Does GFUEL Actually Boost Gaming Performance? [Placebo-Controlled Experiment]

Channel:

Sovern Gaming

Subscribers:

70,500

Published on June 5, 2020 5:03:42 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKm2r0uj27U

Game:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Duration: 44:07

33,043 views

1,377

GFUEL is by far the most popular “gamer energy” supplement, sponsoring some of the biggest names in the online gaming content creation space. But has anyone stopped to actually test if what they are claiming - that the ingredients in GFUEL will give gamers some sort of edge against the competition - is true? So far, no one has done a proper scientific test. Of course, caffeine has been proven to boost things like reaction time, but who’s to say that a faster reaction speed will translate into noticeably better stats, or that the negative side effects of caffeine, like the jitters, will completely cancel out any benefits caffeine provides? There’s only one way to find out – SCIENCE!
Full discloser – I am NOT sponsored by any company at all. I am not an expert at anything and probably made some mistake somewhere in this video. Do not blindly trust what I say. That being said, I tried my best to get the best information. Also, my mic audio was acting up a bit in the video, and I’m not sure why. I guess just try to ignore this or get mildly annoyed but don’t leave a comment about it.
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The data sheet (Outlook): https://preview.tinyurl.com/y7t37b34
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Timestamps:
0:00 – Why I tested GFUEL
1:04 – Annotation explanation
1:30 – Notable ingredients intro
1:57 – Caffeine
2:45 – Other notable ingredients
5:47 – Benefits of GFUEL
6:34 – Downsides of GFUEL
8:13 – Experimental design
9:48 – Our gaming regimen
13:51 – Drinks and setup
16:17 – Schedule
21:05 – Data intro/explanation
22:17 – My brother’s data
25:07 – Guessing game/drink reveal
27:09 – My data
29:30 – Drink reveal
31:05 – Guessing analysis
33:04 – % helpfulness analysis
38:04 – % helpfulness key takeaways
40:00 – Analysis conclusions
40:55 – Experiment conclusions
41:31 – Monster Energy
42:11 – Final thoughts
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Sources: https://preview.tinyurl.com/y869p96y
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Annotations (also viewable in a Google Doc here: https://preview.tinyurl.com/ycovpeg6):
1;22 - This video is long enough, so having these annotations makes things considerably shorter. However, it is a bit inconvenient to look through the description for the annotation during the video – it sort of takes you out of watching. Also, the annotations are longer than the character limit for the description, so I had to put the ones that don’t fit at the end of the pinned comment.
I know this is inconvenient, but I really didn’t want this video to be 19 mins minutes longer, which is how long it would take me to say all this info. Again, none of this is 100% necessary for understanding the video, but if I was watching, I would like to know this extra info myself while also recognizing many people simply do not care.
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1;39 - And it is good to go over the ingredients because knowing the supposed effects of them will help you understand why I designed my experiment the way I did. I could obviously not test each of the supposed effects, but at least testing a couple was feasible. If you are concerned about the amount of lead in GFUEL, here is a video to dispel your worries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_loFPoaYRw
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2;02 - It is not recommended that children under 6 years old consume this much caffeine. It just isn’t good for young kids, but no hard limit has been set as being safe. My advice to you if you are under 16 is to not get into coffee or energy drinks. I avoided them, and it has saved me hundreds of dollars. Caffeine is only truly necessary to feel awake for people who have already become dependent on it, so don’t ever start relying on it, and you will feel just fine.
Also, the importance value I assign to the ingredients is how important the ingredient actually is, not how important it is if all the supposed effects are to be believed or how important it is to the marketing. And whenever the amount of the ingredient in GFUEL is less than the efficacious dose, there might still be some sort of effect created, but it will be weaker than experimentally determined effects.
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3;18 - L-Theanine is the scientifically proven chemical that does balance out the jitters from caffeine, so I don’t know why GFUEL doesn’t use that instead. Taurine also helps a bit with athletes, slightly increasing endurance and slowing muscle fatigue. In my opinion, taurine is basically filler and only added to GFUEL because other companies do it too.
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5;03 - There is actually over 7000% of your recommended daily intake of B12 in a serving of GFUEL, though the more recent flavors changed this. This has no harmful effects – it’s just a complete waste. Supposedly it helps memory and some other things, but if you get enough of the vitamin to not be deficient, getting more of it literally does nothing. Same with vitamin C at over 400% the necessary daily amount. There is a popular myth that a lot of vitamin C bolsters the immune system, but all the extra amount just gets peed out.
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*The rest of the annotations do not fit within the character limit, so they will continue down in the pinned comment.*

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