2020 League of Legends Championship Series Spring champion Cloud9 has picked up right where it left off in the Summer Split. C9 holds sole possession of 1st place in the 2020 LCS Summer  Split with a record of 8-0. After the team's eighth win against Dignitas, C9 Top Laner Eric "Licorice" Ritchie spoke to Inven Global's Nick Geracie about Dignitas' summer struggles, the reason for his solo deaths in the early game, and who he expects to challenge C9 down the stretch. 

Licorice, Cloud9 is now 8-0 after beating Dignitas today. How did this game go compared to your expectations?

I think it's always a bit tough playing teams that are perceived to be so much weaker than your team because it comes with its own kind of pressure. I think we actually stumbled a bit in our game today, but it's really important to just show up and play your own game. We were able to recover and have a pretty strong finish.

Maybe there were some stumbles, but this weekend you broke the trend of being solo killed by the opponent in a C9 win. Was this a matter of coincidence, or did you adjust the way you were playing from previous weeks?

I think it was a coincidence that I had that many solo deaths in such a short period of time. That being said, I do think I'm going to get more solo kills and have more solo deaths than other players because I play more aggressively than other players. I try to punish my lanes harder and get bigger leads, so I think statistics like that are going to happen. Hopefully, it's more solo kills than deaths in the future. I think as I continue to get better it will trend that way.

Frankly, no one expected Dignitas to win this game, but the fact that they haven't won a single game this split despite changing its roster three times is a concerning trend. Do you think Lourlo is an upgrade in the top lane over V1per for DIG? I'd love to hear if you think there's a roster combination that would be best for DIG going forward.

It's really hard to say what the key to success is going to be for Dignitas at this point. They're trying different rosters, which I think is good, but it's not working in terms of getting the wins. I think Dig's games recently do look closer, so I could see them continue to try to run back this roster and see what happens.

You've played every team in the first half of the Summer Split except TSM. Based on who you faced, who do you think will be the hardest competition for Cloud9 down the stretch

Personally, I'm always looking at Team Liquid to be our biggest rival. TL has been our biggest rival since I joined C9; they were always the team beating us in finals. I think they have the players to contest us and also to be the second strongest team in the league.

Thanks so much for the interview, Licorice. Is there anything you want to say to the C9 fans?

Thanks for the support, I hope you guys keep cheering for us.