If only real sports like Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL) acted as quickly and swiftly as eSports company ESL did. Just nine days after former Cloud9 pro gamer Kory “Semphis” Friesen said in an on-camera interview that his entire team was using Adderall at ESL One Katowice 2015, ESL has doubled down on its ban of illegal performance-enhancing drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall.

The company has partnered with NADA (NationaleAnti DopingAgentur, located in Bonn, Germany) to help research and determine an anti-PEDs policy that is fair, feasible and respects the privacy of the players, while simultaneously providing conclusive testing results. Additionally, ESL will meet with WADA (World Anti Doping Agency, with headquarters located in Montreal, Canada) to actively involve them in the making, enforcing and further internationalizing of this policy to regions such as United States, Asia and Australia.

ESL will use the expertise of NADA and WADA to create a PEDs prevention program, which will be distributed to all players participating in eSports competitions organized, hosted or produced by ESL. The goal of this program is to ensure players are provided with information and structural support to help them manage the physical and emotional pressure that the highest level of competitive gaming puts on many of them.

The company is also instituting randomized PEDs skin tests at the ESL One Cologne event this August. In addition, it will perform those tests at every event in the Intel Extreme Masters, ESL One and ESL ESEA Pro League competitions as soon as the policy is established and the tournament rules are updated. Trevor Schmidt, senior manager at ESL America, explains why there’s no place for cheating in eSports in this exclusive interview.

How big a problem do you think Adderall or PEDs really are in eSports today?

There’s has never been testing before in the eSports industry and there is no significant case of a player admitting to or being caught under the influence of PEDs. So without data it’s impossible to say how specifically challenging PED use is in eSports. While the issue has the potential of being widespread, even one player under the influence hurts the integrity of the league. The recent incident has brought the realization to our entire industry that we need to take this seriously before it reaches levels that damage the entire sport.

What impact do you feel the increased amount of winnings in tournaments has had on pressure to perform?

We see this as a critical issue. Ten years ago, this was a hobby for players played in high school gyms or garages. Today almost all of the player base sees this as a full time job. ESL recently held an event in a World Cup football stadium for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes. To many players this is more than a full time job, it’s their passion.

Doping has been part of real sports like Tour de France and Major League Baseball  for a long time. How important is it to send a message to pro gamers about drug use being illegal?

ESL believes setting a tone now is critical. The longer we allow the issue to stay behind the scenes the more it becomes a requirement to be a pro gamer, and we don’t want that. One of the keys to eSports is the accessibility of the sport. Allowing PEDs to have any part in that ecosystem hurts the long term development of the sport.

ESL is one of many companies involved in eSports. Are there any plans to have a unified drug enforcement policy across all games and companies involved?

Up until today, there has been no talk of testing for PEDs. ESL is really taking the first step and we hope that the entire industry is willing to join us in improving the integrity of all eSports events.

Do you feel anyone caught using drugs should be given a second or even third chance before potentially banning them?

ESL is still considering our punishment. We understand there needs to be a very thoughtful approach to policy. With in-gaming cheating, such as wall hacks that let you see through walls, we have a very detailed and strong policy. We have spent years developing these punishments for players caught with hacks. We expect to do the same with PEDs and determine the best ways to punish players.

With the ability for pro gamers to play across different leagues, how much weight is a ban in ESL if they can go and play in MLG or someplace else? 

ESL has conducted 18 major events in our ESL One and Intel Extreme Master’s events plus additional leagues during 2014-2015. All those featuring large scale prizes. If we were to ban a player from ESL events, it would be a serious punishment and make a career in eSports very challenging.

Another issue real sports face is gambling and Fantasy Sports — which are now part of eSports. Does the rise of this new business and the temptation it opens up warrant additional changes for ESL to be proactive?

ESL works with its partners such as Microsoft, Blizzard, Valve and Riot to address issues that hurt eSports — gambling is one of them. ESL needs to take a leadership role with its partners to not support and even regulate companies that hurt the integrity of eSports.