Cover-Credits:
If you’ve played Overwatch or tuned into a match of Overwatch League, you may come across the term ‘C9’ bring used. You’re also likely to see C9 spammed in Twitch chat during an OWL stream. C9 has become a meme in the Overwatch community over the years and it first originated from an error made by Cloud 9 in the early years of pro play.
Where does Overwatch C9 come from?
The term 'C9' originated from a mistake made by Cloud 9 in the Overwatch Apex Season 2 held in 2017. Before the Overwatch League came about, Overwatch Apex was a major tournament played mostly by South Korean teams with several Western teams invited to compete. One of the invited teams was Cloud 9 (which later went on to became the London Spitfire). During a group stage match against Afreeca Freecs Blue on Lijiang Tower, both teams were contesting the objective with AF Blue at 99% progress and C9 at 60%. Cloud 9 got distracted in a fight against AF Blue’s tanks and failed to touch the objective point to refresh the Overtime countdown while three players from the AF Blue roster were on the objective. So despite winning the teamfight, Cloud 9 lost the round.
Unfortunately, Cloud 9 repeated the same mistake on map 3. The teams were playing on Volskaya Industries when Cloud 9 failed to touch the objective and lost the point, giving the win to AF Blue.
In an objective based game like Overwatch, fans were surprised to see Cloud 9, which was considered one of the best teams in the West at the time, make this mistake. Goes to show even pros sometimes get tunnel vision.
So what does C9 mean in Overwatch?
Players use the term C9 to describe a situation where a team loses a round simply because they do not stand on the objective or payload while the game is going in their favor. Not touching the objective or payload despite having won a teamfight is usually described as a C9. However, today the meaning of C9 has changed to include simply not touching the objective or as just something used to spam Twitch chat.
