Meet the UCLA team competing for their share of $11,000 in the Genshin Impact University Carnival.
UCLA students, Arrowlyte, Xninja and Tomatohead, decided to compete as a trio in the Genshin Impact University Carnival after meeting in their school's Genshin Impact Discord server.
“We're just going in with the same mentality to just have fun.”
UCLA in the Top 8
As far as preparation for the qualifiers went, the UCLA team practiced the route and the terrain they would have to run across during the qualifiers.
When practicing the route, as well as practicing the domains, they experimented with different team compositions, looking to optimize their squad for speed. On picking their team compositions, Arrowlyte said, “We went for a mechanically simple to execute team.”
For the sprint section, they opted to go for triple Yelan, a popular team composition across the competition. This practice earned the University of California, Los Angeles team a 24:09.56 finish, beating another top 8 qualifier, University of California, Irvine, by 22 seconds.
Additionally, the team finished five minutes faster than the other team from the same school.
New format for the Genshin Impact University Carnival
For the live LAN finals of the Genshin Impact University Carnival, teams will have to complete a new set of objectives and run a different path from the qualifiers.
Additionally, this next set of rules introduces character banning, something that teams did not experience in the qualifying rounds. This means that for preparation, teams must go back to the drawing board for their character and team compositions and make sure they prepare a variety of character compositions.
On the other hand, it means that each team is on somewhat equal footing. When asked which school they felt was their biggest opponent going into the live LAN finals, Arrowlyte said, “Every team is equally an opponent with a new course to do.”
With the new rulebook for the finals now released, the UCLA team is hard at work practicing the routes and choosing their team compositions. The UCLA team is not phased by any extra pressure the live LAN finals might present. Arrowlyte said, “We're just going in with the same mentality to just have fun.”
The team looks forward to meeting fellow Genshin Impact players from the other schools and just enjoying their time in Seattle.
How to Watch UCLA’s run in the Genshin Impact University Carnival
The University of California, Los Angeles 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.