Overwatch is a complicated game with a deep, evolving meta. Any number of factors could cause a fight to snowball in the other team's favor, but sometimes it's the obvious things that get overlooked in the middle of all the action. Professional esports organization Cloud9 has developed a reputation for something like this, and it's reached the stratosphere of Overwatch meme-dom. Pulling a "C9" refers to losing a fight because you weren't on the capture point or payload. Though this dates back to season two of Apex, professional teams still shoot themselves in the foot with this blunder from time to time. Let's take a look at a couple of recent "C9" failures from Overwatch Contenders, then examine some ways of avoiding them.
Immortals vs. EnVision
There are times where choosing to engage off the payload isn't the worst idea in the world. The "car wash" of Watchpoint: Gibraltar is difficult to defend without feeding the enemy's ultimate bank, so teams often choose to engage at the tunnel's entrance or exit instead. Immortals took this concept to heart when they played EnVision in week two, letting McGravy push the payload solo for about 18 seconds before they realized what was going on.
Not like this, Immortals! Their plan was obvious, but the execution of that plan left a lot to be desired. For starters, McGravy takes out Kariv, so it's not like the team was completely in the dark. Yes, Immortals may still be suffering through some communication issues and language barriers, but there are no excuses for allowing someone to push the payload that far by themselves when you have a kill feed to draw conclusions from. Then there's that pesky thing called "spatial awareness". You have an Ana on the field, but where is your other healer? Someone should have had the presence of mind to immediately see what was going on.
Next, their positioning was way too far forward. With the entirety of the Immortals roster trying to take a seat in the spawn room, they couldn't keep tabs on what McGravy was doing in the car wash tunnel. In order to defend that area properly, you need to have eyes on the payload at all times. Getting too greedy or aggressive can lead to very embarrassing moments like this one. Funnily enough, people are starting to call empty payloads and capture points "IMT's" instead of "C9's". Feel free to brave the wilds of Twitch chat if you'd like to argue for one side or the other.
Team Gigantti vs. Cloud9
Oh, that's right. It's September of 2017 and Cloud9 is still making sure they keep that brand recognition going strong. To be fair, this isn't the North American Cloud9 that started it all. During week four of Overwatch Contenders, the European branch of Cloud9 was mostly composed of the former Laser Kittenz roster that was acquired when C9 bought the London spot for Overwatch League. New roster, same overtime failure!
Team Gigantti is known for having excellent tanks and positioning. They're mostly the former Ninjas in Pyjamas Overwatch team, after all. We see them prepared here, with their DPS and support using the center post effectively while the tanks get ready to engage... but that never happens. With Sinatraa out of the lineup, MikeyA completely misjudges how much time he has to jump on the point. So does Mowzassa. Heck, what exactly are any of them doing?
It seems as though they recognized that Nevix' Dragonblade was their win condition, so instead of getting on the point beforehand, they wanted MikeyA and Mowzassa to engage from different angles while Nevix ulted. To be honest, there's a chance that might have worked. Zappis dropped his D.Va bomb, giving the ult advantage to Cloud9. With Linkzr down and no support ultimate to buffer the damage, that Dragonblade would have done a lot work. Alas, it doesn't matter since Cloud9 couldn't get on the point in time. Sometimes waiting for perfection can cost you a round in overtime!
How to ensure this doesn't happen to you
The solutions might seem simple, but there's often a lot going on that can take you off the point and keep you distracted long enough to lose. You've heard it time and again by now, but the first thing you should keep telling yourself is, "Don't overextend." This goes double if you're in an overtime situation on a control map, and quadruple on an escort map. Chasing the kill seems like a newbie error, but it happens to the best of us. Think less about personal satisfaction in the moment, and focus on those Skill Rating gains.
But what about instances where your team has to trickle in from the spawn room, you ask?
You should practice with a variety of agile characters such as Sombra and Tracer. When the clock is working against you, every second counts. If you watch pro matches, it's not uncommon for a tank and support to switch off to a speedy DPS in order to mitigate some of that pressure. You're already in Hail Mary mode, so why not do everything you can to tip the odds in your favor? You might just get that kill that snowballs the fight in your favor.
Definitely familiarize yourself with Mei's kit. She can live long enough for reinforcements to survive if you get her skill combo down. Start by running onto the point and using Cryo-Freeze. Sometimes you won't have time to get into an optimal position before having to use it, but that's okay. Then wall yourself off in a corner. This is easiest to do on point B of Temple of Anubis, but it's also handy on Volskaya Industries, and to a lesser extent on Hanamura and Eichenwalde. You have to do it fast, though, or else you'll end up like Nevix in this play:
Don't get killed by Ana. Throw that wall up in time.
