A towering wall of water has Fortnite surrounded as Season 3 floodgates open

Even for players left out in the cold, Fortnite's in-game event to wash away what's left of Chapter 2, Season 2 had the diluvian makings of something epic (no pun intended). Epic Games staged its hugely-anticipated season-ending event "The Device" today, bringing a colossal flood that's already changed the game map for good — while trapping players inside a 360-degree zone that's surrounded on all sides by a towering, health-sapping tidal wave.

Demand to be online when already-delayed "The Device" event went off was so enormous that anyone who didn't make it early simply didn't get to participate. That seems to be be intentional on Epic's part; the developer has been encouraging players for days to show up 30 minutes ahead of time for a limited number of spots. For many who tried to sign on later, not only couldn't they get on a server — they couldn't even open the game itself.

Those kind of Fortnite theatrics all just add to the buzz, though. The next two days will bring a deluge of interest in the game's strange, in-between happenings, as players keep a round-the-clock vigil to monitor the map for any new changes. If you just want to casually drop in on what's happening in real time, you can head on over to the in-game streaming pages at Twitch or YouTube.

"The Device" kicked off with huge pylons emerging all around the map, creating connecting points along a giant ring that centered on the Agency building. The Agency itself was upended when the doomsday device emerged straight through the ruins, shooting out beams of energy to each pylon. That, in turn, generated the massive storm that left the giant water wall in its wake — a map-dominating feature that's still greeting anyone who logs in now.

With the game map now semi-flooded (and in definite "danger" of being completely submerged,) the final hours of Season 3 have essentially become a game of wait-and-see. Epic is increasingly ramping up the drama with these types of transitional events, none more so than last year's "The End," which swallowed the game map into a black hole for two whole days to bring Chapter 1 to a close.

While "The Device" isn't quite that huge (Chapter 2 will go on after today, transitioning its current map from Season 2 to Season 3), it's still applying the same suspenseful approach. Season 3 Battle Passes go live on June 17. between now and then, tons of players will be logging on (or tuning in to someone else's Twitch stream) to see what that giant wall of water might do next.