Contouring E–Doping: A Menace to Sportsmanship in E – Sports

Abstract

With the increase in the popularity and a promising revenue model of eSports, issue of e-doping has emerged. eSport athletes desire to deliver an outstanding performance to get an advantage over other competitors with the help of ‘cheat software’. The paper aims to explore various forms of e-doping like disruption of live streams, attacking servers, et cetera and how these methods are a challenge to the spirit of fair play.

To curb this menace, different e-sport associations have adopted an anti-cheating software that is, Value Anti-Cheat (VAC), which monitors and tracks the movement of the player’s input devices, by which a player could manipulate his/her moves. In 2013, the establishment of the International eSports Federation (IeSF) became the first official association to regulate eSports, with support from World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Also, eSports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) came into being.

The public admission of Kory “Semphis” Friesen in 2015, of using Adderall during a tournament of Counter Strike, ESL (an eSport company) collaborated with WADA to develop the first anti e-doping policy. Unfortunately, the implementation of the same has not been effective, due to non-cooperation from different eSports companies. The author(s) shall be analysing the said policy and recommend a homogeneous model for sanctions.

Through this paper, the author(s) shall seek to develop a proper implementable structure of governance to tackle the menace of e-doping, thereby ensuring that the principles of fair competition does not diminished