Are you a professional Counter-Strike or Heroes of the Storm player who likes to, as the kids say, indulge in the reefer? You’ll have to hold off during professional ESL tournaments, according to new rules posted last night by a representative for the eSport organization.
In a post on Reddit yesterday, ESL’s PR boss Anna Rozwandowicz explained that this new drug policy will follow the basic rules laid out by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The policy will prohibit marijuana during tournaments hosted by the ESL, which works with all sorts of big games including StarCraft II and Halo. It’ll still be fine for pro players to light up bowls during their free time—they just can’t do it during tournament days.
This new policy comes in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents revolving around eSports and drug use. Last month, a professional Counter-Strike player alleged that he and many other players had been using the ADHD drug Adderall, which is also included in this new drug policy. In cases where a player actually has a prescription for something like Adderall, the ESL will request doctors’ notes as proof.
You’d might think smoking pot would dull one’s senses and slow down reaction time, making a player worse at video games that require intense concentration and snappy reflexes, but hey.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.