Genshin Impact Announces Year of the Ox Greeting Card Contest

With the Chinese New Year weekend drawing near, many video game developers and publishers such as Pokemon Sword and Shield are hosting events to usher in the Year of the Ox. Not one to be left behind on the trends, Mihoyo’s gacha title Genshin Impact has also recently announced a new fan art contest as part of its own Lunar New Year festivities.

Genshin Impact is known for acknowledging the creativity of its massive fanbase. With regular re-postings of Genshin Impact character fan art on their official social media accounts, the game incentivizes its loyal fans by hosting contests that award in-game prizes. Some of these contests include creating seasonal-themed fan art based on Halloween and the winter season, so having a Chinese New Year fan art contest does not seem to deviate much from the game’s trends.

Posted on Mihoyo’s official website and forums, where fans can usually find Genshin Impact patch updates, content creators will be able to submit their artwork to join the game’s Year of the Ox event starting February 5, 2021, 12:00 (UTC+8) until February 17, 12:00 (UTC+8). In order to participate, fans must share their created content as comments on the official event’s thread, as well as post their UID to make sure that the development team can award the right accounts.

The event does not seem to outline any specific theme or restrictions so fans are free to be as creative as they want to be, as long as they remain wholesome. Five Acquaint Fates will be awarded to 100 artists who submit their most “heartfelt” creations, while 100 commenters who share a warm message for another will be rewarded with one Acquaint Fate. Acquaint Fates are normally used for Standard or Beginner Wishes on Genshin Impact.

Since the contest details were posted, the thread has already received over 8,000 comments, 169,000 views, and 2,500 likes from users. Fans have started to submit their artwork in a variety of styles, some of them focusing on the Year of the Ox theme, while others have chosen to feature their favorite five-star characters in Genshin Impact such as Xiao, Zhongli, and Ganyu, among others. Other users have commented that though they may not know how to draw, they will still participate in the contest by commenting their well-wishes for everyone.

Though the event will end in the middle of February, fans still have the whole of 2021 to look forward to. With several seasons and holidays every year, fans are hoping that more Genshin Impact fan art contests will be hosted by the game in the future.

Genshin Impact 1.3 introduced Xiao, the latest character that players can get via the game's Wish system. This Polearm-wielding, Anemo channeling warrior is a fierce addition to any party, dealing ferocious damage to his enemies at the cost of his own health. An important aspect of building a party in Genshin Impact is what they will be doing, and height can play an important part in a player's considerations.

While Genshin Impact developer miYoHo has released lots of important information such as birthdays about characters in the game, it has never made the characters' heights canon. Players have done a lot of work on this themselves, based on trailers, in-game assets, and comparing character models. Xiao is thought to be 5’2", the same height as Fischl, Xiangling, Noelle, and Keqing.