Genshin Impact’s trading card game mini-game, Genius Invokation, is now a full-on tournament with a cash prize. The first Genius Invokation TCG Asia Invitational will take place starting from today, January 11, to January 21 and will be livestreamed.
The Genius Invokation TCG Asia Invitational sees the top 16 players from the Dynamic Cup in China and three different The Prince Cup Asian regional tournament invited to compete in Shanghai. The prize pool is 500,000 Chinese Yuan, approximately $69,900 USD (nice) or approximately RM324,400. Winner takes home half of the pot.
The tournament will be divided into two stages, the Group Stages Phase (January 11-14) and then the Elimination Phase (January 19-21). Played in the Conquest Format, Group Stages matches are a best-of-three affair where each player construct three decks of cards (each not having the same Character Cards). Of the three decks, players can ban one deck of the opposing player. The winner has to use another deck while the loser can freely change to any of their decks.
Best-of-five (for the Elimination Phase matches) and best-of-seven (for the Finals) matches will have players construct four and five decks respectively, one deck will be banned.
Players are placed in four groups randomly and play in a double elimination format. The player on the winner side emerges to the Elimination Phase on the upper bracket and the other player on the lower bracket will move to the Elimination Phase on lower bracket, continuing the double-elimination format.
The Genius Invokation TCG Asia Invitational will be livestreamed on the Astra Carnival channels on YouTube, Twitch and the site formerly known as Twitter. The Genshin Impact official Twitch will also be livestreaming the tournament from January 20-21.
For fans curious about this TCG, you can play Genius Invokation, with the exact format seen in the tournament, in Genshin Impact. The game is free-to-play and is available on PS4, PS5. PC (standalone launcher, Epic Games Store), iOS and Android.