The clock is ticking for fans of the Arena mode in Fortnite, and this time, it doesn’t have anything to do with the storm.
After nearly 16 seasons of operation as Fortnite’s main competitive game mode, Arena will be sunsetted permanently on Tuesday, May 16, at 2am CT. The move will make way for Fortnite’s newly announced Ranked mode to make its debut immediately after.
Related: Fortnite is demolishing its ranked Arena mode and building it anew
From the moment that Epic Games revealed it was replacing the long-established Arena playlists with Ranked, it was a bit of a mystery as to exactly when the old modes would officially be discontinued for good.
On the morning of May 15, prominent Fortnite leaker iFireMonkey tweeted that Epic had disabled the Arena queues unannounced. Minutes later, however, iFireMonkey seemingly discovered that the Arena modes had been re-enabled for a few more hours—perhaps giving a proper final call to those who wanted to take the OG competitive mode for one last bus ride.
The Arena game mode made its Fortnite debut in Chapter One, season eight in 2019, prominently serving as a way for players to compete in front of the backdrop of a point system. By racking up Hype points via match placements or eliminations, players could scale up the mode’s various leagues and divisions, and ultimately qualify themselves to compete in high-level tournaments and cash cups.
Additionally, what set Arena matches apart from the standard offerings was their unique ruleset tailored for competitive play, which featured a separate loot pool, health Siphon, and Storm Surge.
Related: Understanding how Fortnite’s Arena mode works
The debut of Ranked in v24.40 of Fortnite, Ranked Season Zero, is set to run through the remainder of Chapter Four, season two, and the entirety of Chapter Four, season three. In addition to how players fare in their first Ranked Battle Royale or Ranked Zero Build match, Epic has mentioned that “past match performance” will be used to determine what players’ starting ranks in Season Zero will be.
