Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for DraftKings! Welcome back to COD DFS! The first week of Stage 5 continues! We were pretty much on the right spots, Priestahh killed it and John wasn't a horrible pick from LA Thieves as they upset NYSL! Atlanta and Optic did what they do best and make quick of their matchups. Let's keep the momentum going into a chalky slate again!
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! Going into Saturday we get an overpriced Atlanta team going against Paris Legion. Florida and Seattle get each other for their first game of Stage 5, and Dallas Empire gets their first matchup against a struggling LA Guerrillas team!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Saturday, July 10th, 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: New York Subliners Home Series
Best of 5
- Atlanta FaZe (-1800) vs. Paris Legion (+750)
- Seattle Surge (+150) vs. Florida Mutineers (-190)
- Dallas Empire (-900) vs. LA Guerrillas (+475)
Slate Overview
Atlanta is just so dominant, at this point it's not even fair. And unfortunately, good luck stacking them. All four of their players are in the top six of the pricing scale this time around and that is just insane to me. It makes it very difficult to get them in but it's not impossible, you just have to play a value captain and two other value plays to get them in! Easy enough right? Other than the fact that all those value plays have to perform. With this slate lacking much value, it's going to be difficult to do something like this. All of them are in play but careful how much you forfeit in the rest of your lineup. 3-0 Atlanta.
Seattle was coming off what could have been an insane cinderella story if they were able to beat Optic in Round 3 of the major. Octane was going absolutely berzerk on LAN and unfortunately came up just short. Hopefully, they keep their confidence up though and can bring a fight in this match against another team that was playing very well in the Major before ending their run in a 5 map loss to NYSL. Seattle has been improving their game a lot and has won in Control 5 straight times. I can't recommend Seattle on an Online game but as soon as LAN is back for Major 5 there is a good chance ill be back on Seattle. For now, it's a Florida 3-1 win.
Dallas is coming off an insane run in Major 5 and almost pulled off the upset over Atlanta FaZe in Game 9 of the Grand Final. Dallas looked much better in the Major than they did all of the series games and now get an elite matchup against LA Guerrillas. They are coming off a 3-1 loss against Minnesota and Dallas I think is a much better team. Dallas should be coming in hot and ready to make this one quick for LAG. Vivid is playing much better and Shotzzy is playing at an MVP level like he was last season. Dallas 3-0.
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
Skyz: Skyz is on another level right now. His play has been awesome to watch and during Stage 4 he put up 100+ DKP in every single game. He has a 1.26 K/D in Hardpoint, a .90 in SnD, and a 1.10 in Control during stage 4. This matchup against Seattle can go many ways, but any of them more than likely result in Skyz playing well. If he sweeps? Cool, he's going to put up big numbers in 3 maps? If he gets a game 4, fantastic, an extra hardpoint map can be big for a player like Skyz. Even if Seattle pushes it to Game 5, Skyz is going to be a fantastic option. He is a fantastic player and is putting up big numbers, I have to ride the hot hand here.
Shotzzy: Shotzzy has just been lighting it up during Stage 4! He has 5 straight games over 100+ DKP and in 6 of his last 7. The only time under was in a 0-3 sweep by Toronto. He has looked like the player we all saw last year as he has been tearing up the competition and helping lead his team to victory. Last outing against LAG he had 136 with a +23 K/D differential. He is averaging a 1.01 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.21 in SnD, and a 1.15 in Control during stage 4 so hopefully, that continues into stage 5 as well. He is also leading his teams in kills in every game mode. If there is anyone you should be grabbing from Dallas it's definitely this guy.
Other captain plays: Atlanta Players, Octane(GPP), Neptune
COD DFS Value Plays
Havok: I do wanna say in this, if you have the option to get to Neptune from here, do it. Neptune is a much better play but with Paris and LAG both susceptible to a possible sweep it makes it difficult to not want to play them. Havok is by far the cheapest on the board from a favored team and that's the only reason he is interesting. He played okay in the Major's but not enough to get him a price bump. This matchup should be close and I could see it going to 4 or 5 maps. If you need someone to fill out your lineup and he happens to be available great. But Havok is a pure Punt play at best and you just have to hope he has a good game. Right now he has a .9 K/D in Hardpoint, a .97 in SnD, and a .85 in Control. 6,600 is cheap and can really help save money but a more balanced lineup approach might be the way to go to avoid something like this.
iLLeY: I can't say Illey has been the greatest as of late but this matchup is elite for Dallas. They are coming off a 2nd place finish in the finals and should be feeling really good coming into this matchup. Illey had 101 DKP in their 3-0 win over LAG last time out. I expect a similar result and as long as I get 90+ out of him, I will feel like that is a win. He is in a really good spot and played well in the Major as well where he had 117 against Optic and 92 in their game 5 loss against Toronto. 7,600 is a very good price for Illey and should be heavily considered in your Dallas stacks. As other than Havok there isn't much left towards the bottom of the barrel of players to choose from.
Other value plays: Gunless, Vivid, Neptune, Classic(PUNT)
COD DFS Stacks
Dallas Empire: Atlanta is the obvious stack if you can get to them, so we are going to look at Dallas Empire instead. Shotzzy has just been on an absolute tear right now and has helped lead this team to what was almost a Grand Finals win over FaZe. Vivid has really stepped up his game as well which is what I really think propelled this team because they just couldn't find much production with Felo. In their last outing against LA Guerrillas too, they won 3-0 and all 4 players looked great in the process.
Shotzzy would be my go-to first play to look at. Illey performed really well in the Major and their last matchup against LAG as well and is probably one of the cheaper plays on the board which makes me interested in him. Vivid is a good option as well. C6 I'm slightly less interested in based on price but he hasn't played bad recently and so I think can be a good option as well.
Other Team Plays: Atlanta (Clear Cash Stack), Florida Mutineers
Summary
- TLDR: Atlanta 3-0, Florida 3-1, Dallas Empire 3-0
- Atlanta: All Players
- Paris: Fade
- Florida: Skyz, Neptune, Owakening
- Seattle: Octane, Gunless
- Dallas Empire: Shotzzy, Vivid, Illey
- LAG: Assault at most
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
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