Here's how Fortnite's mecha vs. monster battle played out
Eye on the prize.
The dust has settled on Fortnite's big season finale, which saw the game's much-hyped monster versus mecha face-off finally taking place. The two titans battled to the death - there could be only one winner.
Spoilers lie below.
As zero hour struck on the various countdown clocks around the map, the monster rose from the sea with Polar Peak's castle still on its back. Its target was the power of Fortnite's infamous Vault, hidden under Loot Lake.
But as the monster began breaking down the Vault's door, the island's newly-made mecha robot awakened at Pressure Plant to defend the Vault and the island itself. To heroic music, the robot sprang into action with a volley of rocket fire. Polar's castle was blown to smithereens, the monster injured. The two tussled, but it was the the mecha who appeared to prevail: the heroic robot scooped the monster up and dumped it off the map.
Could it be over so simply? Of course not. As the robot returned, seemingly victorious, the monster suddenly appeared again as well, ready for round two. Our poor mecha hero lost an arm in the ensuing fight, ripped off by the monster, the fight now going its way.
But as all seemed lost for the mech, it reached into the Vault itself for a blast of energy it hurled at the monster, taking it down. And then came the final blow - a stab to the monster's eye from a sword pulled from the middle of Neo Tilted itself, the statue of Vault owner Singularity apparently having been the weapon's hilt all season long.
The monster was dusted, its skeleton now a permanent feature of the map. Other map changes include a lingering sphere of energy at the Vault itself - from which the mech drew its power. Where will Fortnite's storyline take all this next? Season 10 begins in 11 days.
It was, again, an incredible sight to watch unfold in real-time in Fortnite, another live event of true spectacle. But it was also, yet again, another event where some were unable to watch due to in-game issues with loading queues, and outright game crashes. I was one of these people - forced to watch the event via a stream instead after being dumped back to my desktop mid-game. There's no word yet from Epic of an encore or any kind of recompense.