ESL to start doing doping tests again

The Esports League (ESL) has recently announced the return of doping controls in its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) competitions. This is a welcome move, as anti-doping controls are essential to prevent competitors from using performance-enhancing drugs.

After three years of absence of anti-doping controls in CS:GO competitions, ESL is announcing the reintroduction of these controls.

Absence of doping controls

Cloud 9 has made a strong criticism on Twitter about the absence of anti-doping controls in CS:GO tournaments. In response to this criticism, ESL FACEIT Group’s senior vice president of gaming ecosystems, Ulrich Schulze, made a statement on his Twitter account on March 9.

Ulrich Schulze comments that anti-doping tests were frequently performed before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, ESL intends to resume testing once the appropriate infrastructure is in place.

Before 2020, ESL conducted many doping tests. To continue to do so, they must now rebuild the infrastructure because the Covid-19 period hurt the staff and resources that the EISC had previously used.

The default practice for the COVID-19 pandemic simulation events was diffusion testing. However, tournament organizers could not guarantee that athletes were not enhancing their performance with illegal drugs and supplements.

Therefore, almost all event organizers no longer conducted these tests. Then in a study, nafany admitted to not having undertaken any anti-doping tests at any LAN. So actually, there was still some controversy in CS:GO, but everything points to the fact that it would be more of a factor in the game’s online environment.

As a result of these statements from ESL, other experts joined the conversation on Twitter. According to Team Liquids EliGE, no doping tests were conducted after the Covid-19 pandemic; however, testing was widespread before that. On the other hand, some players, including Astralis blameF and former MOUZs Bymas, have admitted to doping tests during the IEM Cologne 2022 qualifiers.

Importance of doping controls

Performance-enhancing drugs in esports can give an advantage to those who use them, which is why doping controls are so important. Without doping controls, drug players gain an unfair advantage over their peers.

Doping tests are one of the ways to ensure fair and competitive play in tournaments. So, the return of anti-doping controls to ESL CS:GO competitions is a step in the right direction for esports.

Doping controls are essential to ensure players compete on a level playing field. So ESL’s move is welcome, and hopefully, other esports organizations will follow suit to ensure fair and competitive play.

Header: ESLCS | Twitter