One type of product I took particular interest in is the energy drink powder since I’m a fiend when it comes to stimulants. Being a lethargic and overweight dweeb who needs caffeine and nootropics to stay awake and be slightly productive means that products like G Fuel and Gamer Supps would certainly pique my interest. But soon enough, I realized that I can’t keep imbibing this stuff for the sake of both my health and my wallet.
If you’ve been tuning in online in recent years, you would’ve heard about all the different products that content creators and streamers have been hawking like wireless earbuds, VPNs, mobile games, male grooming kits, balding prevention services, meal kits, online courses, mental health platforms, and so on. Almost every one of them have experienced their own problems over the years, but that’s common for businesses that are exposed in the public eye.
But there’s something different about these gaming energy drink brands. For one thing, they’re marketed entirely to their target market right off the bat with their sponsorships. Their products were created specifically for that particular audience, so you can say they’re getting their money’s worth with those sponsorships, and they would take it further by immortalizing their sponsorships with custom flavors. But now, we’re starting to see where they’re going wrong.
It must be noted that physical exercise and healthy diet are still the best possible solution to upping one’s energy levels, but there’s always room for a shortcut while one’s vital organs are still relatively functional. If you’re such an idiot and would like to compromise your health for extra hours of wakefulness with every dose, then read on because you need a wake-up call right away.
Why I Tried These Gaming Energy Drinks
First off, I have to explain why I have vested interest in stuff like energy drinks and other stimulants (that are legal, I swear). You know Rykard in Elden Ring? He wakes up from a nap after you defeat the God-Devouring Serpent and goes “Hmm… Very well…” upon seeing you.
That’s me every morning upon willing myself out of bed after half-an-hour of wrestling with Morpheus, the god of sleep.
As I get older, the less chipper I am upon waking up. I used to be proud of being the morning person during sleepovers, being able to wake up with a pep in my step without any need for coffee. That was because I was relatively fit compared to my friends and tend to be a deep sleeper, which maximizes the amount of rest I get every night.
But nowadays, I’m a diesel engine that takes a while to warm up. I’d have something first thing in the morning to get my system going, but the fact that I need to consume that thing in order to start feeling alive means that I’m getting old and no longer have that youth buff I used to have. Perhaps that will change if I get more physically fit, but it’s still concerning.
And throughout the day, I can have my morning workout and keep me awake until the afternoon, then have either another workout or two cups of coffee to keep pushing. The worst thing I’ve done is depend on Cobra or Sting to stay awake, which is not a good long-term solution.
I was in search of something that can serve as a pick-me-up that won’t be as bad for my body as bottles of sugar-laden rocket fuel. Again, the real answer is exercise, but I wanted yet another shortcut. Therefore, that’s when those ads and sponsor spots for gaming energy drink powders started swaying me.
Likely Origin of Gaming Energy Drink Powders
The fact that there aren’t more energy drinks in powder form is quite surprising, but also fairly understandable since you don’t want kids mixing Extra Joss with other wicked stuff. Then again, partygoers drink Red Bull with vodka shots, which I can’t comprehend as a man who once vomited out of a taxi due to having drank beer and Cobra the previous night.
On the other hand, there’s another kind of energy drink commonly found in powder form that is purportedly healthier with its intended application — the pre-workout, a mix of caffeine and amino acids meant to jumpstart your body before a hard workout in the gym.
Someone must have had their fifth CrossFit workout of the day and got a brain fart while imbibing a pre-workout drink in a state of high caffeine and endorphin-induced delirium. What if they make a watered-down pre-workout and sell it to sweaty gamers who sit all day?
Don’t quote me on this as I’m not sure if that’s the true origin of the gaming energy drink powder, but I can say that it’s what I surmised upon learning about the existence of these products.
Since they’re gamers who burn a maximum of 100 calories for the entire session, they don’t have to add that much caffeine, taurine, or other stuff into their product anyway.
G Fuel Energy Formula
The most popular among them is the brand that made flavors after big names like PewDiePie and xQc. G Fuel has become a household name as a gaming energy drink thanks to their incessant marketing online. Like Raid: Shadow Legends or Raycon earbuds, the competitive landscape for G Fuel is populated by many other brands.
G Fuel is owned by Gamma Labs, which is based in West Babylon, New York. They’ve been around since 2004, but they only hit it big in the 2010s with G Fuel. It’s like they used the marketing momentum of Mountain Dew Game Fuel and flung themselves into orbit with it.
It’s basically a juice powder with caffeine and taurine, along with some aminos like L-citrulline malate (I’ve had this before) and L-tyrosine. While it purports to not result in a sugar crash, it’s main sweetener is maltodextrin, which is a polysaccharide. That means drinking G Fuel can still spike your blood sugar.
Aside from the various dangers you’d expect from drinking too much energy drink, you may also exacerbate pre-diabetic and metabolic issues when you drink G Fuel since maltodextrin has a higher glycemic index than table sugar. If you’re a fat slob who is looking to lose weight, this is certainly not something you should go for.
G Fuel is a Terrible Company with a Horrible Boss
Also, it turns out G fuel is one of those companies with asshole executives whose heads got too big for their shoulders upon the success of their company.
The gist of this situation is that a derogatory slur was used in one of their meetings and their employees, namely their partner managers who talk to their brand ambassadors, took offense to that and spoke up about it. The higher ups responded by firing them, which turned an internal mess into a PR crisis for the company.
Unfortunately, this is fairly common with companies these days. We have other companies as big as Activision Blizzard or as small as Artesian Builds that had executives who tanked their reputations with their boneheaded words and actions.
This does less for their product and more for its brand reputation, but it’s still something worth keeping in mind when you’re thinking about giving them your money. Also, there’s the matter of a legal settlement in 2018 by Gamma Enterprises for the lead content in G Fuel.
Gamer Supps GG Energy
Their main rival is Gamer Supps, which I first heard about from TheRussianBadger, who became such a great endorser of the brand that he got his own flavor with them with the absolutely ridiculous name of “Guacamole Gamer Fart 9000.”
Unlike G Fuel, it’s zero sugar, so it can claim to be keto-friendly. Also, it claims to not give you the jitters as it does the one thing that most other energy drinks don’t, which is having L-theanine alongside caffeine. For those who may not be aware, L-theanine is an adaptogen (a type of nootropic) that both potentiates and mellows out caffeine, so it intensifies the effects of caffeine while also lessening the jitters. I know this because I’ve been studying and trying stimulants and nootropics for years.
But no, I don’t have a stack, bro. I don’t like turning my money into pee.
EDIT(1OCT2022@2:30AM): I got a stack now, bro. It’s mostly nootropics with fish oil, agmatine, and Vitamins B12, D3, and K2. It’s indeed costly, but I’m not getting any younger.
On the other hand, I don’t think it contains enough caffeine, L-theanine, and other nootropics it claims to have in order to be truly effective. According to the nutrition label of the can of Gamer Supps GG Energy I bought, it has 159 mg of those active ingredients per small scoop, but it doesn’t indicate how much of each it has.
It’s easy to assume that most of that 159 mg is caffeine, maybe a bit of it is the L-theanine, and there are trace amounts of the rest. You’ll likely use two scoops anyway, so that’s almost 320 mg of fruit-flavored insomnia, or at least it should be. If there really is enough L-theanine and nootropics in it, then it’s theoretically better than their sugar bomb rival.
Personally, I didn’t feel much out of drinking it, but perhaps I needed to put in two scoops instead of just one with each serving since I’m 190 lbs. Also, it’s a tiny scoop, unlike G Fuel’s two-tiered scoop that you can open and close to choose what kind of scoopage you need.
I tried looking up who owns Gamer Supps and just about every search results states that Jschlatt now owns the brand, having bought it in 2022. Gamer Supps have been accused of not paying collaborators in the past, so it does have shady dealings, to say the least.
EDIT(10DEC2022@7:00AM): I only discovered the YouTube channel More Plates More Dates recently, and it turns out he previously tackled gamer energy drinks. He goes deeper into the ingredient amounts, what they’re supposed to do, and how much more bullshit these drinks have over actual effectiveness.
Conclusion
There are other brands like Glytch, Rogue Energy, and Sneak Energy. In particular, Rogue Energy sounded like the bodybuilding equipment company named Rogue, but it’s actually owned by a company named Overpowered Labs. I don’t know enough about these brands to comment on them, but it doesn’t seem like they have anything unique to them other than different labels.
If you need a liquid other than coffee or tea to keep your system going, then you already have a problem. I can understand wanting to try out something other than Monster or Red Bull to keep gaming into the wee hours every now and then, but these energy drinks shouldn’t be seen as lifestyle brands, which is exactly how they’re trying to market themselves.
Do remember that if you’re not exercising in the first place, then no amount of go juice will really solve your problems in the long run. That’s the real lifestyle choice you should go for, not which flavor of G Fuel or Gamer Supps best fits your taste. As people nowadays would say, go outside and touch grass, and maybe do a few pushups and jog a few miles while you’re at it.
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