What does C9 mean in Overwatch 2? Answered

When playing an online game that is as social as Overwatch 2, you will hear and see people say many different terms through voice and text chat. Some of these things are pretty easy to understand, but others are a little more abstract unless you understand the backstory. This is the case when you see people throwing out the term C9 at the end of a round or match. Here is what the C9 reference means in Overwatch 2.

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What does C9 mean in Overwatch 2?

In general, when you see C9 appear in text or voice chat in Overwatch 2, that person is usually calling out a team or player for not playing the objective in the match, and it causes them to lose the game. Some people refer to this whenever a team is forcefully knocked off the point, but the real definition is meant to be focused on them willingly walking away and not paying attention. This allows the opposition to either capture the point behind their back or not capture it when they have the chance.

The term C9 directly refers to the professional esports team, Cloud9. This team built up a reputation for continually not paying attention to either the point or time available and instead rushing for kills. There were multiple times in tournaments before the Overwatch League was founded where they lost games due to their overaggressive nature.

A C9 is probably the worst way to lose a game in Overwatch 2. It can be very difficult to win team fights, so having the victory in your grasp just to lose it because you weren’t paying attention stings. It’s a constant reminder never to forget the objective and be aware of how much time is on the clock.