Fans were a little surprised this morning when they saw the apparent launch of new Fortnite Special Event matches.

Special event challenges have been appearing for players today, without much explanation of what they are.

“Pain in the butt because I want that tier grind but won't be able to progress as quickly until it's removed,” one fan wrote on the forums.

However, Epic Games have now confirmed that these new Fortnite Battle Royale special matches went live a little earlier than planned, and aren’t ready to be rolled out.

“You may have noticed the Shooting Model Limited Time Mode was briefly available this morning,” a message from the Fortnite support team explains.

“We slipped up, this mode will not premiere until early next year and it is now disabled. You may have received a daily challenge tied to the mode. We are looking into this.

“A bug has caused players to receive that daily challenge. We are looking into ways to help players complete this challenge now.

“We are planning to tune and refine the mode before re-introducing it again early next year. Since many of you got a chance to play it, tell us what you think of the mode in its current state.”

So at the moment, it’s not something to get too excited about.

Epic Games have also released a new small Shield Potion update, which isn’t available to consume when moving.

It does, however, have a shorter consume time and drops in a group, rather than one big item.

Epic have also provided some new tweaks to the Battle Royale Trap system, some of which have been condensed down.

“Our plan is to revisit a few of the traps going away in this update. There is a chance some of these traps may return at some point in a different state,” Epic confirms.

The official patch notes can be found below:

SMALL SHIELD POTION

• Grants 25 Shield, to a maximum of 50.
• Drops in stacks of 3 with a stack limit of 10.
• Uncommon rarity.
• Can be found in floor loot, treasure chests, and supply drops.
• Consumed in 2 seconds.
• Cannot be consumed while moving.

TRAP USABILITY UPDATE

• The Spike Trap, Wall Zapper, and Ceiling Zapper have been combined into a single “Damage Trap.”
• When this trap is in placement mode, it will automatically swap between floors, walls, and ceilings.
• The Launch Pad, Vertical Jump Pad, and Horizontal Jump Pad has been combined to just “Launch Pad.”
• The Launch Pad can still only be placed on floors.
• You can now switch between traps using the same key binding as “Change Building Material.”
• The radial menu to select different traps has been removed.