OG shocked the entire Dota 2 community after it won The International 2019. The victory allowed them to become the first team to ever win back-to-back TI championships. Interestingly, there is a claim suggesting that the boys used Adderall during the prestigious tournament.
In a recent stream, ARS-ART (also known as RukHub.Smile) talked about the possibility of drug use at the recently concluded event. More importantly, he claimed that OG themselves used drugs at TI9, which took place in Shanghai, China.
A transcript of the stream says that ARS-ART has evidences suggesting that OG used performance-enhancing drugs. What is more interesting is that this drug was introduced by none other than Mia Stellberg, the sports psychologist of OG whom they picked up from Astralis.
The claim, as expected, gave birth to a huge community uproar. Even v1lat, a Ukrainian caster, took to Twitter to downplay the claim. He also talked about it on his recent podcast.
oh come on, he was just discussing the possibility with a friend on a stream. Out of context and bad translation. Forget bout it, usual in-stream talks about "how the fuck is that possible", nothing serious
— Vitalii Volochai #StandWithUkraine (@v1lat) August 27, 2019
It does not matter whether the claim has merit or not. What is important is that these allegations, regardless of the impact they bring, should be brought to Valve rather than throwing them around for the public to consume. Not to suggest it is impossible, but it is difficult to assess simply because it came from a discussion “with a friend on a stream.”
Still, the concept of drug testing in esports should not be taken for granted and must be approached with a certain measure. Even more so, it must be included in future discussions, especially since esports is starting to become more significant nowadays.
A good example is from ESL, which decided to set their policies about the issue back in 2015. FIFA esports, on the other hand, introduced drug testing last year. Valve, however, has yet to have an official process or policy on the matter. And it should actually be an essential topic to deal with, especially since Dota 2 continues to be more professionalized over time.
Pretty much like Valve, OG – and even Stellberg – did not release any comment or statement pertaining to the allegations made by ARS-ART.
