8% bodyfat. And given the fact that it is 'e'Sport, how physical can it get? These guys spend 1000s of hours honing skills and reaction times, so in reference to training, for what they do they put in just as much time and effort as the 'athletes' you speak of.
  Like it or not, gaming is big business that you can actually make lots of money with. Heck, my wife and I used to level up chars in EverQuest 2 and sell them on Sony's marketplace. We got in early, and made over $2000/mo selling chars with end game gear on them. We stopped once the market was flooded, but you get the idea. I wish Twitch TV was around back then, as some of the top people there pull in $50k/yr+ from their streams.
4. Re:Please Stop by bobbied · 2015-07-24 01:49 · Score: 1
  
  Queue up the flame throwers in 3....2....1...
  You are crushing the dreams of all those 30 something gamers who live in their mother's basement so they can spend every last dime on the latest game and hardware to run it on. These guys don't go down without putting up a really big flame war fight, well at least until their mom turns off the cable modem at their 9:30 bedtime... Good luck Mr. Bunker... You will need it.
  
  --
  "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
5. Re:Please Stop by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2015-07-24 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  I find the 'esport' label irksome, mostly because I've never understood the big deal about watching sports; but if the defining characteristic of 'sport-ness' were physical rigor; coal mining and working in a sweatshop would be major athletic events and they'd force golfers to walk the entire course and carry their own bags.
  
  Gaming is obviously pretty low intensity for most muscles, though the rigor of the mental drill is considerable; and the amount of carpal tunnel and similar injuries are actually alarmingly high.
6. Re:Please Stop by Chris+Johnson · 2015-07-24 02:18 · Score: 1
  
  Imagine competitive Rubik's Cube solving to make it more understandable. That clearly involves intense physical dexterity, but also extremely rapid situational analysis and execution. It might not look as entertaining as football because it's way harder to know where the athlete is going with their cube (in football, you can see what's intended from the outside) but it's more or less the same type of thing.
  Same with competitive gaming, with the advantage that if you know the game you can (like football) follow along and imagine how things might be executed, and see whether the players execute them. It's not 'can he run faster than the linebacker chasing him' but 'can he dodge this attack or pull off this complicated move'.
  E-games are going to have to become more 'readable' to outsiders to go properly mainstream, but there's no conceptual problem with it. It's purely a matter of how audience-friendly you can make the concept of 'challenge' when it's a matter of situational analysis, threat and reaction. One awkward bit is that videogames can move too fast for the layman: but in the Michael Bay era, that's being steadily reinterpreted, people expect more demanding visual data.
7. Re: Please Stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:23 · Score: 0
  
  The only way to 'lose' while gaming is to lose sight of the fact that it's supposed to be for fun.
8. Re:Please Stop by Fire_Wraith · 2015-07-24 02:31 · Score: 2
  
  If your benchmark for what constitutes a 'sport' and what isn't is the amount of time spent training, then Pro Gaming is absolutely a sport. Actual "pro" gamers on various teams spend ridiculous amounts of time living together and training.
  
  Just a few samples:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
  
  Pro Gamers don't just screw off and do whatever all day. They do have to train and compete at an insane level. Sure, you or I can hop on and play games of Starcraft II, just like we can go play baseball at the park or in a company league, but it's absolutely nothing like even the guys who play on the MLB farm teams, nevermind the Major Leagues themselves. They face the possibility of injury too, even if less so than a full contact sport, but since when has that been a requirement? I'm pretty sure that pro golfers don't face the same risk of injury as NFL players, but golf is still considered a sport.
9. Re:Please Stop by asylumx · 2015-07-24 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  You seem to be confusing sports with athletics. They are not the same. Fishing, for example, is a sport that average people perform while sitting around drinking beer, yet nobody complains about it being called a sport.
10. Re:Please Stop by alvinrod · 2015-07-24 02:57 · Score: 1
  
  It sounds like they spend hours every day practicing and refining the skills that are important. Just because they're not utilizing the entire body or required to have ridiculous muscle mass to compete does not make it less of a sport.
  
  Both billiards and baton twirling are considered sports, and they're no more physically demanding than gaming, but do require developing and refining skills in order to be competitive. Golf is another perfect example and it's really apt as for most people it is a leisure activity, much as games are.
  
  Video games certainly do put a lot more emphasis on the mental side of the game and many share more in common with something like chess where strategic thinking and planning are highly important, but several also rely on fast reaction time and good hand-eye coordination. If you spend hours every day working to improve those things so that you can perform better in competitions, it's pretty clearly blurring the lines quite a lot. So what's your classification system for what does and does not constitute a sport?
  
  You sound like one of those people, who had they been born 100 years earlier, would be arguing that film is not art.
11. Re:Please Stop by Pinky's+Brain · 2015-07-24 02:59 · Score: 1
  
  If enough people do it, yes it will.
12. Re:Please Stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 03:02 · Score: 0
  
  I recommend that you read up on the subject.
  If you want someone to make a more apt comparison you should try to find a sports psychiatrists. The mentality around training for competitive sports overlap quite heavily and as opposed to coaches that has to know the game they coach the sports psychiatrists have branched out from traditional sports into e-sports (Not so much branching, it is a pretty natural customer base.)
  They can tell that there is no difference in mentality, that they struggle with sports related injuries in the same manner, that the way you have to plan your training doesn't differ if you want to win.
  Not that it really matters, you clearly don't want to accept that professional gamers hit the gym to work up stamina and build up back and arm musculature for long gaming sessions or that they practice the same mechanics over and over outside of the game just to get the muscle memory to react in split seconds when it really counts.
13. Re: Please Stop by FranTaylor · 2015-07-24 03:55 · Score: 1
  
  The only way to 'lose' while gaming is to lose sight of the fact that it's supposed to be for fun.
  lost friends and lovers don't count?
14. Re:Please Stop by FranTaylor · 2015-07-24 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  Fishing, for example, is a sport
  
  If you put it that way, then tying your shoes or brushing your teeth is also a sport.
15. Re:Please Stop by tnk1 · 2015-07-24 04:49 · Score: 1
  
  It could be, if you are doing so competitively. I just don't think it would be a very popular sport.
  Again sports != athletics.
  A name for old time gunslinger/gamblers in the Old West who played poker and bet on horses for a living was they were "sporting men". While you can certainly admire the reflexes of a gunfighter, they were actually called sporting men because of their livelihood as professional gamblers, and there is no need for any sort of athleticism for that job description.
16. Re:Please Stop by ottothecow · 2015-07-24 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  The problem I have with following any team video game is that there can be many points of focus.
  In pretty much every televised sport, the ball is the point of focus. If the ball goes to one person, the people on the other side of the field don't really matter. In CS:Go or a MOBA, you can have a lot of stuff going on simultaneously that is not easy to follow.
  That goes double if you are trying to display it TV-style where it can be followed from a distance. It is one thing to watch a HOTS match fullscreen sitting in front of your computer: you can see the minimap, you can see the respawn timers, the objective timers, etc., and maybe you can look at talent pics and ability cooldowns. Compare that to when ESPN2 televised it. Losing the minimap and that meta information and having to rely on only what the "cameramen" showed you made it hard to follow as someone who has actually played the game a little bit. I imagine it was next to impossible to follow for someone with no familiarity.
  If you took an american sports fan, sat them down in front of Australian rules football, and told them to root for the red team...they would be able to follow the action. Some rules wouldn't make sense, but they would know when their team made a good play or when they were getting hammered. Same would be true if you showed them many other rarely televised sport that they weren't already familiar with (lacrosse, field hockey, ultimate frisbee, etc). Hard to watch Dota, LOL, or HOTS without being an avid fan who is familiar with not only gameplay, but also the abilities and interactions of 30 different characters.
  
  --
  Bottles.
17. Re:Please Stop by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 13:14 · Score: 0
  
  Video games certainly do put a lot more emphasis on the mental side of the game
  Some video games might but I'd argue that none of the popular esport titles do. I'm currently Global Elite in CS:GO and have played multiple seasons in ESEA-M and subbed for teams in ESEA-P and I'd argue that most popular professional sports require far more strategy. Most professional gaming right now (at least in CS, LoL, DotA 2 and Starcraft 2) is decided entirely on executing extremely simple strategies with almost perfect mechanics. There's very little mentally demanding content in any of the top esport titles and drafting in DotA 2 is probably the height of it. Strategies in baseball and football are extremely intricate and dynamic in comparison.
End of "professional" gaming? by Nidi62 · 2015-07-24 01:36 · Score: 2

Caffeine (at least above a certain level) is regulated in epretty much every sport that does PED testing. Since gamers essentially live on a diet solely of energy drinks and Mountain Dew, I see dark times ahead.

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The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
1. Re:End of "professional" gaming? by FranTaylor · 2015-07-24 04:03 · Score: 1
  
  Caffeine (at least above a certain level) is regulated in epretty much every sport that does PED testing.
  
  BULLSHIT
  http://www.menshealth.com/health/are-olympic-athletes-legally-doping
  Though Olympic officials once placed limits on its consumption, since 2004 athletes have been able to freely sip coffee or energy drinks, take caffeine pills, or chew caffeinated gum in search of that extra edge.
  And recent research suggests up to three-fourths of the world’s elite athletes do just that. Take now-retired Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy, a six-time gold medalist. He’s so committed to his caffeine regimen that he reportedly lugged his own coffee machine and grinder to every competition, including the 2012 London Games.
is weed on the list? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 01:54 · Score: 0

is weed on the list?
SNL predicted it years ago.... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · 2015-07-24 01:58 · Score: 1

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4090

--
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
Does this test for Red Bull? by RogueWarrior65 · 2015-07-24 01:59 · Score: 1

Or Cheetos?
1. Re:Does this test for Red Bull? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 07:31 · Score: 0
  
  To test for Cheetos abuse, they just make them drop their pants at the medical screening. Its pretty obvious.
Aw.... by rgbatduke · 2015-07-24 02:23 · Score: 1

..and there goes my big chance in the pro leagues.
Time to return to my mom's basement and balance meth for reflexes against some bong hits for total focus and crank up my three thousand dollar gaming system -- for nothing.
rgb

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Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
esport by jonathan.e.bell · 2015-07-24 02:38 · Score: 1

As for those deriding the term esport, I think you are displaying your own ignorance and falling into typical typecasting. First, go read the definition of sport: http://www.merriam-webster.com... - You will notice that while there is significant talk of physical activity, it is not exclusively physical. Second, while I have played and enjoy watching baseball, I know that I will never reach the skill or compensation levels of professional baseball players, just like I'm never going to acquire the skill or compensation of the best Starcraft players, some of whom earn in the neighborhood of 100k and 170K a year "playing". Maybe you could once have made generalizations like this and be taken seriously, but the world turns and things change. Get used to it.
1. Re:esport by sound+vision · 2015-07-24 02:58 · Score: 1
  
  It's not even really that new of an idea - the term "motorsports" has been around for what 60 years? 90? There are a number of things called *sport that are more about coordination or strategy than strength or endurance.
2. Re:esport by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:40 · Score: 0
  
  Protip: things that don't involve running around can be classified as sports.
  Double protip: the meanings of words can change.
  Triple protip: Try hitting "return" once in a while???
3. Re:esport by NoBrakes58 · 2015-07-24 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, high-level motorsports do require some pretty impressive physical conditioning. In cabin temperatures often lead to exhaustion just from dehydration, but add on the physical strength required to resist the g-forces in a turn and it gets pretty ridiculous. I've heard of F1 drivers whose training regimen includes weight exercises for their necks just so their heads don't flop around every time they corner. There's also a reason the steering wheel is so close to the driver in a NASCAR car: they get more leverage to keep their hands on the wheel and to be able to turn it when they aren't stretched out.
Motorsport by monkeyxpress · 2015-07-24 02:45 · Score: 1

Well, some people still don't think Motorsport is a real sport, but that hasn't stopped series like F1 from becoming (at one point) the second most televised sport in the world. Similarly Nascar and Indy have pretty major followings and the World Rally Championship did too when the drivers were still crazy.
Personally I don't get the whole e-sport thing, but I also don't think the fact that the competitors aren't training like athletes is any reason it can't become a massive global industry, with hundreds of millions of viewers and megastars earning stupid amounts of money.
Implants by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 02:49 · Score: 0

We better scan them for implants as well.
How America got hooked on legal speed by Sir_Eptishous · 2015-07-24 02:51 · Score: 1

Interesting, Pro Gamers are now going to be subjected to the same scrutiny that Ice Fishers, Badmitton players, Critickers, Bowlers, Country Line Dancers and players in the NFL, MLB and NCAA are subjected to.

Obviously, players in the NFL are going to be subjected to different test panels than players in the NCAA or Olympics, but for your convenience, here is the WADA list of banned substances

You will find most of the usual things there, "street drugs", etc, and of course, gamers drug of choice, Amphetamines/Stimulants.
When I first saw the headline, I thought, like many here did, what about Adderall? Because we all know that Adderall, and other legal amphetamines like it, is the real question mark here.

Should pro gamers be worried?
Only if they need it to play a video game...

As we've seen from other sports, Adderall, aka, legal speed, use/abuse is rampant.

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We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Atheletes are disposable by FranTaylor · 2015-07-24 04:05 · Score: 1

Athletes are to sport as dixie cups are to drinking. Use once, dispose, move on to the next.
Athletics is just another way to move money from poor people to rich people.
Really? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:16 · Score: 0

Big Anti-doping strikes again
THIS IS LAME!! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 04:40 · Score: 0

In an industry that promotes DRUGS, MIND ALTERING, ILLEGAL, QUESTIONABLE, ETC..
in every "REAL" company. Sony, EA, Sports, 989 studios, all the way down the list even to blizzard..
How many of these companies have any real tanageable drug policies?>
I think it's lame the fact that even for KIDS games people have to inject their ADULT agenda making everyone suffer..
Lets look @ it a different way, when your in a war, and are caught up in a war type activity lets say "RECON" No physical conflikt, just "RECON".
If a sniper, or a recon specialist comes back with a full and accurate report while admitting to taking adderall in the field. What would his commanding officer's nexst step be.. Mostlikely nothing. My solider got his or her job done end of story. which to me has some serious implications versus playing a Video game on drugs with no weapons, and/or no malicious intent..
It's a ploy, just another way others can cash in on various mis-fortunes..revenue grabbing bitches all of'em..
Professional sports I dont agree with either, but can understand from the perspective aspect. But Professional gaming is NOT THAT NOR WILL IT EVER BE.
I find it ironic that an industry built on drug usage to help move "it's agenda" forward is now being warped in public wrapping paper and shoved down everyones throat forcing the community to pay for some-one elses mistakes, misfortunes, or inappropriate proclamations..
Bullshit..
A question by slashmydots · 2015-07-24 05:12 · Score: 1

How much Red Bull are they going to consider an illegal amount though? (but seriously, they considered in the past limiting mg of caffeine in the bloodstream to a certain amount)
Pointless by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 05:18 · Score: 0

You need a script to get Adderall pretty much everywhere. Since they have a prescription, there isn't much the league can do about its use short of completely banning all use of it (which will probably cause the players to essentially strike).
No dope while playing games by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 05:27 · Score: 0

Goddamn the nannies ruin everything. Now I can't even do dope with playing video games...
Fuck them by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 07:12 · Score: 0

Fuck them. This is just an attempt of some other group to gain control of something they have no business involved in. I will do as much PEZ and Mountain dew as I like.
To be honest... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-24 10:54 · Score: 0

...Who gives a shit? E-sports have been nothing but a fucking cancer on video games.
You know those dipshits who freak out if you deviate even a hair from the metagame? Who pile abuse on the rest of their team when they lose a round, especially if it's their own damn fault? The raging assholes whose relentless stream of hatred and vitriol provide the Jack Thompsons and Anita Sarkeesians of the world ammunition for their insane crusades? The kind of guys that make you think twice about whether you even want to play video games at all?
I guarantee you that every last one of them thinks he's going to be a pro gaming star. That the game they're playing, right now, is their ticket to not having to get a job and deal with people without calling them "faggots". That any setback or defeat or challenge to their chosen piece of electronic entertainment is a direct attack on their (deeply unrealistic) career aspirations, and that if they do not defend them - with the utmost desperation - they will be forced to accept that they aren't actually better than the rest of humanity at all.
The truth is that you're better off taking that Adderall to your local college campus, where an entirely different kind of overgrown child will pay top dollar for it so that they can pass their classes and avoid their own impending adulthood.