Everyone’s favorite out-of-pocket basketball uncle, Stephen A. Smith, knows Fortnite better than you might think. At least, that’s what can be gleaned from a breakout clip of his YouTube program, The Stephen A. Smith Show, that’s making the rounds today.
Smith, who will typically poll his Twitter followers for questions to answer on his show, sent out his usual call when a user named Noah Zomback thought to send him the single best query ever. It’s the question we’ve all asked our closest friends and Fortnite duos since 2017. Zomback quote-tweeted Smith, attached a picture of an out-of-date Fortnite map, and asked, “Where we landing Stephen A?”
It’s important for me to clarify exactly how old this map is before we continue. Fortnite’s world, which is in a perpetual state of change and growth to fit ongoing events and new seasons, currently looks nothing like this. In fact, it hasn’t looked like this since Fortnite’s third season when I began playing in 2018. This map is so old, I wasn’t able to legally drink when I last played it. When a stop-gap season called Fortnite OG last year deliberately reverted the map to one from the battle royale’s inaugural chapter, even it didn’t turn the dial back that far. Season 3 (the first Season 3, back before the game had “chapters”) culminated in a reality-breaking rocket launch—and Fortnite’s first real live event— which effectively kickstarted its utterly baffling narrative and mythology. This map predates even that moment, and the cultural phenomenon that Fortnite would go on to become. That’s how old this map is. Now we can continue.
You’d presume that Smith, a hilariously no-nonsense sports journalist and famous oldhead behind one of the greatest tweets ever, has no business knowing jack shit about Fortnite, especially such an early incarnation of it. And I thought he didn’t. I was dead wrong though, because Smith proceeded to recall points of interest on the map like they were his old stomping grounds.
At first, Smith seems to play coy while listing off the destinations before it clicks. He snaps his fingers and says, “I forgot the name of this, what’s the name of this?” before turning to the camera and declaring “Fortnite!” A+ for you, Stephen A. He then continues picking names off the map like Retail Row and such until he sucks in his teeth and seems to recall seeing something “the other day” that tips him off to what his answer should be. Can you guess where Smith says he’s landing?
“I’m gonna go with Tilted Towers. You know why? It’s right in the middle here and it looks like that’s where all the action is.”
That’s right, Stephen A. Smith is a man of fucking taste who lands in Tilted Towers. Tilted Towers gained notoriety early on for being a “hot drop,” or a spot where everyone would land to get into action more quickly. The call-and-response of “Where we droppin’?” answered with “Tilted Towers” even became a meme in the location’s heyday. As meteors began raining down on the map, destroying points of interest and altering the landscape, Tilted Towers’ popularity assured it survived season after season in some shape or form. Even after it was finally destroyed, Epic has found reason to bring it back and update it every now and then, and it was present in the aforementioned OG season last year.
So if it wasn’t already clear, Stephen A. Smith not only knows what’s up, but wants all the smoke. Not only does Smith rightly call Tilted Towers a hot spot for action, but he even manages a sly critique of the map! As he lightly admonishes all the greenery and fields around the map, he correctly dubs Tilted a “palatial mansion in the middle of nowhere” that draws attention to itself. Someone get this man a career in games immediately. Or at least show him how far Fortnite has come since 2018.
