A first-of-its-kind Genshin Impact esports tournament in the UK has been announced.
The Genshin Impact University Invitational UK will feature an £11,000 prize pool, with ten university teams taking part. Each team will challenge each other in a series of game contests in action RPG Genshin Impact to compete for the championship.
It’s part of a partnership between UK university esports body National Student Esports (NSE) and Genshin Impact developer HoYoverse, which will provide playing opportunities in the UK university community.
Throughout 2022, NSE will run challenges and activities, and give university societies the ability to run their own Genshin Impact events with support from both NSE and HoYoverse.
This particular invitational event is being organised by marketing agency GLTCH Group.
The event is London-based, with several universities and other venues hosting qualifiers, and Shoreditch’s Platform bar hosting the live final on Saturday May 28th 2022, with spectators encouraged to come and support their teams.
There will be 10 gaming PCs arranged, so that three teams can play a match at one time.
Teams taking part include the following:
- Brunel University London
- Imperial College London
- King’s College London
- University College London
- University of Surrey
- Queen Mary University of London
- London South Bank University
- University of Roehampton London
- University of Warwick
- Wildcard Gaming
Alex Coulson, managing director at NSE, said: “We’re excited to be running Genshin Impact activity this year as it means we get to give more to our existing community and also to students outside of the core esports community. Gaming and esports has so many benefits to students from technical skills, social skills, to general entertainment so we’re looking forward to seeing the students getting stuck in.”
Speaking of NSE and the University of Warwick, they were recently named the UK’s Esports University of the Year for the fourth year in a row in the 2021/22 NSE standings.
Ginx TV will also be responsibly for production/broadcasting responsibilities, and a host of talent are also on board to help bring the tournament to life.
Talent includes content creators MapleTV, AsianGuyStream and Djarii.
The qualifier info is as follows:
| Division | Qualifier Date | Qualifier Location |
| University College London | 1pm, 19th May | SideQuest, Charing Cross |
| Imperial College London | 1pm, 19th May | SideQuest, Charing Cross |
| King’s College London | 1pm, 19th May | SideQuest, Charing Cross |
| University of Surrey | 6pm, 17th May | The Basement, USSU |
| University of Roehampton London | 3pm, 17th May | Roehampton Esports Arena |
| Brunel University London | 5pm, 16th May | Brunel Lecture Centre |
| London South Bank University | 1pm, 18th May | Platform, Shoreditch |
| Queen Mary University of London | 3pm, 18th May | Platform, Shoreditch |
You can see more in the video above, and other info such as rules and prize breakdown on the Genshin Impact University Invitational UK section on the game’s website.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
