What does that crack in the sky mean for Fortnite Season 5?

Fortnite players were treated to a spectacular series of events this past Saturday when the sky over the Battle Royale map literally split in half.

At 1:30 PM ET, a missile launched from the silo near Snobby Shores before seemingly disappearing into a portal, splitting in half, and exploding in awe-inspiring fashion. The detonation left a massive, glowing rift spider-webbing across the sky above the Battle Royale map.

The event was a sight to behold, but unfortunately, if you weren’t in the game at 1:30 ET on Saturday, you’re out of luck. The launch was Fortnite’s first real-time event, meaning that it only happens once.

So, what exactly did you miss if you weren’t in-game for the launch? Though the above video gives a pretty good view of what happened, things start to get a little muddled after the first few seconds. At first, the rocket slowly climbs skyward, then a secondary booster ignites, propelling the rocket off on an angle at a much faster speed. The missile then seems to enter orbit. For a few seconds, a mysterious voice echoes across the map. It seems to be setting a series of coordinates.

Then, all at once, the warhead begins its descent, with a series of laser guidance systems sending it straight for Tilted Towers. Just when it seems like the city is about to be obliterated, a blue glowing portal opens and the rocket simply disappears. Seconds later, another portal opens on the other side of the map. The missile ricochets back and forth between these rifts before finally detonating midair with an epic, ear-shattering boom, leaving the final giant rift that continues to loom over the map.

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So… what the heck happened? And what does it mean for Season 5? It seems likely that the missile launch silo was part of Season 4’s superheroes and supervillains theme. If true, we can conclude that the supervillains were going to use the missile to destroy the city of Tilted Towers as part of their evil plan. However, at the last minute, it seems that someone – or something – intervened, causing the missile the ricochet off course.

Whether the rift was opened  by the missile’s detonation or by some other force remains to be seen. However, it seems likely that whatever the cause, these portals will be playing a key role in Season 5. A few perceptive Reddit users have also caught onto the fact that the portal seems to be getting larger. Smaller rifts have also been appearing and disappearing all across the map, such as this one at Lonely Lodge.

A portal/rift of some sort has appeared at the entrance of Lonely Lodge… pic.twitter.com/2Twma3GVBL

— Fortnite News • FortniteINTEL.com (@FortniteBR) June 30, 2018

This all begs the question: what is on the other side of these mysterious rifts? We know from what happened to the rocket that these portals seem to lead to some kind of alternate dimension, but what if the rifts are actually portals through time? A few Fortnite data miners have discovered some interesting new assets in the game files:

* LEAK * The Time Travelers will bring us back in time!
I present to you "WILD WEST" (I can't show every item since there is more than 200) pic.twitter.com/LoCsZXAzpV

— Cross – Fortnite Leaks ボ (@GameCentral_FBR) June 28, 2018

All of these props seem to point to some kind of Wild West setting. New film noir-style Detective skins have also recently been added to the game.  Perhaps this is another hint that these portals have some kind of time-traveling abilities.

With almost a week to go until Season 5, we won’t have long to wait before we find out what exactly these mysterious portals have in store.