RADIO
Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for DraftKings! Welcome to the start of Stage four of the 2021 CDL Season! Atlanta FaZe came out and dominated the competition and took down NYSL to win their 2nd Major of the year! It was a very close set of games down the stretch with the final four teams and what a last day of stage 3 it was! Lots of roster moves happened since we last played, so we have to make sure we aren't picking players that aren't playing! I'll be here all Stage long to make sure we make the best picks possible for our lineups!
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! My Name is Koby and I'll be here all season long to help guide you through the COD DFS world. Hopefully, the start of stage 4 will result in big wins for us! The games we have for us on Thursday are Paris Legion vs. Atlanta FaZe and Florida Mutineers vs. Toronto Ultra. On Friday we have London Royal Ravens vs. Dallas Empire and Minnesota Rokkr vs. Optic Chicago! So let's dive into this slate
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Thursday and Friday, May 27th-28th, 2021, at 3:00 PM. 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: London Royal Ravens Home Series
Best of 5
- Atlanta FaZe (-1100) vs. Paris Legion (+550)
- Toronto Ultra (-385) vs. Florida Mutineers (+265)
- Dallas Empire (-210) vs. London Royal Ravens (+155)
- Optic Chicago (-285) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (+210)
Slate Overview
The only team worse than Paris is Seattle(unfortunately), and with these odds, I just don't give Paris much of a chance. They have made once again another roster change as they have dropped Classic and brought in Zaptius from London. This was a poor move, Zaptius hasn't shown much of anything this season as he has negative K/Ds in all game modes but Control. He is a slight upgrade from Classic, but I don't think it will be improvement enough to beat a hot Atlanta FaZe team who is coming off another Major win and has taken back the crown as the best team in the league! This should end in a sweep by Atlanta, and I would take that every time. Also, note that DraftKings messed up and put Theory(Who is their Coach) in the pricing when Zaptius is the one that is playing. Do not play Theory even if you dare play Paris.
This is going to be a great game. Florida has improved but man is Toronto a good team. Toronto is coming off a disappointing end to their Major 3 campaign in a tough loss to Atlanta who went on to win the Major. Toronto has won 12 of their last 15 with their only losses coming to Atlanta FaZe. They swept Florida at the beginning of Stage 3, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it again, Florida has improved a bit and Owakening and Skyz have been a force not to be messed with. I think Toronto wins this but by sweep or by 3-1 is up for debate. Should be a close and great game to watch. Cammy is in MVP form right now and I wouldn't doubt that continues going into stage 4.
What a disaster the last week has been for these two teams. Fortunately for Dallas, they made a big upgrade as they dropped Felo and grabbed Vivid off the waiver wire to bring in a big SMG player to help add to their fast pace of play. London on the other hand is making another roster change in fact two of them. As they have dropped Zaptius and Zed and brought in Alexx and Afro from the Challenger scene. So note, Zed is not playing, and do not play him. Alexx I was kind of curious as to why they benched him in the first place but with them bringing on Afro as well. This could be a great team. We just have no idea how all these roster changes are affecting the team. So I lean Dallas in this situation but this is going to be a close match.
Optic made quite the push to make a run at the Major 3 championship before coming up just short in the semi-finals against Toronto. I was really worried for this team in Stage 3 but they looked much better in the Major and I think they can continue the momentum here against Minnesota Rokkr who has subbed out Accuracy in favor of MajorManiak who they subbed out earlier in the season. We shall see how MajorManiak plays but if it's anything like before. This should be an easy win for Optic Chicago. Give me the sweep from them.
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 K/D ratio. However, players can also earn fantasy points for planting or defusing bombs (three points each) in Search and Destroy rounds, so there are some players who we can target for other skills besides their ability to kill the opponent.
- 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 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
Atlanta FaZe: It's kind of weird putting a team for a captain spot but this whole team is very capable of breaking this slate and scoring an absurd amount of points in a sweep. This game should end in a sweep, Paris is not very good at all and Atlanta is the best team in the league. You don't have to know too much COD to know that Atlanta should have their way here.
Anyways you can really take anyone in the captain spot but I do recommend getting at least 2 Atlanta guys in your lineup completely. Abezy is the top play but is also the most expensive by far. Simp is a bit too expensive for my taste as his production has been all over the place and I just can't pay 10k for him right now. Cellium is a bit similar but he is only 8,400, his production has been a bit sporadic but I'm more likely to spend the price for Cellium than I am Simp. Arcitys has lowkey been a sleeper though. he has been super consistent as he has 100+ DKP games in 5 of his last 6 and the one game he went under he had 97. Arcitys has been a great cheap captain option, and with how many studs are on the board he makes for a great option.
Cammy: Cammy is in MVP form. 6 straight games of 114 DKP+ or better games, with 3 of 125+ or better. He has a fantastic matchup against Florida in what should be a bloodbath. Last outing for Cammy against Florida he had 154 DKP and 80 kills in 3 maps. That is absolutely an absurd amount of kills for that little amount of maps. Most players don't even hit that in 4 maps let alone 3. In stage three, Cammy averaged a 1.12 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.31 in SnD, and a 1.07 in Control. Cammy is an elite play at a slight discount from some of the top players on the board. He might go slightly lower owned too as people are going to focus ownership more on Optic and Atlanta.
Other captain plays: Dashy, Envoy, Shotzzy, Insight
COD DFS Value Plays
Vivid: There is not much value on this board, so I'm bringing back a good ole Vivid. It's been a while but I'm hoping in a game against London he thrives. He will be able to go all-in on this game and show LAG what they are missing. He is one of the highest-paced players in the game, and that can equal a lot of kills but also a lot of deaths. He should thrive in game modes such as Hardpoint and Control but will suffer in SnD. His K/D is a little rough but I like the narrative coming into this one. With a new team and a possible new game plan I'm hoping he slows down a bit and focuses more on staying alive and getting kills rather than rushing and dying so much. On a slate that is spread thin for value, Vivid provides us an enticing play in which he can drop big fantasy numbers as he has shown, and the matchup against London is a perfect one for him to start on.
Bance: Bance has been improving quite a bit since the start of the season and yet is still fairly cheap at 7,400. He really is the best value on the slate for Toronto being a larger favorite. In a sweep, he has shown games that he can take over and drop bombs. Such as a sweep against Dallas where he had 145 DKP. Against Florida last time out he had 105. Which is the perfect amount for what we need at his price. His production has been a bit all over the place but in sweeps, he has been more consistent. If Toronto can continue their trend of dominance into Stage 4, we could be looking at another sweep by Toronto. Bance in Stage 3 averaged a 1.04 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.00 in Control, and poor.87 K/D in SnD. I'm not too worried about the SnD as he should be able to make up for it in the other game modes. A sweep would benefit us greatly here to help Bance though.
Other value plays: iLLeY, Arcitys, Scump, Havok(PUNT)
COD DFS Stacks
Toronto Ultra: Atlanta is an obvious stack and I already talked about them a bunch in the captain spot, So I decided to move them to the side, and let's talk about Toronto. What an elite team they have been so far this season. 12/15 wins in a row this season with their only 3 losses coming at the hand of a tough Atlanta team. Cammy and Insight are playing at elite levels right now and the team as a whole is melding so well together! CleanX got a bit of a bump in price after being in the mid 7k range for a while. He's been playing well though so I have no problem playing him. Bance I really like as a value play. There isn't much on the board for value so grabbing him might be a must-have if you want a high-priced captain or high-priced lineup in general. I like Toronto as a pivot in large GPPs too Atlanta, or even a smaller stack to go with an Atlanta stack.
Optic Chicago: Optic's prices have dropped like rocks, but Optic really turned it up in the Major as they almost took themselves to the finals from just the losers bracket before losing to Toronto. You can get a full Optic stack for pretty cheap as Dashy and Envoy are all about a grand cheaper than they usually are. They will more than likely come in high in a favorable matchup against Minnesota who has subbed Accuracy and brought MajorManiak in from the bench. I don't think this is helpful to Minnesota in any way and they are going to need Standy and Attach to step up big time if they have any hope of taking down the likes of Optic right now. I'm pretty confident in Optic winning this one, They have been the better team in every game mode this season, especially hardpoint and SnD, at worst I see this ending in a 3-1 Optic win, with Minnesota taking a close Control game. I would stick to Envoy and Dashy from Optic as Formal has been on a downhill slope right now and I'm very hesitant to play him at the moment. If you are looking for 80ish points then you can grab Scump but I definitely can't recommend him.
Other Team Plays: Atlanta FaZe, Dallas Empire, Florida Mutineers(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: Atlanta FaZe 3-0, Toronto Ultra 3-1, Dallas Empire 3-1, Optic Chicago 3-0
- This is an odd slate, We have a bunch of favorites on the slate and they are some of the top teams in the league. Atlanta, Toronto, and Optic are all some of the best options, but its going to be tough grabbing them in every single position.
- Atlanta and Optic is chalk.
- I like Dallas with their upgrade of Vivid.
- Toronto seems to always get lost in the dust but Cammy and Insight are elite and always great options.
- London Ravens I give the highest chance to upset but I don't think any upsets happen this week and with them making more changes to the roster that ruins their chances a bit more.
- Florida is always live for an upset especially when I pick against them...
- Minnesota has a tough match against Optic and just benched Accuracy in favor of MajorManiak...
- What can I say but Good Luck Paris Legion?
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