One of the newest champions in League of Legends made her underwhelming debut at the professional level in North America today.
The Bashful Bloom, Lillia, was drafted by Dignitas against Cloud9. In the drafting phase, Cloud9 banned Karthus, one of the strongest AP junglers in the game since Dignitas required an AP jungler to round out their team composition. But Dignitas had one more ace up their sleeve and answered the ban with Lillia.
Are you ready for Lillia's #LCS debut? @Dardoch locks her in for @dignitas vs @Cloud9 pic.twitter.com/AN8TSI7vLE
— LCS (@LCSOfficial) August 8, 2020
Lillia is considered to be relatively annoying to play against since she gains movement speed from her Q Blooming Blows. Paired with the Phase Rush rune, Lillia is able to prance around the Rift with ease. If Lillia gets CC’d or locked up, however, she is incredibly weak and vulnerable to opponents.
The match started off perfect for Lillia since Dignitas jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett got the first blood onto Cloud9 top laner Eric “Licorice” Ritchie following a well-executed gank. Lillia was able to put Licorice’s Gangplank to sleep to finish off the kill with her Q and W aptly named Watch Out! Eep!
Luckily for Cloud9, their team composition was able to soak up damage and output CC to counter Lillia during the later stages of the game, which meant Cloud9 was able to win the objectives, team fights, and the match by extension.
Since Cloud9 have booked their slot for playoffs, the side needs to finish in the top three to qualify for Worlds next month. Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, TSM, and FlyQuest, will look to put up a fight in latter half of the Split of the Summer Split to try and beat Cloud9 in the playoffs.