RADIO
Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for DraftKings! Welcome to another week of Stage 4 COD DFS! It was a quick one on Sunday as all three teams swept their opponents with, Florida, Toronto, and Atlanta all coming out on top! Time for another great week so let's dive on in!
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! To start us off on Thursday we have Atlanta FaZe getting their warmups in against Seattle Surge, and Dallas Empire and LA Guerrillas look to get their first wins of Stage 4 to finish out Day 1. LA Thieves take on Paris Legion to start us off on Friday and NYSL get a fantastic matchup against the home team in the Florida Mutineers who are making a run at the first seed in their group!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Thursday and Friday, June 3rd and 4th, 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: Florida Mutineers Home Series
Best of 5
- Atlanta FaZe (-1100) vs. Seattle Surge (+575)
- Dallas Empire (-155) vs. LA Guerrillas (+120)
- LA Thieves (-300) vs. Paris Legion (+220)
- NY Subliners (-275) vs. Florida Mutineers (+195)
Slate Overview
With our biggest favorites on the slate, we have the No.1 ranked team vs the No. 12 ranked team. Seattle is a gritty team that likes to steal a map a good amount of the time and only has been swept 4 times this season. With Atlanta not being one of those teams. There is a good chance FaZe sweeps and that's the obvious pick but something in the back of my head says Seattle gets a win in one of these maps. Most likely in hardpoint as that has been Seattle's best game mode by far. If they don't get Hardpoint off the bat this is most likely ending in a sweep. The safe pick is Atlanta 3-0.
What a disaster the Dallas Empire has been recently. The LA Guerrillas haven't been much better either, that's why I think this is a great matchup as it's really anyone's game. The last time these two played LAG was able to take it to Game 5 before Dallas squeaked out a win in SnD. I expect something of the same resort here as both teams have been absolute wrecks lately. I give the edge to Dallas based on experience but I wouldn't be surprised to see a LAG upset. So give me 3-2 Dallas.
LA Thieves barely beat the Seattle Surge, but that is because LA's worst game mode has been hardpoint and that just happens to be Seattle's best. In this case, Paris's worst game mode is definitely hardpoint and Control. LAT should win in both of these and with TJ back in the starting roster, that gives me hope for an SnD win as well. TJ has been elite in SnD this year and just has struggled in other game modes. Paris's best game mode is SnD though, and if they grab that game mode then it's more than likely going to end in a 3-1 win for LA. So 3-0 if they win SnD, or 3-1 if they lose. Either way, I'm pretty confident in a LA Thieves win.
What a banger this matchup should be. NYSL is coming off a second-place finish in Major 3. And Florida Mutineers is looking hot right now with a big win over the Toronto Ultra and a sweep over the London Royal Ravens. The last matchup though for Florida against NYSL ended in them being swept. So that does worry me and give the edge to NYSL. Skyz and Owakening are going to have to step up big time in this matchup to cause some disruption. The race for the first seed in Major 4 starts here, and this matchup could determine who gets that advantage. I'm going to say 3-1 NYSL as Florida has improved their SnD game a lot and could win that game mode. The rest lies in the hands of Skyz to make a big upset happen.
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
Cellium: Cellium has sat in the same price of salary basically all season long ranging from the high 8k range to the very low 9k range. And as long as he is there, I will continue to play him versus Simp or Abezy. We get nearly the same production for 1k cheaper and that's something I will always take. They should end up sweeping Seattle but in the off chance that they don't, I really don't think that affects Cellium as he has been a beast in hardpoint this season, as he has a 1.11 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.08 in SnD, and a 1.19 K/D in Control. These numbers are only behind the great Simp, but they are very close and I love the discount we get for Cellium. Simp and Abezy are excellent plays as well in this matchup, I just find it much more difficult to grab Simp or Abezy at these very high prices.
Kenny: The last time out against Paris, it was against a slightly different squad as Classic and Fire are no longer a part of the team and have brought in Temp and Zaptius since then. I don't think that either of these has helped though, Temp at most. Anyways, it ended in a sweep, and Kenny and Drazah feasted with +14 and +23 K/D differentials. I don't expect much to change and at most an SnD win happens in favor of Paris, but that's just an extra map for Kenny to grab an extra 25-30 kills to add to his total. He has struggled in his two recent games to cross that 100 DKP threshold but I'm not very worried about that in this matchup. Seattle gave them a sweat last week but I just don't see Paris doing the same as they have been so poor this season. Kenny during Stage 3 averaged a 1.06 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.09 in SnD, and a 1.15 in Control. He is an excellent play at 9k which is over a grand cheaper than some of the top-priced players on the slate.
Other captain plays: Abezy, Simp, Hyrda, Drazah, Skyz(GPP)
COD DFS Value Plays
Venom: I'm going right back to Venom here, he is in a great spot against Paris and he has been playing pretty well lately. He has 85+ in 7 of his last 8 games and has been playing well in Control and SnD, where he has positive K/Ds. His main struggle is in Hardpoint where he seems to be dying a lot. If he can make his way back up to even based on his stats in Control and SnD, I will take that. That is basically all we are looking for here out of Venom is a positive K/D and a lot of kills. Paris isn't the best team and this could end in a sweep if LAT can win on SnD, as this seems to be Paris's best game mode in recent weeks. Paris has been awful at Hardpoint and Control recently and I think LAT can take advantage of that and at worst this ends in a 3-1 win.
Cheen: This is kind of a weird play but I'm just not loving the value on these slates lately. So I'm putting Cheen here because with how poorly Dallas has been playing recently, I think LAG has a good shot at keeping this match at least close. They aren't the greatest team by any means but they have been keeping games close even against Dallas last time they played it was taken to game 5. Cheen has looked good since joining the team as he holds a solid 1.01 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.17 in SnD, and a 1.02 in Control. At 8k, I don't mind that at all. As long as this game stays close, this could be a good cheap spot for a very good player in Cheen.
Other value plays: Arcitys, Havok, C6, Mack
COD DFS Stacks
Atlanta FaZe: Here is the chalk for all your cash game contests. Might as well stack as many as possible and hope that Seattle doesn't ruin your sweeping dreams. Seattle is one of those teams though that doesn't show up for an entire game, and do show up for at least one map just to ruin the sweep. They played Atlanta last Stage and were able to take a Hardpoint game. Do I think this happens again? Probably not as Atlanta just swept FaZe and are going to be riding high and most likely just want to make this a quick and painless one for the 12th ranked team in Seattle Surge. All players are viable here, but my ranking of them goes Cellium, Arcitys, Simp, Abezy. Based on Pricing and performance they seem like the best options for stacking purposes in your cash game lineups.
LA Thieves: I think a lot of people overlook LA Thieves and go straight to the NYSL game as the teams in that one are going to make for a bloody matchup. I do like the Thieves here though. They are coming off a close win over the Seattle Surge and now get about the same level of a matchup in the Paris Legion. Paris on the other hand has been very poor in Hardpoint and Control. Therefore at worst I think this match ends in a LA Thieves 3-1 win. But if LA can pull out a win in SnD where they haven't been too bad, they could make this a sweep. Having TJ back on the roster really helps with SnD, and they made Seattle look like a bunch of fools in that game mode. I would not be surprised to see a LA sweep and that makes me really like them as a contrarian stack to your Atlanta FaZe lineups. Drazah and Kenny have both been elite plays so far and I love the value we get on Venom. I didn't like how TJ looked in his first game back but if LA sweeps then TJ could also be great value on the slate.
Other Team Plays: NYSL/Florida Game, LAG(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: Atlanta 3-0, Dallas 3-2, LA Thieves 3-1, NYSL 3-1
- Atlanta: All Players
- Seattle: Octane
- Dallas: Shotzzy, C6
- LAG: Assault, Cheen
- LA Thieves: Kenny, Drazah, Venom
- Paris: Skrapz
- NYSL: All
- Florida: Owakening, Skyz
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
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