Upcoming League champ Lillia was almost a “form-swapping fawn” but playtesters “didn’t like it”

League of Legends fans finally got a first look at upcoming champion Lillia. And now Riot also shared a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what the magical fawn could’ve been.

Riot devs discussed early iterations of the Bashful Bloom in today’s blog post, explaining that Lillia was a “form-swapping jungler on a timer.” But since playtesters simply didn’t like the kit, Riot was forced to “start over.”

Developers experimented with several dichotomies that would let the jungler swap to different forms throughout a match.

“Lonewingy’s initial pitch was that the fawn changed the seasons with her moods, like fiery summer when she’s joyful and icy winter when melancholy,” Riot senior narrative writer David “Interlocutioner” Slagle said. “We started thinking about other possible dichotomies. Physical vs. spirit. Day vs. night.”

Eventually developers decided on dreams and nightmares. Lillia would swap into a teamfight bruiser when in “dream” state and an assassin during her “nightmare” state on a five-minute cooldown. This unique playstyle would force both teams to adjust their gameplay based on which form Lillia is in.

While the team was excited about Lillia’s form-swapping kit, “players didn’t like it.”

“I was trying to give the form swapping a high strategic value while making the mechanics fairly simple,” champion designer Dan “Maxw3ll” Emmons said. “And I think the cost to get both of those things working well together was just too high.”

Developers immediately switched it up and leaned on one of Lillia’s biggest personality traits—her shyness. The result is a shy fawn that tends to people’s dreams and is braving the outside world to save her ailing forest.