Premier League football stars face off in a weeklong virtual tournament
With both traditional and esports adjusting their schedules due to COVID-19, England’s Premier League announced a new, hybrid tournament, the ePremiere League Invitational, in which football stars and celebrity fans will test their esports abilities in a five-day, 20-team, single-elimination tournament. The winner will take home the ePremier League Invitational champion title, and all proceeds will go to the #PlayersTogether fund, supporting the National Health Service.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold will face off with musician and lifelong Manchester United fan Tom Grennan, who will represent the Red Devils. The league’s “trickiest wingers” Raheem Sterling and Wilfried Zaha will go head-to-head, and Tottenham Hotspur’s midfielder Moussa Sissoko has been matched with Christian Atsu, playing for Hotspur’s old club, Newcastle United.
The tournament begins tomorrow, April 21st, at 12PM BST (7AM ET), and the opening rounds will feature four matches per day. All matches will be aired on nbcsports.com, and viewers can watch along through the Premier League website, app or social channels. Coverage will also be available through the Sky Sports YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as the Football Daily YouTube channel. (The full schedule can be found here.)
Last month, the Premier League announced that it would indefinitely postpone this year’s ePremier League Finals, in which UK-based gamers would represent their favorite Premier League clubs in the culmination of a four-month competition. With traditional sports on hold too, this ePremier League Invitational should keep both esports and traditional sports fans entertained from the safety of their own homes.
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