At Mount Vernon, many high schoolers enjoy playing the popular video game Fortnite. Mount Vernon students are also accompanied by millions of other players that compete in this game daily. Fortnite is a battle royale game where you loot for items and then you battle until you or your squad are the last ones standing. Fornite also sticks out from other competitive battle royale games because of its unique mechanics of building. This popular game came out in 2017 but was recently rediscovered by Mount Vernon students with the game’s big announcement of Chapter 3. 

Henry Steine, a senior at MVHS got back into Fortnite in late August of 2021 and enjoyed playing the game with his siblings. Steine, with a lot of previous experience, was able to quickly reach level 100, unlocking new cosmetics to show off to his friends. Many of his friends were intrigued by how much fun Steine was having playing the game and they were excited about getting back to playing in Chapter 3.

Fortnite has always been good at keeping players intrigued with their game. One really fun thing they do is they create live-in-game events that can range from concerts to changes in the game’s storyline. One event that Mount Vernon students’ enjoyed most was the Travis Scott’s Astronomical event on April 24th, 2020 where MVHS students joined together and could listen to music and a newly released song by Travis Scott. This event was completely in-game and had many cool visual effects. The player flew into the island and watched the event happen around them.

Chapter 3 was exciting for old players for many reasons. During the release of the new chapter, there was a major game event that caused the Fortnite island to completely flip which revealed the new Chapter 3 island. This new map was exciting for OG players because it brought old POI’s which are points of interest that are small buildings or locations that are within the island. Some of these locations are Greasy Grove, Tilted Towers, Shifty Shafts, Loot Lake, Rocky Reels, Western Town, Racetrack, and Sunny Steps. “My favorite location to drop is Greasy Grove,” said senior Trenton Pitlik. These locations are great because they create a sense of nostalgia for players when they fly in and land at their old favorite locations.

At Mount Vernon, students also rediscovered Fortnite because of the new cosmetics and skins that Chapter 3 brought to the game. The introduction of the Spider-Man skin was very exciting for players. This was because it was before the release of the new movie Spider-Man: No Way Home. The selectable skin was unlocked at tier 100 which you had to level up by completing many weekly and daily challenges. These challenges kept players intrigued with the game and also rewarded them with other selectable cosmetics and skins that would fit players’ preferences. Steines favorite skin from Fortnite is the Reaper skin that he unlocked from the season 3 battle pass. The battle pass was purchased for 950 V-Bucks that came with challenges and unlockable items. V-Bucks are an in-game currency that are purchased with real money and are about 100 per 1 dollar. Another skin that excited some students at MVHS was the foundation skin. By completing challenges it would be revealed that the Foundation was actually The Rock aka Dwayne Johnson. This skin had many different effects and cosmetics like pickaxes and gliders that made playing the game and unlocking him worth it.

Fortnite can thank streamers for a lot of the publicity and attention the game gets. In 2022, Fortnite averaged around 90 thousand viewers every month on the streaming platform Twitch. Many students at Mount Vernon enjoy watching their favorite streamers. “I enjoy watching Ninja on Twitch,” senior Brady Siders said.  “His popularity and skills inspire me in my streaming career.” Siders is a streamer himself and has been working hard to become better at what he does. By watching streamers he is able to gain new ideas to improve and hopefully become more popular.

Getting involved in Fortnite is easy. The game is free to download on any personal computer or gaming console. Although you may be instantly challenged as a new player with expert builders you are able to squad up with friends to assist you on your quest for a Victory Royale. At Mount Vernon, many students have their own squads that they prefer.