Ofcourse they have. If money is on the line why not pop a ritalin if you feel it helps. Obviously people play games on weed too, although I doubt any pro's go for that at lan's these days. I wonder what kind of anxiety reducing meds are a thing amongst some high level teams, as long as they dont mess with reaction time and such they should be great.
Obviously people play games on weed too, although I doubt any pro's go for that at lan's these days
Weed is a performance reducing drug.
And yeah, stimulants like methylphenidate / amphetamine are performance enhancing, and probably used by many pro gamers. The problem with putting restrictions on such things is that many people have prescriptions for these drugs
Not true at all. In the game I play CS:KZ it helps quite a lot as it stimulates for a smoother and more precise mouse control as long as you don't smoke too much. Usually it has most efficiency in the after effect. I don't really know about quake, don't remember if I tried but I probably gotta do that soon, I don't smoke a lot though.
I think the guy is right, if e-sport continues growing, then we are inevitably moving towards control of this subject.
Do I think someone has used it in Quake? I highly doubt it, the scene is not big enough to promote something like that. Then again,who knows? Maybe Cypher does pop a pill once in a while, like before a lan, then everyone goes ham over his better than ever performance abilities in a much more stressful environment. We will never know for sure.
I have seen top players play important matches high (won't name them), and I wouldn't be surprised if other kind of pharma/drugs have been used. But I would not freak out about it.
It's a big gray zone, with a lot of different things which you may or may not consider bad. Talk to some medicine students during their exam sessions and they'll sound like drug addicts, as they discuss openly what they are taking (admittedly, they are generally more knowlegeable about meds and have easier access to them). Yet, these are ppl you trust with your health a few months afterwards.
I wouldn't be surprised if I found out that a high percentage of pub quakers are on drugs. It would certainly explain the level of retardation you witness daily
I've seen some players looking stoned, others on coke/ritalin, in big lan streams. I dont care tbh, it would be really costly to drug test players, good drug testing is very costly, prolly more than the prizes the best players receive. Also drugs are a fine line from helping to making you play worse, so it could be named a skill in itself, also depends on your characteristics what make you play better or worse.
At some point I took preworkout (hyper-fx in that case) that boosted my performance by tons. Reaction time, concentration, confidence in ur game, tracking abilities, etc. Played few games right before the gym, but my point is that even that can boost by far your performance and I can only imagine what drugs can do. If I played in tournaments, I would defo take it = I am sure the top players do it to some extend. Good example above for cypher uber different gameplay... from just good to God like.
No, you can't. Caffeine alone will make you shaky. Been there, done that. You can't compare good quality preworkout with caffeine alone or energy kids drinks. There are literally more than a few stimulants alone in the boosters. Stimulants a lot stronger than caffeine + strength and durability enhancers. I can explain you in details, but better check out by yourself(just search for the label and check the individual components in google. Cheers! :)
I guess everybody feels it differently. I personally tried like 5-6 preworkout mixes when i was involved in relatively heavy weights. Did not feel anything other than a bit better pumping. On the contrary - coffee always did wonders (never bought preworkouts with caffein though). The only scenario coffee makes me shaky is when I heavily overdose it.
Cypher and drugs, i would rather guess he stopped smoking weed and got serious with his performance in front of and during lan. Not the other way around.
Drugs are most likely a big thing also in esports, but top 5 quake players? Meh i dont buy it.
Weed and quake? Hah now when has weed ever done anything else then make you relax and slow? Its the whole point with the drug.
I once took small dose of adhd medicine that made me energetic and increased focus, but that shit like all other drugs will so easily mess you up badly. So easily addictive psycologically, and when you start doing it regularily, you cant really stop it , ever.
weed just like alcohol has a sweet spot. overdo it and you become useless :p
that said, alcohol doesnt work for me. and weed has various types each with varying effects from making you calm and sleepy to making you more energetic and also more anxious. plus weed works differently for different people.
dont know how addictive adhd medication is for regular folks other than -like you mentioned- mental aspect (that goes for any type of drug)
i have ad(h)d myself and ritalin just makes me more focused and keeps me awake. it also completely gets rid of my tendency to get a rush aka addictive behavior, so the opposite effect of what normal people experience i believe.
inb4 'yay free drugs' or 'people with adhd will always have an advantage with the legal drugs', but i wish i didnt have to use it to feel motivated/awake/more focused.
I won't be surprised if they eventually implement drug testing in e-sports. I also won't be surprised if people move on to things that don't show up in common screenings i.e. research chemicals.
I definitely think that Adderall has been used in tournaments as it helps you focus. As for weed - I don't see anyone using it in a tournament environment unless they were addicts. The idea that Cypher used weed while playing in the dh final is laughable
In the QCON 2013 finals it was clearly seen on stream as evil was setting up he took some pill. I always assumed it was PED. I also found it strange that nobody picked up on it. I was wondering if he took it with him on the plane or Voo set him up in the US. If anyone has a link to the recording of that final that includes pre-match setup I can try and find the exact timestamp (or you could do it yourself, it was pretty overt).
In a number interviews Cooller was enumerating things that are necessary for winning and said something to the effect of "it's mostly psychology, the rest is medical/medicinal". The statements were always possible to interpret as referring to eating well, if you wanted to, but I found the choice of words curious. Given that he takes or has taken steroids, I don't find it hard to believe he was (perhaps unwittingly) referring to PEDs for Quake as well. I don't have a link handy, I think I heard this at least twice in different interviews done with him around the time he "retired".
I'm surprised this apparently went unnoticed at the time and wasn't mentioned in this thread either. I don't care if they take the PEDs, but it would be interesting to know in more certain terms that they work and are part of the pro scene as well as which substance does what exactly.
Lol that's a serious bomb if true. Anyway it wouldn't really surprise me, in every sport doping rules, from the amatorial levels already.
It's just that people associate doping more easiliy with physical activity rather than mental ones.
Let's just say that most of the athletes have a mentality of winning at all costs. Even if you don't have it, you must adapt or quit.
Once i read on reddit about a study that asked anonimously some top athletes if they would take a drug that would kill them after a while if that made them win the olympics. The majority answered yes. Asking the same question to athletes outside the top roaster didn't produce a similar result, confirming the old motto that it's the bigger turds that floats higher :)
A top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player has admitted that everyone in his former team, Cloud 9, were taking the psychostimulant Adderall during a professional tournament. In a video interview, Kory "Semphis" Friesen said: "The ESL (Electronic Sports League) comms were kinda funny in my opinion -- I don't even care, we were all on Adderall."
"It was a significantly different experience playing in a tournament while on the drug," he says. "On Adderall I would never freak out. Stress had no effect. Adrenaline can be useful in eSports, but the benefits of Adderall far outweighed them."
I've talked with Rapha and he said something like "If there were drug tests in lans I would have a lot more wins" or something to that extent, in a joking manner (we were talking about Rapha doing drugs).
But yeah, I thought it was kinda general knowledge that t least some pros used drugs before LANS.