About

The “C9 LUL” meme is a response that is commonly used in Twitch chat, specifically in streams featuring the video game Overwatch. Since its initial spawning on February 14, 2017, the C9 LUL meme has becomes one of the most commonly spammed lines in the chat of major Overwatch streams such as OverwatchLeague or PlayOverwatch. In the Overwatch community a “C9” refers to when one team loses a round because the players ignored the objective. C9 also refers to the professional esports team Cloud 9.

Origin

The first C9 LUL occurred during the OGN Apex Season 2 group stage, in a match between Cloud 9 and Afreeca Freecs Blue (Tournament Page). Multiple times during that match Cloud 9 would win a fight, but lose the round anyway because they neglected the most basic part of the game, which is to control the objective (Original Match Clip). At some point during that match, people began to spam “C9” or “C9 LUL” in chat as a way to mock the simple mistakes made by professional players. Following the match, the clip of the newly coined “C9” was shared among the Overwatch community. Once the phrase began to get used in other twitch chats, it spread across the community. Now, Overwatch players see “C9 LUL” everywhere. It appears in game in match chats, in the chat room of almost every Overwatch livestream, and has spawned many spin-off memes.

Spread

After the fateful game that spawned the meme, it quickly became an inside joke among the Overwatch players that watched the tournament. Since the games took place in South Korea, not many western viewers actually watched the first “C9 LUL” live. It wasn’t until professional players began to reference the event on twitch streams that the meme began to catch on. There was some confusion among the casual community as to what the phrase meant, and some people asked questions on reddit (Whats with c9 spam?). The meme was explained on reddit and by some high-profile twitch streamers, and “C9 LUL” became one of the most used memes in the Overwatch community.

As the meme continued to spread, the origin became more and more obscure. The phrase stopped referencing the original Cloud 9 vs. AFB game that spawned it, and became a general term used when one team forgot about the objective. Due to the misinterpretation of people who didn’t fully understand the correct usage of the meme, its application became more nebulous. People who would spam “C9 LUL” at the wrong time were often met by people who would say “Not a c9”. The phrase “Not a c9” became a meme in itself, as a way to poke fun at people who say the term seriously.

“C9 LUL” also spawned other memes. Notably, during a series against the Dallas Fuel, the Shanghai Dragons had one of the biggest “C9 LUL” moments in professional Overwatch history (Shang9 Clip). The Shanghai Dragons’ player Youngjin stepped off of a completely uncontested objective, and would eventually lead to them losing the match. For a short time after this, the term “Shang9” was often used in place of “C9” by many people.

Since Overwatch is a game with a very large Asian fanbase, particularly in China and Korea, the meme also spread in those countries. Due to the way that someone with a Korean accent pronounces “C9”, it sounds closer to “Z9” for those of us with American accents. This became another meme as an offshoot of the original “C9 LUL” being “Z9 LUL”. This version of the meme was also popularized by Felix “xQc” Lengyel, a former professional player and current streamer.

Another meme spawned by “C9 LUL” is a copypasta that is meant to make fun of how often “C9” is spammed in twitch chat. The meme goes: “LULULULU Z9 C9 C4 V8 XPEKE PS4 AK47 F4 B12 CS1.6 007 36DD 3DS WD40 R34 N64 C3P0 R2D2 H20 XBOX1 KNIGHT F1 TO D2”. The origin of this copypasta is a mystery, but it is still seem from time to time in twitch chat or in game (C9 copypasta).

There is some controversy about the usage of the meme by the casters of the Overwatch League. The Overwatch League is the biggest Overwatch tournament that Blizzard runs, and it seems as though the casters of the tournament are not allowed to use the meme. One of the teams in the Overwatch League is the London Spitfire, and the team is actually owned by Cloud 9. Many people think that the Casters are told not to use the phrase because it makes the Organization look bad. It is speculated that it may be an attempt from Cloud 9 to stop the meme from spreading.

Various Examples

The largest individual overwatch streamer, and one of the biggest personalities in the overwatch community is xQc. He is known for being very loud, and is one of the primary reasons why the meme has spread so quickly. Being one of the 100 largest streamers on twitch, he has a very large following. He often uses the spinoff meme “Z9” instead of “C9”, and is basically the primary reason that the “Z9” variant spread. In fact, he uses the meme so much that there is an entire montage worth of clips where he uses “Z9 LUL” (xQc Z9 Montage?)

One of the original players on the Cloud 9 team that spawned the meme, Mendokusaii, has also used the phrase on stream. This is despite the fact that the meme was initially a way to make fun of him and his team (Mendokusaii C9).

Many reddit posts on r/competitiveOverwatch also use the meme in the title (Reddit Post 1, Reddit Post 2).