Do major video game tournaments drug test players?

February 11, 2006 4:31 PM

Do any of the big video game tournaments around the world drug-test players?
posted by mediareport to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Best answer: No, they don't.

"In every area of life whenever there is something to be gained, there will those willing to take all sorts of risks in order to have the edge over the competition. The same holds true in gaming, where increasingly large prize pots are waiting to be picked up. And while cheating on LAN is virtually impossible, the use of drugs is virtually undetectable and is not against the rules of the sponsoring organizations. Many gamers are said to take full advantage of those facts."
posted by iviken at 6:24 PM on February 11, 2006

Did you just watch the episode of Entourage when Turtle brings a clean urine sample in a jar to a videogame competition?
posted by weaponsgradecarp at 12:22 PM on February 12, 2006

Response by poster: No, I watched the 60 Minutes segment about Fatal1ty a few weeks ago, then read a couple of stories about doping in the Winter Olympics, then searched and found rules like this from the Canadian World Cyber Games site, which just note they'll "deny entry to any participant who appears to be visibly under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs." Entourage is fiction, right, but was the urine bit based on fact?

iviken, thanks for that interesting article. It doesn't address the question directly, but is the most balanced take on the topic I've seen.
posted by mediareport at 9:47 PM on February 12, 2006

Response by poster: On third thought, iviken, it does address the question directly, if a bit vaguely. I was looking for specifics about different tournaments, but thanks, that was definitely a 'best answer.'
posted by mediareport at 4:28 PM on February 13, 2006