Fortnite teases return of its fan-favourite bear robot, as year's first live event nears
Mech a date.
Fortnite has teased the return of an enormous icon from its original Island, as the clock counts down to the game's latest big season finale.
While not yet confirmed by developer Epic Games, eagle-eyed Fortnite leakers are confident this season will end in another of the game's eye-catching live events - the first of 2022 - likely on Saturday, 4th June.
This afternoon, Epic itself issued a typically cryptic teaser with snippets of audio and an unmistakable logo at the end: the fan-favourite Mech (or Mecha Team Leader, to give its full name) which duelled and ultimately beat Fortnite's Devourer monster in one of the game's most memorable moments back in 2019.
The end of that fight saw the Mech, piloted by a character known as Singularity, blast off into space. Now, years later, it looks set to return.
Why is all this happening? Well, to cut five years of Fortnite plot down into a sentence, Fortnite is once again building up to an enormous face-off, as the Island's villainous IO faction seeks to wipe out the heroic Agent Jones and the now fully-revealed Seven.
Fans have long suspected that Mech pilot Singularity and missing Seven member Paradigm are one and the same, with mission dialogue over the past two seasons often revolving around Paradigm's MIA status (also, likely a nod to her narrow window of exclusive availability via the Fortnite Item Shop).
This isn't the first time the IO and Seven have faced off, but the current season-long conflict feels like it needs to culminate in a final victory for one side, and move the game's story on to bigger stakes beyond the current roster of characters - in particular IO boss Slone, who has been causing problems for the past year.
Already, the event is also being prepped for in-game, with the construction of a huge new IO doomsday device by Loot Lake (a neat mirroring of the device built by Midas a full chapter ago, in Fortnite C2S2).
And online, leaks abound as to what Fortnite has in store for this season's final three weeks - and what players will be getting up to with the Mech in this season's live event. Avert your eyes, and tune in on 4th June to find out.