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 the third stage of the 2021 CDL Season! Back to another weekend of COD DFS! Paris did it again to me against Florida, Just cant nail Florida down to save my life. LA Thieves beat Optic which really surprised me, and Toronto won as expected, just wish they would have swept them to help my lineup out.
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. We have a bunch of very close games to start our last weekend before the third major of the year! I'm going to do my best to give you the best analysis of these games. On Thursday we have Minnesota Rokkr taking on LA Guerrillas and Optic Chicago taking on NYSL. On Friday we have Atlanta FaZe taking on the new and improved Seattle Surge, and lastly, Dallas Empire taking on Florida Mutineers to round out the first slate!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Thursday-Friday, May 6th-7th, 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: Paris Legion Home Series
Best of 5
- Minnesota Rokkr (-165) vs. LA Guerrillas (+125)
- Optic Chicago (-150) vs. NY Subliners (+115)
- Atlanta FaZe (-650) vs. Seattle Surge (+400)
- Dallas Empire (-175) vs. Florida Mutineers (+135)
Slate Overview
This first game is going to be very interesting, LA Guerrillas have been on the cusp of winning multiple times this season and have some impressive wins over LA Thieves and Atlanta. Both teams aren't playing particularly great in Stage 3, but someone has to come out on top. Since Silly has been moved to the SMG role, he has struggled to go positive, and as he is engaging much more. I find Cheen and Assault very interesting in this slate and could make for some decent plays. On the other side, Priestahh, Attach, and Standy are all playing well but are failing to close games out. I give the edge to Minnesota in Hardpoint oddly enough and maybe even Control. SnD will be pretty close but LAG has been great in SnD in recent weeks and I give them the edge here. I really do think the deciding factor will be the Control and who can win that. This one will be close.
Optic Chicago disappointed as they were just railed all game long and only beating LA Thieves in SnD. Their job doesn't get any easier here as they play NYSL who has beaten FaZe and lost to London. Which team we get here is up in the air for sure. but what I do know is Hydra and Clayster are playing much better and Mack has even stepped it up in Control maps. NYSL has been the better Hardpoint team, so I like them to dominate those maps. Optic is the better SnD team though. So once again this comes down to Control and either way this game should be going to at least 4 games, as I don't see either team sweeping one another.
This is your most likely shot at a sweep but with FaZes recent play, there is a good chance we see Seattle take at least one map. Seattle also made a big move on their roster by dropping the absolute deadweight in Loony who was once good but the addition of Decemate will make Seattle a much better team. I'm not going to come out and say Seattle wins this game but Decemate has been killing it in the Challengers scene and could make a massive difference for Seattle. I expect Seattle to give Atlanta FaZe a run for their money as even London was able to take FaZe to game 5... I also think Prestinni and Octane are going to be heavily undervalued.
Now here is my likely shot at a sweep. Florida makes absolutely no sense to me. I want this team to be good so bad, and they have the team to do it, but they just can't work it out. I really thought the addition of Havok was going to give them a boost but has done very little to make a difference. The loss to Paris was the icing on the cake as well. Skyz had a bad game and so did Havok. Neptune looked much better and well Owakening can cause havoc at any moment. Against Dallas though is going to be rough they are much better than Paris, Felo has been improving by each game that he plays and Illey and Shottzy are both playing extremely well currently. This is going to be a tough game for Florida, they are really going to have to improve if they want to succeed in this stage or future stages.
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
Clayster: Against Optic, it's a tough pick, but in Stage 3, Clayster really stepped up his game after what was a horrid ending to Stage 2. Clayster has a 1.34 K/D in Hardpoint, 1.01 in Control, and a 1.00 in SnD, he's playing so much better and I really like him here in this spot. As long as this game is close and it goes 4+ games. I could definitely see Clayster scoring 100+ once again. He has had 111+ in three straight games including a 5 game match against Atlanta. If Subliners can keep up with Atlanta, and with Optic losing to LA Thieves. This could be a bloodbath and as long as Clayster is on his game, we could be looking at another high-scoring game, plus he is only 8,400 which is a great price to get a captain at and not lose too much elsewhere with a high priced captain.
Shotzzy: Shotzzy looked a lot better in his last game against Paris, and that gives me a lot of hope coming into this match. Florida has looked rough and in the last outing against them, Shotzzy had 139 DKP in a sweep. I wouldn't say Florida hasn't got much better since then, so I'm hoping they can sweep again. Shotzzy is very capable of dropping high kill games especially with him being the main carry now that Huke is gone. If this game does happen to past 3 though, I'm confident in Shotzzy to play well in hardpoint to make it worth losing the sweep. As long as he scored 100+ in this match, we should be good at his price compared to the chalk that is Atlanta. Shotzzy is averaging a 1.01 K/D overall, 1.02 in Hardpoint, a .92 in SnD, and a 1.06 in Control. He gets lots of kills in respawn game modes and if he can limit his deaths as much as possible, then shotzzy should be in for a good game.
Other captain plays: Atlanta Players, Octane(GPP), Dashy, FormaL, Standy, Assault(GPP)
COD DFS Value Plays
Hydra: Hydra must only step up when there is a challenge because their sweep against Seattle he looked horrid. It was a very bad game for him, but I like him to bounce back here. He is far too cheap and in such a strong matchup that should favor his gameplay in hardpoint where he holds a 1.34 K/D so far this season. He struggles a bit in Control and SnD but I think this is a great match to show he can do more than be a great hardpoint player. He has a 1.01 overall K/D this season. Hardpoint is NYSL strong suit too and I do think this match goes to at least 4 games, so that's two maps for Hydra to get a lot of kills in and take advantage of his low price at 7,200 and is a great pair with Clayster.
Felo: Felo is starting to heat up, and with Huke being transferred to another team, he can relax a bit and focus and not feel like he can be benched overnight just hanging around. Against LAG in 5 maps he managed to get up to 95 DKP and went positive with 73 kills and over 3 minutes of hill time. I expect a game that is not going to be as close and could even possibly sweep. Florida hasn't looked great this season and I think Shotzzy and Felo can take advantage of that. So far I would say FeLo has mainly struggled in Control but Florida has lost all three control maps this stage and they haven't been pretty. FeLo might be able to improve on his game against Florida in Control and continue to succeed in what he has been doing well in.
Other value plays: Prestinni, Decemate, Priestahh, Havok(PUNT)
COD DFS Stacks
Dallas Empire: I really like Dallas in this spot, Florida is struggling and Dallas isn't looking too bad, they took a rough loss against Toronto but they are on a roll right now. Florida has been all over the place and has been nearly unpredictable. Shotzzy looks much better in his last outing against LAG. And that gives me hope coming into this game. I really don't hate anyone on this team, especially since Illey got priced back down again as well as C6 a bit. Dallas has been the best at Hardpoint and SnD, and I expect wins from them in those maps. Control will be close but I also think Dallas can win just really comes down to what map is picked and who it ends up favoring.
Atlanta FaZe: Atlanta will always be chalk stack and especially against Seattle who has struggled. The only issue I see here is that Seattle dropped what was hurting them in loony, they then picked up decemate who has been killing it in respawn game modes which is something Seattle desperately needs. This is a big upgrade for Seattle and they could be dangerous coming into this game. Atlanta is still the chalk call though and is a team to play always in cash games, in GPPs though I really don't mind the fade. If you playing FaZe, Simp and Cellium are my favorites but I don't mind Abezy either.
Other Team Plays: NY Subliners, Minnesota Rokkr, LA Guerrillas(GPP), Optic Chicago
Summary
- TLDR: Minnesota Rokkr 3-2, NYSL 3-1, Atlanta FaZe 3-1, Dallas Empire 3-0
- Atlanta FaZe is going to be chalk, especially at those odds, but I don't think they sweep and that's going to end up being bad chalk especially if you stack them heavily. If they do sweep they are going to be high-scoring and chalky though.
- I really like Dallas in this slate and I think are the best to stack.
- Both of the other games are going to be extremely close, either of the teams could win and LAG is looking better
- Subliners: Clayster, Hydra
- Optic: Dashy, FormaL
- LAG: Cheen, Assault
- Minnesota Rokkr: Everyone but Accuracy
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