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Storm Surge is a mechanic within Fortnite designed to maintain server performance in stacked competitive lobbies. It does this by enforcing aggression through a match.
If too many players are alive at various phases, Storm Surge will begin to hit the people who have dealt the least damage – forcing them to either fight or die. This goes on until a more manageable number of players remains.
Earlier this week, Epic Games adjusted the Storm Surge values to be even harsher in Arena and Duos tournament playlists.
When does Storm Surge activate?
|
Storm
Circle |
Old
Values |
New
Values |
|
0 |
100
remaining players |
100
remaining players |
|
1 |
100
remaining players |
100
remaining players |
|
2 |
70
remaining players |
64
remaining players |
|
3 |
70
remaining players |
54
remaining players |
|
4 |
50
remaining players |
44
remaining players |
|
5 |
50
remaining players |
40
remaining players |
|
6 |
30
remaining players |
30
remaining players |
|
7 |
30
remaining players |
30
remaining players |
|
8 |
30
remaining players |
30
remaining players |
|
9 |
30
remaining players |
30
remaining players |
Image via Epic Games (Turn phone sideways to see new values on mobile)
The big concern with these changes was that they arrived right in the middle of the Chapter 3 Season 3 FNCS, giving players very little time to adjust.
Semi-Finals kicked off on Friday evening, giving us our first chance to see how the new Storm Surge values fared in a high-end, single lobby event. And based on initial reactions… it was a huge success!
“The new surge change was the best change ever btw” tweeted two-time FNCS Champion JannisZ. He and many others believe that it made the best teams more consistent, as less experienced players didn’t know how to adapt.
The new surge change was the best change ever btw all the braindead kids dont know how to play anymore
— JannisZ (@JannisZFN) July 23, 2022
Crucially, server performance has improved too – which is the whole reason Epic made the update. Falcons Esport star Refsgaard said things felt “way, way better”, but added that they could probably find some sort of happy middle ground between the old and new Storm Surge values.
Another great benefit of the increased aggression was that it made the broadcast more entertaining. A key complaint for competitive Fortnite viewers has always been the boring mid-games, where everyone is just focused on rotating to zone and boxing up.
Day 1 of semi's yesterday felt so much more action packed. Not gonna lie I didn't even notice there was 10ish people less in endgame, but the midgames felt so much more entertaining. Definitely a much better flow of fights with the surge changes.
— Reisshub (@Reisshub) July 23, 2022
“Day 1 of semis yesterday felt so much more action packed” said Fortnite analyst Reisshub. He also made another good point; that having a few less teams alive in endgame took nothing away from the hype of those final zones.
It’s rare that a change like this goes down so well with the community, especially halfway through a tournament! There’s probably some finetuning to be done, but this can wait until after the Season 3 Champions have been crowned.
