What is ‘Fortnite’ and why do NRL player’s keep referencing it after scoring a try?

IT WAS the post-try celebration that dominated the opening round of the NRL season. Here is what it actually meant.

Why on Earth did Josh Dugan do this? Picture: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

NRL bad boys Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson are back in the headlines following the opening weekend of the 2018 season — only this time it doesn’t involve pineapple Cruisers on a rooftop or fresh allegations of a boozy Origin incident.

Dugan was the first to make the news for his cheeky try celebration during his Cronulla debut last Friday night, with Ferguson following his buddy’s lead amid the Roosters shock loss to the Wests Tigers.

However, it wasn’t just the poster boys for rugby league scandals getting involved in the fun, with two Warriors players also mimicking Dugan’s post try celebration.

The strange act seen across the NRL over the weekend is actually an homage to the highly popular video game Fortnite - the movement Dugan simulated is the act a character in the game will do when they are using a health pack to heal themselves.

Fans of the video game were quick to make the connection, although many more people were left puzzled by the reference.

#NRL Dally M Leaderboad (Round 1)

3pts Fortnite
2pts Cashing Out
1pt Rooster$ & Souffs Losing pic.twitter.com/zGZks97wig

— NRL Stats (@NRLstats) March 11, 2018

So now nrl has turned into fortnite?

— ben nightingale (@benpunter14) March 10, 2018

@FortniteGame check out some of the try scorers from this week in @NRL when they try they are doing the mending animation from Fortnite.

— Jack. (@_Jackylegs_) March 10, 2018

Can we please make sure none of our @RaidersCanberra players partake in this stupid fortnite post try celebration business that’s going on #IHaveNoIdeaWhatItIs #NRL

— Ryan Gillard (@gilby_gillard) March 10, 2018

WTF is fortnite? @NRL

— The Duke (@wearl99) March 10, 2018

WHAT EXACTLY IS FORNITE?

The game is heavily influenced by Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds - a Battle-Royale game which places 100 players on a remote island for a winner-takes-all showdown.

Fornite has no single-player campaign and the online component ends as soon as you die — there are no second chances.

Players drop out of a flying purple bus and parachute down to an island below where they try to locate weapons and supplies in distinct regions that will be used to kill others in the game.

To ensure fast gameplay, Fortnite eventually forces players into a shrinking play zone - if you’re outside of that area, your health begins to drain until you’re dead.

Unlike Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, Fortnite puts a large focus on crafting, which is made possible from the game’s destructible environments.

Once you’ve collected enough resources to build something, you can begin assembling walls and ramps for protection, with the game also allowing players to create traps.

Available on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Mac - and coming to iOS and Android - the free video game has attracted 45 million players worldwide since being released around six months ago.

In February, Fortnite achieved a record-breaking 3.4 million people playing at the same time, with the title also now the most-watched release on the world’s largest video game-streaming platform, Twitch.

The last man standing is the winner of the third-person cooperative, base-defence game.

HOW DOES THE GAME MAKE MONEY?

As mentioned earlier, Fortnite is free to download on almost every video game platform.

And with 45 million players worldwide, it might seem like the developer missed its chance to make a fortune from selling the title.

Although, it appears Epic Games is trying to get money from microtransactions - players pay $A12.71 for $1000 of the virtual currency used by the game.

Using the virtual currency players can purchase items for their character which are “cosmetic only and grant no competitive advantage”.

Surprisingly, the people playing the game also have a chance to make money from Fortnite, with a player making at least $A445,000 a month from his Twitch subscriptions.

Do you play the game? Continue the conversation in the comments below or with Matthew Dunn on Facebook and Twitter.