The ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Celebrity Showdown will take place Friday ahead of the remaining stages of the ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Invitational.
Turner and IMG are bringing some star power to the current ELEAGUE tournament. Four celebrities will compete against one another in Friday’s ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Celebrity Showdown — raising money for charity while also getting eSports bragging rights.
Former NBA star and current Turner Sports personality Shaquille O’Neal, NFL champion Reggie Bush, wrestler Natalie Eva Marie and Grammy Award-winning rapper Lupe Fiasco are the four competitors in the one-hour special, which airs April 28 at 10 p.m. ET.
O’Neal is competing for the Odessa Chambliss Quality of Life Fund, Bush for the 619 Charitable Fund, Marie for the American Cancer Society and Lupe Fiasco for his own charitable foundation MURAL.
They’ll play a pair of first-round matches, followed by a final showdown between the two winners. The champion will get a majority of the unspecified prize pool but each of the four charities will get a contribution just for the celebrities’ participation.
The entire ELEAGUE broadcast team, led by host Richard Lewis, will be on hand to provide their commentary and analysis for the Street Fighter V Celebrity Showdown.
Here’s the teaser for the event:
The special is positioned to help drive attention toward the ongoing Street Fighter V Invitational, which is halfway through its regular season. There are playoff rounds still to come on May 5 and May 12 before the playoffs happen on May 26.
Watching celebrities compete in eSports ought to be an interesting hour of entertainment. Most interesting is that we can point out how far Shaq has come. He’s competing in an ELEAGUE event after this hilarious clip from TNT’s Inside The NBA:
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The ELEAGUE Street Fighter V Celebrity Showdown takes place Friday, April 28 at 10 p.m. ET on TBS.