In game one of the Korea Regional Qualifiers Finals between Najin White Shield and SKT T1 K, Najin’s support, Gorilla, pulled out a pocket pick very rarely seen in a bot duo since Season 2. Janna has not seen much play due to a number of factors, but Gorilla played her brimming with confidence, even saying in a post-victory interview that he intended to “show the world how Janna is played.” I’m going to break down why Janna was a surprise pick, and why it was so successful, especially in the role they had her play.

The Fall-off

Janna hasn’t seen much play since the release of Thresh. Thresh has led to an era (season and a half) where supports were strong because their base kit let them do so much, often with 2-4 CC abilities, in addition to a heal or shield or some other high utility ability. Now that those champions have been nerfed, Janna is more on their level. Still she remains as more of a niche pick. Her play making potential is rather low, you’ll never see her make any great “Thresh hook-flay-box” style plays to lock down an enemy, but she has a very solid purpose and utility.

The Come-back

So why did Najin use Janna? What purpose did she serve when they could’ve easily reached for a Braum or Thresh, even a Nami or Leona? The answer is her Eye of the Storm ability. Eye of the Storm is her shield which blocks 80/120/160/200/240 (+70% AP), and in addition, while the shield is up it provides 14/23/32/41/50 (+10% AP) AD. That’s right, Janna can shield 240 damage, and on top of that give her carry a BF sword, all just for hitting level 7.

Najin chose champions who can do well with AD bonuses to create an amazing siege/ fast-push team composition. Janna joined Kassadin in top, and they eventually got Lee Sin to camp with them as well. Lee Sin has good AD ratios and Kassadin’s Nether Blade gives him more trading power with his basic attacks. Add onto this the fact that both are strong initiators and the shield seems perfect for them.

After laning phase was over, the team would siege towers without a care. Janna’s shield could block two turret shots, meaning Lucian could literally walk up to the turret, proc Lightslinger, and dash out without taking any direct damage. SKT’s only option for retaliation was to fully engage on Najin, which wasn’t possible because Janna could just use a tornado to stop an engage, or her monsoon to disengage.

The other powerful thing about Janna is her inherent safety, granted to her teammates, and doubly so for herself. Her Tailwind passive grants all nearby teammates 5% bonus move speed, which is usually around 20 move speed, a free alacrity enchantment just for being near her. On top of that, Janna’s Zephyr allows her to ignore collision and increases her move speed by 4/6/8/10/12%. Simply put Janna’s fast, and very safe. This allowed Gorilla to purchase a Mejai’s Soulstealer early on. Mejai’s is a good buy if just because you can buy it, and it’s going to earn its own value over time. It’s good on a support because it gives power for very little cost. And more AP means more shielding and more AD.

In Summation

Janna is still a very niche pick. Najin showed just how strong she can be when paired with Lucian in a siege comp. Her safety, disengage, and utility play perfectly into what the team composition wanted, and SKT had no means of getting an engagement onto Najin, which allowed them to just roll into SKT’s base over time. Could there be even more to Janna? I’m almost certain of it, and I hope Gorilla will show us just how Janna is meant to be played.