Last month, BiliBili — China’s anime version of YouTube — content creator Harry华ye asked his professor to help him get the rare and powerful Genshin Impact character, Hu Tao. The result is possibly my favourite Genshin Impact video I’ve seen all year.
This video took place on November 13, 10 days before the chance to get Hu Tao would end, the character put back in the proverbial vault until miHoYo decides to make her available again. Hu Tao is the strongest damage-per-second character in the game’s meta, and like other powerful characters, the developers only made her available for a limited time. In her case, it was a window of just three weeks. For every roll, there was only a 0.6 per cent chance of obtaining a five-star character like Hu Tao.
Instead of trying his own luck, Harry asked his professor if he would roll the gacha in his stead. The professor made the 10-roll on the classroom projector screen, and the students’ reactions are as heartwarming as they are hilarious.
Upon starting the 10-pull, the wishing star immediately turned gold, which signified that at least one five-star character had been generated, prompting the students to erupt into cheers. The professor appeared vaguely confused when his entire class started cheering, but nevertheless looked slightly proud of himself.
Once the reveals started, less rare, four-star characters Sayu and Rosaria popped up first, further whipping up the classroom. At the 20-second mark, the students start to repeatedly chant “Hu Tao.” This must have been hilarious for anyone passing by with zero context, since Hu Tao’s name means “walnut” in Chinese.
Finally, the rare five-star character appeared, and it was actually just Keqing, which led to disappointment but also, somehow, yet more jubilance. Keqing is one of the more common five-star characters, who has a 50% chance to appear the first time that a player pulls gacha on a limited-time banner and obtains a five-star character. Since the streamer was pulling on Hu Tao’s banner, they had essentially “lost” the gacha gamble to the RNG. They got a Keqing, but remained Hu Tao-less on that 10-roll.
“Losing” a 50/50 is a source of anguish for many Genshin Impact players, but there was no gamer rage when the camera panned around the classroom. People were laughing and cheering, with one student yelling “one more” at the very end of the clip. While two students appeared just as confused as the professor, the majority of the classroom lost their minds, even when Hu Tao didn’t appear. Personally, I’m just really impressed that many students knew what Genshin Impact was. I don’t think my classes at an American university even had that many gamers.
During the global pandemic, most of the Genshin community celebrates each other’s triumphs and commiserates over losses online, and it’s wonderful, but there’s something particularly exciting about seeing people brought together by Genshin in person like this. It reminds me of how Pokemon GO forced a lot of gamers to touch grass when it first released in 2016. The gacha’s RNG is like a boss challenger that every player faces at some point, and the shared experience made the students’ dramatic reactions possible.
The story has a happy ending. The full video reveals that on a successive roll, the professor eventually did help to score Hu Tao for his student.
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