A Celebrity Street Fighter Tournament Is Coming To TV

The cable station TBS will be hosting a special celebrity Street Fighter tournament, featuring four celebrities from sports and the music entertainment industry. The one-off event is part of TBS' growing focus on the whole eSports growth in the entertainment market.

According to Game Informer four celebrities will participate in the event, including Eva Marie from the WWE, basketball legend Shaquille O'neal, musician Lupe Fiasco, and NFL running back Reggie Bush.

The four superstars will face off against each other in Capcom's Street Fighter V in an attempt to broaden the appeal of the game, and open up eSports to wider audience.

TBS has plans on airing the competition in Street Fighter V on April 28th next week. There's a brief clip of what to expect from Bleacher Report's eSports division that you can check out below.

One thing some fans noticed is that Eva Marie has been posting images of herself next to the Street Fighter logo, featuring makeup and a hairstyle like Laura Matsuda. Some fans went into a frenzy at how similar she actually looked to the curvy Brazilian Jiujitsu master.

However, Eva's attempt to win over the community with her stylish looks mirroring a popular Street Fighter V character will be put to the test given that out of them all, Lupe Fiasco has been putting in a lot of work and a lot of time into the fighting game.

For those of you who don't remember, Lupe challenged Daigo "The Beast" Umehara to an exhibition match in Street Fighter V back in early February 2016, and he beat him. While many believe that the fight was possibly staged, Lupe honored Daigo with a one of kind jacket signed by Hideo Kojima that he wore to the event. Both showed great respect for one another, and regardless of whether or not the exhibition was staged, many had to recognize that Lupe showed some admirable technique and skill in his fight against "The Beast", who is one of the most revered, skilled and accomplished FGC players in the history of Street Fighter.

I suppose we'll see if Lupe holds back to give his opponents a chance, or if he'll go all out to win it. I'm extremely curious about how well Eva Marie will do, because she generates a lot of heat both from the crowd and with management within the WWE, so we'll see if she puts in the time and effort with Street Fighter V to surprise everyone and pick up a win.

No matter who wins, the majority of the $45,000 grand prize will go toward charity, while a smaller piece of the pot will also go to the chosen charities of the other competitors, even if they lose. So no matter what, the charity organizations will win either way, which is a good way to go about the tournament.

The tournament will take place just three days after Street Fighter V receives its newest DLC expansion pack on April 25th. Be sure to tune into TBS on April 28th to see the tournament in action.