August 28th, 2008
Are gamers doping during tournaments?
It’s not typical Toybox fare, but it made me wonder just what kind of “toys” people are keeping in their toyboxes these days.
A fascinating recent Gameplayer interview chronicles some tokin’ and smokin’ at the World Cyber Games in Germany, with the Tournament Director’s full knowledge:
“I’ve seen a number of players at national tournaments who came in “baked” (that’s stoned for the uninformed) purely so they could play better,” [Tournament Director Alex Walker] said. “In most cases they did, although obviously they couldn’t just pull out another joint midway through. In one WCG, a player I knew took amphetamines an hour before his match to boost his reflexes.”
In other words, Walker freely admits knowledge of participants taking illegal drugs to enhance their performance.
According to Slashdot, the interview comes in response to a previous article by the site in which they examined whether there was a need to bring drug testing into professional gaming events to ensure a level playing field.
Doping while fragging: ‘Just say no’ or ‘all’s fair in fragging and war’? Tell us in TalkBack. (image courtesy Gameplayer)
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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