Genshin Impact University Carnival: University of Nevada, Reno

Genshin Impact players, Ivan “Omni” and Max “Maxwellis” originally met in elementary school. Around age 11, Ivan met Chris “ChrisP” at soccer practice and introduced Chris to Max not long after. The trio have been friends ever since and Genshin Impact is a game that they often play together.

The three have been playing Genshin Impact since the first day it was released, back in September 2020, with some breaks throughout the years. 

When Genshin Impact announced the Genshin Impact University Carnival, the trio knew they had to compete. 

ChrisP sees their longstanding friendship as potentially a key to their success: “We work together well. After spending so much time together over the years and since each of us have a love for competition and Genshin, I think it’s given us the edge we need.”

As far as practice went, the Nevada team planned out routes and teams for each section individually before practicing the entire run as a team. 

They practiced a couple of hours each day, doing the entirety of the run as a team to solidify their strategy and develop their chemistry together.

“We each have our own reason for loving the game, so when we all put our unique perspectives together, we each can make up for what we lack,” ChrisP said.

For the sprint portion, the team opted to run triple Kazuha, which was a popular choice amongst many teams.

ChrisP explained their choice during the live interview after the qualifiers, “We noticed before the routes even changed, there’s a lot of elevation-type terrain, so we figured we could just get up as fast as possible – we could just beeline it to where we needed to go, just cutting any turns out.” 

He explained that they tried a Kazuha and two Ventis before they finally settled on triple Kazuha.

Due to competing on the first day of qualifiers, the University of Nevada, Reno team did not have the opportunity to study any other teams’ strategies, like many of the second day participants could.

This makes their 1st-place finish in the first day of qualifiers that much more impressive. 

The team’s preparation for the event landed them a 21:47.92 finish, just 29 seconds faster than the University of Washington.

Additionally, teams that competed on the first day of qualifiers had to wait until the second day of qualifiers concluded to find out if they made the top eight.

On making top eight, ChrisP said, “We felt ecstatic after making top 8. Frankly, we only joined this tournament for fun and to have the experience, but qualifying made us realize we could compete just as much as anyone else.”

Going into the live LAN finals, the team looks towards improvement: “Considering our placement, we feel we did very well, but we know we can do even better.” 

Studying other teams will be a big component of their preparation for the live LAN event, ChrisP shared, “Looking into what other teams did too helped us broaden our perspectives on what options we can take when preparing beforehand.”

The Nevada, Reno team plans to equally study teams that were faster and teams that were slower, to see what they did differently – especially after being unable to study different teams before the qualifiers.

With the rulebook for the finals dropping soon, teams look to start preparation before the weekend begins. 

When asked to identify which team is their biggest opponent, ChrisP stated, “Rutgers University is probably going to be our biggest challenge.” 

Rutgers University, which placed 1st in the qualifiers with a time of 20:00.92, beat the University of Nevada, Reno team by one minute and 45 seconds. The Rutgers team also had a full extra day to prepare and study teams from the first day of qualifiers.

With equal time to prepare for the live finals and a new set of objectives, it will be interesting to see which schools come out on top. Due to their lack of experience at live LAN events, the University of Nevada, Reno team is feeling the pressure going into the finals.

ChrisP shared, “Only one of us has ever been in a LAN on-stage environment, so the pressure will definitely be there for us, but it will still be a fun experience.” Despite the pressure, the team looks forward to traveling to Seattle and meeting all the others teams that have qualified.

The University of Nevada, Reno will be competing in the live finals on Saturday, October 29th starting at 1pm PT. The event will be streamed live on the eFuse Twitch channel.