Yesterday marked a monumental moment in Tenafly High history—for the first time ever, our very own school played a Fortnite emote montage on the monitor in the Lalor Library Media Center. This was an unexpected and unannounced occurrence; in fact, I doubt that any student could have anticipated that something like this would ever happen.

Fortnite, a 2017 video game published by Epic Games, is a third-person shooter that’s hit an unforeseen level of popularity in the last few months. The game, unlike many of its contemporaries, is completely free on PC—that, combined with its rising presence on different eSports and streaming platforms, likely accounts for its now-massive following. Though it’s a different experience than other mainstream shooters like Call of Duty or Overwatch, both of which lack Fortnite’s unique building mechanic, one thing all of them have in common is the inclusion of emotes (which are gestures or dances that can be selected to perform during a game at the press of a button).

An assortment of these emotes, uploaded by deathmule to YouTube, was played in the library yesterday during lunch. Although many students sat back and watched—myself included—others took initiative, standing in front of the monitor and mimicking the dances being shown on-screen. Mr. DiGregorio, Supervisor of Library Media Services, even joined in; students excitedly took pictures and videos of his intermittent dance routines. My distaste for the game aside, it was interesting (and impressive) to see how much attention this attracted throughout the course of the lunch block.

When asked about the library’s decision to do this, one of the librarians said that it was just for fun. Another went on to say that students shouldn’t discount the likelihood of another such event occurring sometime in the future.

Student reception ranged from disappointment to joy. “This was incredibly demeaning, and has shattered the respect that the students and local community have for this school,” one anonymous source said. “I hope it never happens again.” Some, however, appreciated the school’s attempt to connect with its students. “I found it inspiring that the school is finally recognizing aspects of today’s culture. I hope this sets a precedent for future events.”