Marvel Rivals has managed to capture the playful nostalgia of Overwatch’s glory days, featuring quirky hero exchanges and unforgettable game-changing moves, but also those epic blunders that can cost a match. Fans of Overwatch will recall the legendary “C9” meme, which has found new life in Marvel Rivals, much to the chagrin of one former esports player who inadvertently helped popularize it.
Lucas “Mendo” Håkansson took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to express his bemusement with the resurgence of the meme. “With MARVEL RIVALS’ soaring popularity, tons of fresh players are discovering what a ‘C9’ is and that I had a hand in creating it. Can I move on now, please?” he joked.
Back in 2017, Håkansson was part of Cloud9’s Overwatch team, which became notorious for a term that still echoes in the gaming community today. The infamous C9 meme originated during an Overwatch Apex Season 2 match where Håkansson’s team, despite dominating the fight, failed to secure the objective, leading to their loss. This blunder occurred not once, but three additional times, flooding Twitch chats with “C9 LUL.” In one critical moment, Håkansson was at the center of it all, prioritizing an ultimate move with Soldier: 76 over capturing the point, yet the meme remains a collective team effort.
Now, the C9 meme pops up in Marvel Rivals chats whenever players, too preoccupied with racking up kills, neglect the objective. This happens often with Rivals’ payload mechanics, as they continue progressing with the last team that interacted with them, making C9s more frequent. Such is the nature of team-based games: with so much happening simultaneously, it’s easy to mistakenly assume a teammate has the objective covered. The real sting comes when you’re on a professional team, and everyone is pointing fingers.
While discussions on Reddit continue to debate the precise criteria of a C9 (does it really count if stepping on the point is just too risky?), Marvel Rivals shows that as long as there’s an objective waiting to be ignored, the C9 meme endures.
