MY FORTNITE HISTORY:

I’ve given Fortnite many chances since its initial release a few years ago, but never got too excited about it. Something just never felt quite right. I have downloaded and deleted Fortnite countless times on both my Nintendo Switch and PS4 (I may have even tried it out on my iPhone, at least once). Fortnite is and has been one of the most popular games for a while.

It wasn’t until this past season (The Nexus War), which ended last week, that I actually paid for my first Fortnite Battle Pass (my first Battle Pass in any game, really). The Marvel characters and content got me very excited to finally give this game a real chance. I bought my V-Bucks, got my Battle Pass and began collecting my Marvel characters, skins, backgrounds, pick axes and whatever else I could get my hands on.

EPIC MISTAKE:

Earlier this past year, EPIC Games (owner of Fortnite) bought Rocket League, a game I have played for many hours and made much progress in. Some time during the Fortnite Nexus Event, EPIC made Rocket League Free-to-Play for everyone, and added cross progression using your Epic Store account. This caused a huge problem for me.

I’ve played many, many hours in Rocket League (both on my Switch and PS4). I have collected tons of achievements and items and even made it to level 100. I have a large collection of cars, skins and other goodies (although no sweet goal explosions. I guess you have to pay real money for those). I was not ready to lose any of these items and/or progression.

Because I had unknowingly been using a burner account for Fortnite this whole time, I was forced to make a tough decision. Would I rather lose my progress in Rocket League or Fortnite? Of course, I chose to lose Fortnite. I didn’t mind starting the Nexus War all over in Fortnite if it meant I could keep my “Fliptastic” Pizza banner in Rocket League, among other things. I did however, hope that I would be able to transfer my purchase of the Fortnite Battle Pass, but not my progress.

What I didn’t know is that Epic was going to be some real jerks about this whole ordeal. I don’t know how many different people/robots I talked to trying to move my Battle Pass to my real EPIC account. I say robots because they all had names of former American Gladiators. Names like Blaze, Laser, Razor and Diamondback. I guess they let the customer service reps pick out their own names, or they must assign them a randomly generated one. I like to think that all of the ex-American Gladiators now work for Epic Games Store trying to figure out people’s problems and not help them whatsoever?

So, after many hours of talking to many different representatives, I learned that there was nothing they would do to help me get my new Battle Pass for free. It was also a ten step process to delete my burner account in Fortnite, so I said decided to let it live forever in the cloud. This was the moment when I chose to once again delete Fornite — forever, or so I thought.

MANDO SEASON:

The Marvel Nexus event finally ended last week with a big Galactus battle, which I totally missed out on and that’s fine. The next day they released the next season (Chapter 2 Season 5: Zero Point) which featured some goofy new characters including Mr. Mancakes (that’s not his actual name, but he’s a pancaked face soldier man). At first I thought, Oh good, I don’t need this new season. I’m still forever done with Fortnite. But then something happened.

The new season also introduced the Mandalorian and the Child (I call him the child here in case someone reading this isn’t caught up on the show). If that’s not enough they announced that Kratos from God of War will also join Fortnite as a skin. I believe more special items and characters are on the way this season. Also, I’m sure there will be a big announcement for this season at the Game Awards (just days away).

After seeing this new season I decided to give Fornite just one more try (this time on both, my PS4 and Switch). I also decided to download both so I could make sure my EPIC account was actually linked to both places (for cross-progression). I wasn’t sure if I would buy another Battle Pass, but after unlocking Mando but not being able to use him without the Battle Pass I decided I would give it one last, real try.

PS4 vs SWITCH:

During my two weeklong trial of the Nexus War I only played Fortnite on my Switch. I thought the game looked fine. This time I started out on my PS4 Pro. I didn’t think the game would look, so much better on my PS4 Pro (I can’t imagine how it looks on next gen consoles right now, with ray tracing and all that jazz).

The controls may also be easier or better on the PS4. I feel like I take out opponents instantly on the PS4, while the Switch may take a bit more work. I love my Switch Pro controller, but handheld mode is not great for shooters. If you can win a Fortnite in handheld mode you are a true champion.

Being able to jump into Fortnite battles on both platforms is still very cool. Especially since I get to share my Battle Pass, progress and all that loot.

I BEAT FORTNITE!:

After never achieving a “Victory Royale” in Fortnite before on my Switch or anywhere else, I finally got one in my second match on PS4. What I didn’t know was that I was playing in “Squads” mode as a squad of one, and I ended up the winner. I’m still not sure how “Squads” mode works in Fortnite. In fact, I’m not sure how many things work in this game (it was a long, long time before I discovered fishing.

I switched back to Solo mode and in the next two days I ended up winning 5 of my first 11 matches. I beat Fortnite about 50% of the time those first two days after never wining once before. Being so good at the game was also a big influence in my choice to buy the Battle Pass.

Here are a few images of my first wins in Fortnite.

With these stats I thought I must be a Pro at Fortnite. I had won half of my games played, I was unstoppable. That was until I played on a Friday night, when I realized that maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought. Friday night I jumped in to match after match and kept dying, rarely reaching the top 10 in any of these matches.

Now, I’m guessing that I must have played those first games on weekdays at off hours when the Fortnite pros aren’t playing. Maybe I was playing against a bunch of kids who are sneakily playing at school on their smart phones. However, playing on Friday night was prime time and I ended up losing every match.

Watch this video of highlights from my first Mando Victory Royale (I didn’t get too many kills, so I filled this with some other fun highlights too)…

I don’t know why I feel the need to have Mando in Fortnite, but it does bring me joy. I will continue to play Fortnite this season until it ends or I reach level 100 and get that Beskar Armor skin for Mando. Say what you will about Fortnite, but they are doing some cool stuff whether you’re a fan or not.

And now I leave you with this… me riding into battle like one of my favorite MCU characters, Yondu.