Why You Should Watch Fortnite's Huge Event Today, And Stick ...

Update: That was interesting. We all got sucked into the rift above Loot Lake, and now we're staring at a black hole until something new happens. Servers appear to be down, and I can't log in. It seems like we're getting ready for Chapter 2/Season 11.

Events have been an indelible part of the Fortnite experience for over a year now, going back to when The Visitor launched the rocket all the way back in Season 4. Since then, they've developed into a bit of a formula: they hit towards the end of the season on a Saturday, serving as the culmination of a season-long narrative and the lead-in to the next. That basic idea remains intact for today's event here in Season X, but it's dialed up a little bit. There might not be any fighting robots and monsters, but this is looking to be the biggest event Fortnite will have had since the beginning, for one very good reason. Read on to know what to expect.

First, the details: the event is happening today, Sunday, October 12, and you can check Erik Kain for details on when and where to show up, and there's a countdown in-game above the rocket at Dusty Depot telling us when it will happen.

As to what is actually going to happen, we really don't know. We can expect the event firls to become unencrypted shortly before everything goes down, but those that don't want traditional spoilers can still make some educated guesses. It obviously has something to do with that rocket at Dusty Depot, and other major players include the rift zones and the giant rift above Loot Lake. The Visitor is involved, and he's been leaving us some tapes about how he's working to bring the time anomaly that is the island to an end. Other possible characters include The Scientist and The Paradigm, other members of the mysterious "seven".

And then we've got a big blank spot in what we can predict: something big is going to happen, and if the scale of previous events is any indication, we could get some interdimensional conflict between these members of the seven, or we could get something more akin to a massive light show featuring the Rift Zones. This will be the meat of the event, and I'm excited to see what happens.

After that, people are currently expecting downtime. The current theory is that Fortnite is going to launch Season 11, or Chapter 2, immediately after the event, but the servers will need to go down for a little bit afterward in order to make that happen. That's what I expect, as well: we haven't had a patch on the scale of what we would need for a new season, especially one with an entirely new map. And that's what we expect to get today: there's been a ton of evidence for this for a while, and at this point, it seems confirmed enough that if Epic doesn't actually deliver it will have a fan revolt on its hands.

That makes this a big change to the way Epic has handled events and the starts of new seasons in the past, as well as the most consequential event to date. It's worth checking out, even if you haven't looked at the game in a little bit, and I suppose that's why Epic is doing it. Fortnite has been flagging a little bit recently, and it feels like it's time for a major shake-up to get things moving again.