The phrase "C9 lost the offseason" is now a distant memory, a meme only to be repeated with physical air quotations or a singsong tone.

It was last said seriously in late January, before the team leapt out to a 7-1 start. But that phrase is embedded in the legacy of how North American League of Legends organization Cloud9 began its first year in franchising.

This year began with what looked like a thud for the longtime NA LCS powerhouse when it Cloud9 picked up jungler Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen and top laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie over Juan "Contractz" Arturo Garcia, the league's Rookie of the Split in spring 2017, and veteran top laner Jung "Impact" Eon-yeong.

Contractz had established himself as one of the region's brightest young talents. Impact had only furthered his own personal North America fan base during his time on C9, coining phrases such as "top die" while helping carry his team through the regional qualifier gauntlet in 2017. By contrast, Licorice was a relatively untested rookie, albeit with impressive performances while on eUnited in the North American Challenger Series. After two years with Team SoloMid, Svenskeren was regarded as washed up, another jungler supposedly ruined by the TSM system.

The team was mired in fan and community doubt, and thus, a meme was born.

"It's easy to forget how brutal people can be sometimes," C9 CEO and founder Jack Etienne said. "When I took on Licorice and replaced Impact, that was heavily criticized, and I guarantee that the fans are really happy we did that now. The decisions to change the roster were based on a lot of information that people just didn't see."

Losing the offseason was quickly forgotten but served as a prelude to further fan turmoil and anger this summer when mid laner Nicolaj "Jensen" Jensen and AD carry Zachary "Sneaky" Scuderi did not start for the first few weeks of the split. Sneaky, in particular, played for C9 since the team's first NA LCS split in the summer of 2013 and has a fervent fan base of his own from streaming, cosplay and his consistent performances in NA LCS. Jensen was considered one of the best, if not the best, player at his position when he was benched.

"All the fans, they have so little information. They only see what they see onstage. So it's really easy to think that we just don't care or are doing things without thinking about it," Etienne said. "I actually totally understand why they got so upset. I do wish they could remember all the time and effort and care we do put into our business decisions, to have a little bit more faith and understanding, but I totally get why it was really hard."

Amidst continued community criticism and a 1-5 start, C9 was forming its system with a seven-man rotating roster that included rookie jungler Robert "Blaber" Huang and stalwart challenger mid laner Greyson "Goldenglue" Gilmer. Although Jensen returned in Week 3 and Sneaky in Week 4, these roster plans were set in motion, using two mid/jungle duos: Blaber with Jensen and Goldenglue with Svenskeren. Creating this lineup was a delicate balancing act of rookies, veterans, egos and a lot of moving parts.

"I think it's the right way to approach this game right now because the meta is constantly changing. Sometimes scrim partners blow up on you; you need a backup system in place," Etienne said. "For players that maybe get really frustrated on the LCS stage, they can play a few weeks in Academy, refocus without any pressure. It allows them to reset and come back stronger, but they're still helping. They're still part of it, and no one looks down on them for what they've done."

The approach might have surprised fans, but its impact on players was a net positive, Svenskeren said after Cloud9 Academy won its first title with two other players who had seen NA LCS stage time, Goldenglue and Yuri "Keith" Jew, alongside him.

"I have a good relationship with all of my teammates on this team," Svenskeren said. "Being able to help them achieve something they haven't been able to do before -- I know Goldenglue and Keith failed last split -- I mean, I'm just happy to be able to help them achieve this."

Veteran players like Svenskeren took the swaps in stride even if their initial reactions were slightly shaky. This attitude of the team before all else is something that comes from the top with Etienne and trickles down through the coaching staff headed up by Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu, who was recently awarded Coach of the Split for his efforts this summer.

"It's been good, almost surprisingly good," Licorice said of the team's attitude. "Everyone just really wants to win, and Reapered makes sure that we're all on the same page, that we're just here to win as much as possible."

"We were really careful about trying to recruit players with a certain mentality that they weren't toxic, that they wanted to help their teammates and they would communicate well," Etienne added. "So these players, they really saw themselves as 10-man squad. They're not Academy versus LCS, and sometimes a lot of resentment can come from that, but these guys rose above that and were like, 'I want to help these LCS guys.'"

C9's playoff and gauntlet success, despite a 3-0 finals loss to Team Liquid in the summer split finals, was bolstered by the support and player swaps between the LCS roster and C9's Academy team. At the NA LCS finals in Oakland, California, Cloud9's Academy members came with the team and made themselves available any time a player had to miss a scrim for a feature or photo shoot. In the last few days before the team's regional qualifier matches, Jack said that Cloud9 Academy was the LCS team's primary scrim partner -- a system used more frequently in both China and South Korea with secondary and even tertiary trainee squads.

"When they won Academy Worlds, a lot of players would just be like, 'I'm done for the season. See you in January. I'm out.' But they stayed here, and we were practicing with them this morning," Etienne said after his team's Worlds berth-winning sweep of Team SoloMid. "For the past two days, we didn't have scrim partners. We were practicing with them the entire time. They were fully invested in the success of this team and went the extra mile to support us.

"For me it was one of the proudest moments of the season, to see those players behave that way. That's what you really want to see as an owner. The players are invested in the system. They're not just thinking about themselves; they're a team."