Doping is a big issue in competitive sports such as baseball, cycling, etc. As such, sports athletes must complete drug tests and risk disqualification (or worse) if they are discovered to be using drugs. However, some exemptions are made with regards to prescribed medication for specific conditions.
Does competitive gaming, or eSports, follow the same guidelines? Do these tournaments have the same anti-doping regulations along with exemptions for extenuating circumstances such as medical conditions?
Best Answer
It depends. While most of the competitive gaming leagues I checked out don't mention anything about drug testing explicitly, the International eSports Federation (IeSF) has partnered with the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA), prohibiting a whole standardized myriad of performance-enhancing drugs, testing winners and random other players for them. There is a process through the World Anti-doping Agency for exemptions, which essentially requires the WADA to explicitly approve of someone using a drug in competition because they have a medical condition.
There is a very strict process for therapeutic exemptions, however. A TUE is granted if and only if an athlete absolutely needs to take the prohibited substance for medical reasons, the prohibited substance doesn't provide any additional enhancement of performance other than what would be expected by an athlete returning to normal health, there is no alternative, and the necessity of use isn't a consequence of dependence. Adderall, typically associated with performance enhancement for video games, does not meet any of these criteria.
Other leagues have rules governing showing up to events intoxicated or clearly under the influence of drugs, if not explicitly, in the "tournament officials reserve the right to disqualify any player at any time for any reason" clause.