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Ask HN: Should professional gamers be screened for performance enhancing drugs?

by keyboardhitter on 2/5/18, 12:00 AM with 18 comments

For example, stimulants, nootropics, anxiolytics, etc. My thought process came from thinking about the growth of regulation in the Olympics over many years. I'm curious to know what the community thinks about this, since professional gaming (or streaming) is becoming more and more popular by the day but is still relatively new as a "sport".

  • by throwaway30yo on 2/5/18, 2:44 AM

    No.

    Also I do not think Olympic athletes should be tested. I once competed at a very high level in sports and the use of drugs is significantly higher then anyone would expect. The difference was that the poorer countries only had access to old school steroids (testosterone, dbol, tren etc) while the richer countries had access to things which at the time were impossible to detect (GH, IGF-1, Research Peptides).

    The effects of steroids specifically are seen many years after use, so unless you are testing the lifetime of an athlete the test is meaningless anyway.

    2 twins, one does steroids for 2 years, one does not. The steroid user comes off of drugs for another 2 years, and still has a major advantage over the non-using athlete.

  • by staunch on 2/5/18, 6:07 AM

    Physical sports are a completely different thing. Games simply don't require the same kind of physical effort and so physiological-enhancements probably won't help.

    Other than stimulants to keep people awake for long periods of time, I doubt there are any drugs that would serve as an unfair advantage.

    Being well rested and physically healthy would probably be the most effective strategy.

  • by znpy on 2/5/18, 2:41 PM

    Well if "professional gamers" want to be considered athletes, they should be subjected to the same amount of checks and restrictions that regular athletes are subjected to.

  • by Powerofmene on 2/5/18, 12:42 AM

    But not all stimulants etc are used for performance enhancement, etc. There are many legitimate uses so like anything else, there would have to be exceptions to “the rule.”

  • by Insanity on 2/5/18, 12:20 AM

    If it would be shown to give a clear significance in gaming, then I guess there should be screened for it. As it would indeed be offering an unfair advantage.

  • by mrits on 2/5/18, 1:55 AM

    Since esports are closer to cooking than an actual sport I'd imagine you wouldn't have much regulation.