Former Dallas Empire player and current Los Angeles Thieves substitute Huke shed light on his turbulent Call of Duty League season today.

In a 32-minute YouTube video, Huke discussed his Adderall usage during the 2020 CDL season, in which his Dallas team won the biggest event of the year, CoD Champs. “We won Champs and I didn’t feel good,” he said. 

“It can be a pressure thing, at least for me personally,” Huke said of Adderall usage within the Call of Duty community. “You feel that pressure from the outside.”

Huke said he made it a point to cut out Adderall heading into the Black Ops Cold War season. He started eating healthier, focusing more on his mental health, and was hopeful to return to form without the use of the drug. 

After a strong start to the 2021 season, Dallas lost back-to-back matches in the Stage Two Major against the Atlanta FaZe and Toronto Ultra. It was then that Huke said he started hearing that his team was planning on making a change. Huke’s brother was the one who informed him that he could be replaced within the Empire’s starting lineup.

Huke said he started to do everything that his teammates and coach asked of him, including taking notes on the team’s game plan and watching more gameplay than ever before. Dallas beat Paris Legion 3-1 in Stage Three’s opening weekend and Huke felt things were turning a corner. But later that evening, he was informed that he was heading to the bench. 

“I get a call from Ray (Empire head coach) and Hastr0 (founder and chief gaming officer at Envy),” Huke said. “Not a single word from my teammates, not a single word about what I’m doing wrong. Just benched.”

After Huke was acquired by Los Angeles, he said he was informed that there were rumors going on surrounding him within the competitive Call of Duty scene. “One of your old teammates and even your new teammates bought into the story that you are on psychedelics and need help,” Huke said he was told by a good friend in the community.

Huke says he’s doing fine and no longer takes Adderall, but he wanted to “shed light” on some of the mental health stigmas within the professional Call of Duty space.

Adderall is a prescription medication that’s intended to be used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and help people pay attention or focus better. It is a Schedule II controlled substance in the U.S., which means it has a high potential for abuse.

Last year, The Washington Post wrote about the use of Adderall in esports. In the report, former Call of Duty world champion KiLLa said “nobody talks about it because everyone is on it.”

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