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Draft:The End (Fortnite)

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The End
Fortnite live event
Final shot of the island
Start DateOctober 13, 2019
End DateOctober 15, 2019
LocationFortnite Battle Royale

The End, also known as the Black Hole event, was a live event held on the video game Fortnite Battle Royale. After months of buildup by Epic Games during Chapter 1's final season, the event occurred on October 13, 2019, leading into a two day downtime before the game rebooted itself as Fortnite: Chapter 2.

Background

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Throughout Chapter 1, various events took place, both during the seasonal changes as well as during live gameplay. Some of these included an update where a meteor struck the center of the island and a live battle between a giant monster and mecha.[1] The result of these events led to Season X, the final season of Chapter 1, where the exposed Zero Point created a reality wave bringing the meteor back but freezing it in time just before impact.[2] During the course of Season X, a character named The Scientist (who was brought with the meteor) began building Rift Beacons on various POI's on the map in order to create rifts to other members of The Seven, resulting in said POI's undergoing drastic changes such as Tilted Towers being transformed into the western-themed Tilted Town.[3] Towards the end of the season, The Scientist began constructing a rocket, and a countdown to The End was displayed above it.[4]

Summary

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At 11:00 AM PST, on October 13, the rocket at the center of the island blasted off.[5] After flying straight upwards, it created a rift and entered it, activating the other rifts nearby. One after another, a total of seven rockets started appearing through the rifts as they flew around the island before all going into a singular rift.[6] A new rift appeared behind the frozen meteor, with the rockets coming out of it and into another rift in front of the meteor. After flying back and forth enough, the meteor unfroze and disappeared through the rift. After a moment of silence, a final rift appeared high in the atmosphere above exposed Zero Point. A singular rocket flies straight down into the Zero Point, sending all players back flying in a shockwave. The other six rockets then appear with the falling meteor, leading it directly to the Zero Point. The meteor then breaks through to it, sending out another shockwave to the players. They are given one last look at the island before everything starts being pulled into the Zero Point, effectively shutting the game down and creating a black hole.[7]

Players who weren't able to enter matchmaking in time were greeted by a unique event where the lobby's GUI would also get sucked into the black hole.[8] The black hole screen served as downtime for nearly two days,[9] where all the player could do was watch or input the Konami Code to play a Durr Burger-themed arcade shoot-'em-up game.[5]

On the morning of October 15, Chapter 2: Season 1 was released, where the black hole imploded on itself, leading to a cutscene that sent players straight into a match on the new map.[10]

Reception

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Viewership

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The End event was largely broadcasted by Fortnite's Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube accounts, with a reported 1.7 million views, 1.4 million views, and 4.3 million views respectively as the event occurred, resulting in a combined total of over 7 million concurrent viewers during the live event.[11][12][13] This broke Twitch's record for most concurrent viewers in a single video game category and Twitter's record for the most viewed gaming event.[14][15]

Legacy

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Since The End event, numerous other events occurred to create downtime in between most of the seasons going forward. During Chapter 2: Season 4's event, The Devourer of Worlds, players as well as the island were temporarily sucked into the Zero Point, referencing The End event, before leading into downtime to the next season.[16]

Two years later, another event titled "The End" took place but instead marked the end of Chapter 2 and transition to Chapter 3 with the island flipping over to reveal the other half of itself.[17]

In November 2023, at the end of Chapter 4, the game time traveled to 2018 in Season OG with the original map returning.[18] Over the course of the month, the map quickly progressed to an alternate version of Season X's map, where The Scientist once again builds the rocket but attaches the time machine onto it.[19] On December 2, The Big Bang event took place, starting with a shortened version of The End event where the rockets immediately unfroze the meteor again and send it flying towards the Zero Point.[20] The meteor breaks through to it and the Zero Point begins pulling everything into it, but instead of creating a black hole, a Big Bang occurs, creating new realities such as ones based on Lego, Music, and Racing, as well as the reality where Chapter 5's map took place.[21]

References

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  1. ^ Thier, Dave (2019-10-13). "Watch A Livestream Of Fortnite's Huge 'The End' Season X Live Event". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  2. ^ Ellwood, Greg (2019-08-04). "Epic Games launches Fortnite Season X – Out of Time". Entertainment Focus. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  3. ^ Goslin, Austen (2019-08-06). "Fortnite's Tilted Town is an exciting place to fight". Polygon. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  4. ^ Groux, Christopher (2019-10-12). "'Fortnite' Season 10 the End Live Event Countdown - When Does Season 11 Start?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  5. ^ a b Park, Gene (2019-10-13). "The entire Fortnite ecosystem has been sucked into a virtual black hole, and the game is down". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  6. ^ Tassi, Paul (2019-10-13). "'Fortnite' Just Blew Up The Map And The Entire Game Is Now Just A Black Hole". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  7. ^ Webster, Andrew (2019-10-13). "Fortnite has been down for hours as millions of players stare at a black hole". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  8. ^ Tenbarge, Kat (2019-10-13). "'Fortnite' announces 'The End' as final season 10 event powers down, leaving millions with black holes onscreen". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  9. ^ Elin Urrutia, Doris (2020-02-20). "Fortnite flashback: Just how accurate was the black hole that launched Chapter 2?". Space.com. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  10. ^ Zialcita, Paolo (2019-10-15). "Fortnite Unveils New Chapter After Two-Day 'Black Hole' Shutdown". NPR. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  11. ^ Kim, Matt (2019-10-23). "Over 7 Million People Watched the End of Fortnite Event Before Chapter 2 Launched". IGN. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  12. ^ Khalid, Amrita (2019-10-15). "Fortnite's two-day outage was the game's most popular event of the year". Quartz. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  13. ^ "Fortnite Chapter 2: Black hole was 'most viewed gaming event ever'". BBC. 2019-10-24. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  14. ^ Statt, Nick (2019-10-23). "Fortnite's black hole event broke Twitch and Twitter viewing records". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  15. ^ Valentine, Rebekah (2019-10-23). "Fortnite's "The End" event set Twitch record for concurrent viewers of a single game". Games Industry.biz. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  16. ^ Groux, Christopher (2020-12-01). "'Fortnite' Season 4 Galactus Event Takes Servers Down—What Happened?". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  17. ^ Peters, Jay (2021-12-04). "The Fortnite island flipped over during Chapter 2's final event". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  18. ^ Webster, Andrew (2023-11-03). "Fortnite's new season is a trip through the game's history". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  19. ^ Reynolds, Matthew (2023-11-23). "What are the new map and weapon loot pool changes in Fortnite OG's Season X update?". Polygon. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  20. ^ Smart, Karl (2023-12-03). "Fortnite OG Season ends with a BIG BANG & Concert". The Outerhaven. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  21. ^ Phillips, Tom (2023-12-02). "Fortnite's The Big Bang event was a blast of marketing for the game's multi-genre future". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2024-11-11.