Jensen locks in Annie for first time in 6 LCS seasons during 2021 Mid-Season Showdown

In today’s second League of Legends game between TSM and Team Liquid in the LCS Mid-Season Showdown semifinals, Liquid’s mid laner Jensen became the first LCS player to select Annie in six seasons.

Liquid drafted Annie in response to PowerOfEvil’s mid lane Lucian pick. The champion has been widely regarded as an under-the-radar counterpick in the current mid lane meta, but Jensen proved today that Annie has a place in the current pro League landscape. 

Annie hasn’t been a popular pick in professional play since 2015, where she posted a pick/ban rate of just over 29 percent in major pro regions. Since then, however, Annie has been one of the least-picked champions in all of professional League of Legends. Between 2016 and 2020, Annie has only been picked seven times in major regions, while the champion has won only three of those games. 

Most recently, Annie was selected by Misfits’ Denyk in the 2020 LEC Spring Split during a loss against G2 Esports. The champion hasn’t been picked in North America since 2015, when she was picked in a win by none other than Liquid. 

Today, Liquid’s win with Annie moved the champion’s record since 2016 to 4-4. Jensen himself posted a scoreline of 3/2/12, good enough for a kill participation of 83 percent in the game. 

The result allowed Liquid to go up 2-0 in the semifinal series, taking TSM to match point and setting up a potential matchup with Cloud9 in the Mid-Season Showdown finals.

Make sure to follow us on YouTube for more esports news and analysis.