Ellen DeGeneres and mobile game studio Seriously are partnering for a new charity initiative around the game Best Fiends, the studio announced Friday.
With the help of 20 of the world’s biggest YouTube stars and social media influencers, including PewDiePie, Markiplier, Hayes Grier and Rebecca Black, seven teams will compete in a race within the game.
Through the competition up to a quarter of a million dollars will be donated to charity from “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and Best Fiends’ “Race Against Slime 2.”
Teams will be playing to benefit charities including: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Hope for Holt, Malaria No More, Oceana, SpecialEffect and War Child.
With a combined following of over 100 million YouTube subscribers, each of the YouTubers and social media influencers will release a kickoff video on their own channels announcing their participation in the race, which charity they will play for, and encourage their fans to play Best Fiends to help support their cause.
Players of Best Fiends can help their favorite team win by selecting which team and charity they would like to play for by donating their defeated Slugs in the limited edition Holiday levels of the game. If 100,000,000 Slugs are collectively defeated during the competition by all teams and players, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” has pledged to match Seriously’s donation to reach a total of $250,000.
The competition will kickoff on Dec. 19 and end on Dec. 23, 2015. The winning team will be announced on Twitter by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Dec. 24, 2015.
This year’s “Race Against Slime 2” competition follows last year’s race in which Seriously donated a total of $50,000 to charities. Malaria No More has been Seriously’s charity partner since the launch of Best Fiends in Oct. 2014 and the partnership has helped support thousands of children in Africa being treated for the disease since then.
Best Fiends was released in has been downloaded nearly 25 million times with up to 1.7 million daily active players since its release.
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