The event “das Gerät” turns out to be a new spectacular event in Fortnite and brings a new record attendance. The otherwise rainy storm has turned into masses of water and brings new puzzles to shore for Chapter 3, which starts on Wednesday.
On Monday evening at 8pm German time, “the device” created excitement and heralded the start of Season 2 Chapter 3. The agent Midas, who played a leading role in the ending Chapter 2 and donated golden weapons, was involved in making a glowing sphere of energy appear.
Energy ball pushes back storm and brings out water masses
In the middle of the map, where Midas secret agent base “The Agency” is located, the spectacle took place. After the building exploded, a platform with the aforementioned sphere of energy shot up into the sky. Electromagnetic waves were released, which initially pushed back the approaching storm. However, the storm was changed so much that the sea around the island gathered in the storm and the storm returned as a huge mass of water.
The event has changed the map, as the storm remains in the gameplay as a huge mass of water, pushing players to the center of the map. Although swimming and diving in the water storm is possible, it is slow and the damage taken remains the same as in the classic storm.
New spectator record
Rod “Slasher” Wroclaw, a well-known esport expert in the USA, congratulated Epic Games on hosting top online events. According to Slasher, over six million viewers on YouTube and over two million on Twitch are said to have tuned in live.
This even topped yesterday’s event “the end”, when last year a black hole blocked the game for almost two days and attracted media interest before Season 2 started. Slasher, who is known for his jokes about the platform mixer, could not resist a side blow to streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins.
Fortnite's live event experience is unmatched, 'The Device' event has now topped their 'The End' as the most watched gaming event in history for western audiences
6.1M+ on YouTube
2.3M+ on Twitch
and $30M from Mixer to Ninja, $1M for each viewerjust incredible
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) June 15, 2020
Is the new storm a failed experiment?
In the meantime, during the event, the action was shown on the PC monitor in a mysterious office. Meanwhile, the community on Twitter speculates whether the office staff caused this event with an experiment.
the Agent Jonesy scenes ! pic.twitter.com/Yq0gYNwA5k
— FortTory – Fortnite Leaks & News (@FortTory) June 15, 2020
The standard character Jonesy in Fortnite, who came through the door in a suit on the phone and was surprised to be seen, spoke earlier of an unexpected event. Loosely translated, he said, “We didn’t see it coming, that’s how it’s gonna react.” Presumably this statement refers to “the device” which, through electromagnetic radiation, unbalanced the sea and turned it into an aquatic storm. Accordingly, it is suspected that the storm is being simulated by those responsible.
Meanwhile, developer Epic Games has revealed new teasers in the game and on Twitter. On one picture you can see a moon. This moon is known to have its influence on the tides. Accordingly, this small moon carried under the arm could manipulate the water masses – at least this is one of several possible guesses.
Further speculations about an underwater world have been raised by a teaser by a trident. In Roman mythology this is the weapon of the sea god Poseidon. Mixer star Ninja reacts slightly differently to the trident and brings a reference to the movie Aquaman, which was released in 2018. A crossover would not be out of the question in this respect, after all Epic Games has been cooperating with Deadpool and the Star Wars series, among others, in the past months and in 2019.
Aquaman confirmed Fortnite season 3 🤩🤩 IMAGINE pic.twitter.com/dMiiOP5mpD
— Ninja (@Ninja) June 15, 2020
In all previous teaser pictures a number combination was inserted: 02030203, which should simply stand for Season 2 Chapter 3.
Storm as a reference to the Glory Hole
Interesting is the reference of the new storm in Fortnite with an optical eye-catcher in the US-American California. This is because the large hole surrounded by the storm’s water masses resembles the phenomenon known as the “glory hole”. This hole was created in the artificially created Lake Berryessa and functions as a relief system to prevent flooding.
Until the official start of Chapter 3 the gaming experience will remain strange and inconsistent. For example, players in their helicopters will be ejected as soon as the flying transport touches the water storm. This has already been demonstrated by a Reddit user. More interesting is the fact that you can currently build yourself beyond the water.