ESL Gaming To Start Testing Gamers For Performance Enhancing Drugs

Electronic Sports League (ESL), world's largest gaming organization, announced on Thursday that they would begin testing competing e-sports gamers for PEDs.

With prize purses and popularity of e-sports growing around the world, ESL felt that they needed to address the use of performance enhancing drugs like the ADHD drug Adderall. Adderall has been know to increase concentration and stamina if taken in the right doses and is currently banned by most professional and amateur sports organizations.

"We've known for some time that performance-enhancing drugs could be a challenge that we'd eventually need to face," James Lampkin, vice president of pro gaming for the league, told ESPN.com. "With the explosive growth of our events and industry, the stakes have gotten to a point where, just like traditional athletes, some have begun to look for that extra edge."

ESL has teamed with National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) in Germany and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to help with testing and enforcement. ESL will begin PED skin tests at ESL One Cologne in August, and roll out testing at every Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League event thereafter.

Bradford Hornsby is an editor, music writer, web producer, and pop culture blogger for CBS stations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Find him on Twitter at @bradfordhornsby.