(Fortnite) Happy 7 Years to Chapter 1 Season 5!

Crazy how time flies, huh?

I mostly just wanted to talk a little about my own personal experience with this season, absolutely a memorable and special time in my life...

My strongest memory was totally the launch. I had just come out of a somewhat major surgery (nuss bar, if you're curious) and I had had a makeshift bed set up in our living room. But despite the fact that I was in recovery, and the fact that the servers went up at the crack of dawn, that didn't stop me from getting my laptop out. I remember checking out the new lobby, the battle pass from that bed. The sunrise creaking through the window... 

Another core memory was watching the Tomatohead get rifted away, and replaced with the stone one from Tomato Temple as a teaser. Truly, we just don't get teasers like that anymore... And then, of course, the Tomatohead edit style in the Item Shop. Maybe I'll run that some today in tribute!

There's been a lot of debate on wether older or newer battle passes are better. I do think that newer ones give a bit more bang for your buck, but it's hard to deny that I wish we still had progressive outfits. Outfits you couldn't just buy outright, that EVERYONE had to work to unlock new styles for. Drift is still one of the game's most iconic skins, and certainly the design is incredible, but I think everyone who played then also remembers seeing him and feeling like "Oh, I've GOTTA grind for these styles." 

That's just not something that happens in Modern Fortnite anymore. Homogeneity is certainly a problem with Fortnite. For example, Superman, Godzilla, Outlaw Midas... none of them had unique quests to unlock their items. Everything is just "Earn account levels" now. I *remember* when the Prisoner dropped, and there was the first edit style you could unlock by finding the key in Polar Peak, my friend group and I began to run search parties across the map to see where other keys were. Now, that's not how the other styles were unlocked, but even leakers weren't sure if that was the case, so there was a genuine air of mystery surrounding the character as we played... ANYWAY. Tangent aside...

Season 5 was certainly a mixed bag, in retrospect. As good as the vibe and aesthetic was, the spray & pray meta was... contentious. One of my favorite clips of the era was comparing the P90 to Thanos' gauntlet, and showing the P90 actually had a higher DPS... Like damn. But, Epic was trying something new, attempting to get shotguns in line and provide other close-range gameplay... So, it was fair enough, I guess.

The Getaway LTM premiered this season too! I remember spending hours with friends grinding for the Crowbar and the Jewel backbling. That introduced the Grappler as well, a still commonly unvaulted item to this day. And, of course, we can't forget about Kevin The Cube. or, just the Cube. (I remember when he was named...)

This clip always sticks out to me from that time; The storm carrying the competitive match OVER the Cube's rune, causing everyone to fly around??? Gold. Marketing gold too, since it was all the player base talked about for the next week. Obviously, comp has gotten a lot more intentional now, so stuff like this wouldn't and shouldn't happen again, but GOD it was so incredible to witness. 

I've always had a hyperfixation on Fortnite. It absolutely spurred up during COVID, but I've ALWAYS loved everything this game has done. But the Cube? I used to be AUTISTIC autistic about this fucker. I would watch the streams of it rolling around the map in classes, I would literally sleep to the ambient noises it would make; I was so infatuated by the concept of it... When I used to make Fortnite videos, the runes and stuff were a big part of my channel's vibe. (Maybe it's time to bring it back...)

And the decision to have it spawn in DURING a major tournament was genius. Like, What a legendary clip. Of course the novelty of it all at the time is a factor too, but the ways the game would move to market itself, to put itself in the limelight just hasn't been achieved in the same way since.

Anyway. There's a few scattered thoughts about a good season <3 

Stay feathery!
Ima