Fortnite Battle Royale, a video game where players compete against 99 other players across the world, scavenging for weapons, creating buildings for protection, and engaging in combat to get the coveted victory royale, has changed a lot since it was created in 2017. It expanded its item shop, a place where people can spend in-game currency to buy cosmetics like skins and pickaxes, glitches and exploits players utilize to gain an advantage, and most importantly, map changes. Epic Games (the company that created Fortnite) made history by bringing back the original map and original weapons. By relaunching the OG map, they have brought back the memories of previous players and allowed them to cherish the map once and again and get a brief taste of our childhoods one more time.
Loading into the game, you’ll see some of the trademark places like Tilted Towers, Greasy Grove, and Salty Springs. As you land there, you’ll feel a sense of nostalgia and be brought back to 2017. The most popular place where most people land is Tilted Towers. The broken, gray infrastructure brings in many players in hopes of finding a good fight and racking up their kills. Tilted Towers also has great spots for loot that draw in more and were missed after it was removed with the passing of new seasons.
By bringing back the OG map, it has evoked many feelings from the crowd that waits readily, with bated breath, for each update: those that have played since the very beginning. They remember the excitement they felt, the feeling of their hearts beating extra fast when they got a kill, the way they laughed with their good friends, and the rush of creativity they felt while playing.
Taking a look into this season’s battle pass. The Fortnite Battle Pass is a cosmetic item bundle that grants players rewards in exchange for XP. Players can level up by either doing weekly challenges provided by Fortnite or by spending money to buy tiers. This season’s battle pass is much different than others in the past since it is a very short, marked 50 tier. Usually, it would be capped at 100 to give out more rewards to players who buy the battle pass. But way back when the first ever battle pass came out (Chapter 1, Season 2), you could max the battle pass out at tier 70. Having the battle pass shorter really adds to the trend of an OG season. Inside the battle pass, players could earn 1,000 total V-bucks, (in game currency) cool pickaxes, and most importantly, skins. What made these skins unique compared to other battle passes was that they were combinations of two OG skins. These significant changes in the in-game shop, and map have enticed countless players, both those who have played before and those who have never picked up a controller before.
Many players who have continued playing Fortnite throughout the years and have witnessed the many different battle passes and seasons report that the OG map has an emotional connection with them and were extremely nostalgic and ecstatic when they heard it was returning. “As a kid, I loved playing with the OG map, and it’s such a great throwback that I’ve really enjoyed playing,” says sophomore Elyan Jamal. His voice speaks for many in the sense that the return of the map has allowed them to reconnect with old friends, remember how it felt to play for the very first time, and feel slightly childish again, even though most of those who played during its premiere are in high school or college.
There is great news for players who loved the map return: it will be coming back again next year! Since Fortnite came out, roughly 390 million people in the world play it daily. After the OG map came back, 44.7 million players were brought in, with a whopping 120 million hours of play logged since then. If those numbers don’t make it glaringly obvious that the reinstalling of the map brought in many, many people because of the joyous effects it had on people, then what will?
Although the map has left as of now and a new season has begun, it will thankfully return some time next year. The wait for all of the things that come with the OG map, like the trademark places or skins or the exciting play with friends, won’t be as long but will surely be missed until next time.
