Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for DraftKings! It was a great weekend last week, and hopefully, we get to bring it into this week. Minnesota has emerged as a team to watch after a rough Pro-Am has come out and swept both LA teams. But that can change in an instant and they get a bit of a tougher test this time around with Toronto. Gunless has returned for LA Guerrillas amidst their awful start to Major 3 to replace Spart in the starting lineup.
This is easily one of my favorite sports to cover here at Rotoballer because I play a ton of COD myself and I like to think I'm pretty good at it as well. I have been following the COD League for about five years now and I finally get to put all this knowledge to the test! After week 1, we had a decent look into how teams are feeling with new rosters and my first notice was that LAG took a major tumble after their Major 2 win. They get a tough task in Florida Mutineers and Gunless is back for LAG but I think Florida is overall the better team here. London Royal Ravens barely made it past Paris Legion and got on the board with their first win of Major 3, they get Boston Breach in the first match of the day. Lastly, we have Toronto Ultra against Minnesota Rokkr which should be a banger matchup!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, May 20th, 2022, at 3:00 PM EST. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @DFSKoby or find me in the slack as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions!
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Call of Duty: Major 3 Qualifiers
Best of 5
- London Royal Ravens (+130) vs. Boston Breach (-170)
- Florida Mutineers (-220) vs. LA Guerrillas (+166)
- Toronto Ultra (-120) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (-110)
Slate Overview
Both teams didn't look their best on the first weekend of Major 3. For Boston Breach, they lost to a tough NYSL team whereas London barely beat a poor Paris team and got smoked by LAT. London just hasn't been playing their greatest and I believe Boston is in a much better place than London is. London has struggled severely in Hardpoint lately and has only really played well in SnD, which looks to be Boston's better game mode. Overall I just see a better team in Boston and see them dominating London in every game mode, possible sweep situation here but more than likely 3-1 Boston.
LA Guerrillas looks awful. They have lost 5 straight games and their last three by sweep. They are making the move to bring Gunless back in for Spart and I think that helps them a little bit but this organization is a disaster right now and Florida is just the all-around better team. Florida was looking killer in the Pro-Am taking down Optic and Minnesota. In their first match of Major 3 though they were cut short as Prolute looked to be the perfect sub for Illey on Optic Texas. Florida should be able to rebound especially in the respawn game modes and get at worst a 3-1 win if not even a sweep.
Minnesota has finally looked much better so far in Major 3 after a roster change from MajorManiak to long-awaited return of Havok. They were able to sweep both LAG and LAT in their first two matches of Major 3. They now get a bit of a tough test in Toronto Ultra who has been a tough team to crack this season, because as soon as you think they are struggling they bounce and look much better. However, if Minnesota continue this type of play I could see them getting the win here and continuing their hot streak and locking up a winners bracket spot.
COD DFS Basics
- Like in CSGO, players receive two points for a kill and are penalized -1 for dying. Therefore, the simplest stat to look at here is the K/D ratio.
- You need to roster a team slot on both sites. Teams accrue fantasy points for games won (+4), matches won (+10), and Search and Destroy/Control rounds won (+.5).
- Teams will be playing best-of-five matches on a rotation of various game modes. Those modes and the order in which they are played are as follows: Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, Control, Hardpoint, Search & Destroy.
- In hardpoint rounds, players with positive K/D ratios are usually the highest scorers and these rounds are often the bloodiest.
- They also have changed a game mode from Domination to Control for League play. This is going to be a lot different in gameplay as it's round-based and not the first one to 200. They play first one to 3 round wins. You win by capturing both points or killing the enemy team until they run out of their lives. One team defends and the other attacks.
- There is a sweep bonus this year as teams and players both can get a 20 point player sweep and a 5 point team sweep. In the chance, they do sweep they also get granted a bonus of 20 points for not playing hardpoint and a bonus of 5 points for not playing the final Search and Destroy map. So that adds up in a sweep to a total of 45 extra points which are going to be very crucial this year.
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COD DFS Captain Considerations
Owakening: Owakenings recent DKP doesn't reflect how good he has been. Mainly because there is no scoring of the Pro-Am in there where he was playing insanely well! He averaged a 1.18 K/D in Hardpoint, .86 in SnD(bad gamemode for Florida during the Pro-AM), and a 1.36 in Control. Owakening is a strong respawn player and has shown throughout the season that he can drop some big numbers when it comes to his DKP. As he has dropped 130+ in 5 games this season including an insane 171 DKP match. Even in their loss to Optic most recently he scored 93 DKP and they were the ones getting swept. They should be on the winning side of things this time around and I expect an even better scoring line out of him.
Attach: Overall this season, Attach has been killer and really the top player on his team. And so far in Major 3, he has been insanely dominate. With a 1.33 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.7 in SnD, and a 1.51 in Control. Now I don't think he continues those numbers but, if we get anything close to that we take that. Especially at the discount we get him compared to Standy who tops the board at 10.2k. I love this matchup too as it should be kept pretty close but I do think it favors Minnesota if they can continue to play the way they have been. Attach has scored 98 DKP or better in his last 5 games scored by DK and has scored 157, 132, and 142 in 3 of the other games. Those are some insane numbers, so anything close to that and we are getting insane numbers especially in the captain spot.
Other captain plays: Standy, Cammy(GPP), Capsidal, Methodz, Skyz
COD DFS Value Plays
TJHaly: There was not much safe value on this slate and so taking a risk here on TJHaly who has had a bit of an up and down season so far. TJHaly and Nero have led the team in engagements but it seems that TJHaly has been doing more positive with his engagements rather than Nero who has been struggling as of late. We are getting TJ at a nice price of 7,600$. With London struggling so far I like Boston to take advantage of that and we could possibly see a nice little scoring line out of TJ as well. Not much consistency here but with how little value there is on this slate, taking a shot on TJ is well worth it. Anything above 95 DKP and I would call it solid value from TJ who is very capable of hitting something like that.
Havok: It's good to see Havok back in the league. He was a great player for Florida last year and it was hard to see him not in the league at the beginning of the season this year. He killed it in challengers and forced his way back into the league and has put himself into a great spot on a team that so desparetly needed a change in roster and so far it looks like it has worked out for everyone as they have swept two straight games now. In the first game of the Major qualifiers for Havok resulted in a +23 K/D differential on 67 kills in a absolute dominating game by Rokkr. He was a bit of a letdown in game 2 against LAT but at minimum price, I don't know how you don't take Havok. He is in a great spot and is scoring well for so cheap. Even if he doesn't score like he did in game 1, at 6k anything above 90 DKP is worth it.
Other value plays: Vivid, CleanX(GPP), Afro(GPP PUNT)
COD DFS Stacks
Florida Mutineers: This is more against how poor LA Guerrillas has been and taking advantage of that. Although Florida got swept by Optic, I still feel like Florida was in it the whole time. Owakening is always a top play and has been the best player for this team and we get him at a discount compared to his teammate Skyz who is a whopping 10k. Skyz has struggled recently but the matchup is good and I think could be a worth a shot, he will be lower-owned than Owakening just based on his price. Davpadie has been playing well lately but doesn't get as many kills compared to the rest of his teammates. Vivid engages the most on his team by a mile which can mean more kills but it can also mean a lot of deaths which seems to make me always hesistant to play him. He is however, pretty cheap and is a good pairing with Owakening. It is very high risk/high reward with vivid. Like I said though matchup is elite and Florida should be able to dominate a poor LAG in bad form right now.
Other Team Plays: Minnesota Rokkr, Boston Breach, Toronto Ultra(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: Boston 3-1, Florida 3-0/1, Minnesota 3-1
- London: Afro, Harry
- Boston: Capsidal, Methodz, TJHaly
- Florida: All
- LAG: Huke
- Minnesota: Attach, Standy, Havok
- Toronto: Cammy, CleanX
More eSports DFS Analysis
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