Welcome back, RotoBallers, to another edition of my Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DFS picks! If you are reading this, you must be missing sports quite a bit but have found solace in DFS ESports! For those that are new to the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DFS set up, don't worry I got your back!
If you need a quick refresher, here you go. You have teams of five and the objective is to plant a bomb while the other team defends. It’s a pretty simple objective so let’s not try to over-analyze things! There are 30 rounds per match (the first to win 16 rounds takes the match) and they play best two out of three. There is no respawning so once you die, you are gone till the next round so kill-to-death ratios are very important to look at it when crafting your roster.
Today I'll be bringing you my Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DFS advice, analysis and picks for ESports DFS contests on DraftKings Wednesday, April 8th, 2020 at 8:25 AM. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @rdr1634.
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Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - DFS Basics
From a DFS perspective, you have six total spots with 1 of those being a captain spot which gets 1.5X points. With any shooting game, kills and deaths are a big focal point in CSGO DFS. Kills get you 1.5 points and assists get you 1 point while a death gets you -1. This is where the K/D (kill to death ratio) comes into play and is something that you should really pay close attention to when making your picks on each slate.
We want to roster guys who can limit the death total and not completely sink our lineups just because of reckless play and die more frequently. Additional bonuses are handed out but the biggest thing to focus on is the kill to death ratio. One overlooked stat is the game length adjustment stat. This is an adjustment that takes a player score, gets multiplied by 30 and then divided by the number of rounds played.
When it comes to roster construction, we will obviously look to fill the captain spot with someone who provides a solid floor but one who can have the most upside as well. For this article, I will look at the different matchups, give a player pool and make some recommendations as to who I like on the slate.
Wednesday's Games: ESL
- Mousesports -120 vs. Fnatics -105
- FaZe +120 vs. Natus Vincere -150
- Astralis -315 vs. OG +240
* All of these teams were on the slate yesterday so you could see some overlap when it comes to the recommendation of plays. I’m also going to switch up the article a bit and go over some individual plays that I like and then go over my top 3 teams/ stacks on the slate.
Captain Considerations:
S1mple is just too good to pass up. He has a 1.49 K/D ratio over the 12 months in all ESL events and simply has the highest upside of anyone on the slate while also having some of the most consistent totals as well. He is averaging 82.5 DK points over his last four matches and has reached 70 kills in two out of four of those matches while having a four-kill round in three out of four of those matches. Needless to say, he is the do it all player for the Natus Vincere team and for them to win, he needs to play at an elite level. Even though he is the priciest player on the slate, you still should find a way to roster him since he has so much upside and consistency in a DFS sport that has a lot of variance.
Device has been a real consistent fantasy play over the last 4 games. He is averaging 76 DK points and if you place him at the captain role, he is averaging 114 points per game. Over the past month, he has had a 1.21 K/D ratio which leads this Astralis squad and with them being heavy favorites in a good matchup against OG, he should be able to put up some fantasy points. He does offer some salary savings and is someone to consider in both cash games and tournaments.
Ropz has been another player that has been a plug and play almost every day. He has been averaging 79.9 DK points over his last five games which is 2nd to only S1mple. He has been arguably the most consistent player from a fantasy standpoint as he has not scored less than 63 DK points and has scored above 80 in his last four games. Ropz is a great cash game pick and if you have some extra salary in tournaments, an 80+ score would not hurt you one bit either.
Value Plays:
Xyp9x is way underpriced for his upside. He is $6,200 and one could even argue that he could be the best value for the captain role if you were wanting to get different in tournaments and wanted a value play in the captain role and spend up on the rest of your lineup. He has gone + in five out of his last seven matches and has averaged 60.4 DK points over that same span. Xyp9x has major kill upside but he does have the ability to put himself in danger which brings the death toll up as well. He is a very good tournament player on a slate where his team is a heavy favorite and he will get opportunities for kills.
Coldzera is just 6k and to me, he could be a nice one-off piece from the FaZe squad on this slate. FaZe has been struggling as of late as they are 0-2 to start Stage 2 of the ESL so in order for them to turn things around, they will need some of their cornerstone players to play at a high level. Coldzera has 40+ kills in four out of his last five games so there is some upside to using him.
KRIMZ is on the higher side of the value section at $6,800 but he has been a solid player for Fnatic. He has a 1.10 K/D ratio over the last month and has had 50+ kills in three out of his last seven games. In five out of his last seven games, he has eclipsed the 50 DK point mark and he is currently averaging 55 DK points per game over his last seven games. KRIMZ is a great tournament play and could be lower owned due to them being an underdog in their matchup.
Top 3 Stacks :
-Astralis comes into this slate as the heavy favorite for their matchup against OG. OG is coming off of their first win of the Stage 2 round against Fnatic which was very important since they were able to avoid an 0-3 start. Heading into Tuesday’s slate, Astralis was also searching for their first win of Stage 2 so every game and win will be important for them. Astralis is a very tough team to beat when they get the opening kill as they win 75.3% of rounds when they make the opening kill over the last 12 months. Astralis also has the highest percentage of rounds won when conceding the first kill of around at 32.3 %.
Over the last 12 months, they have a team K/D ratio of 1.12 while OG has a K/D ratio of 1 so this heavily favors Astralis. Atralis has a very strong team as all five of them are above a 1 K/D ratio over the last 12 months in ESL events. Device leads the way with a 1.28 K/D ratio over that timeframe while Xyp9x and Magisk carry above a 1.2 K/D ratio. Durpeeh should also garner consideration as he has had a +47 K/D differential over the last month.
-Natus Vincere draws the best matchup on the slate as FaZe looks to be the weakest of the six remaining teams in the ESL. They have been ranked the #1 team for the last five weeks and have a 73% win rate over their last three months. NV has the best player in the European ESL in S1mple so it’s pretty easy to know where to start when looking at this stack. The best teammate to pair him with is Electronic who carries a 1.23 K/D ratio over the last 12 months in ESL events. It is hard to really add on a third member because the rest of this Natus Vincere is extremely volatile and tends to have very high death totals so if playing it safe, you should just go with the two listed above.
-Mousesports/ Fnatic Mini-Game Stack - Is this cheating by having two teams listed…..yes…...is it my article…..yes! So with that being said, I like the idea of getting a 2-2 game stack with these teams. This is projected to be the closest game according to Vegas and there are a few guys to like on both sides of this game. From the Mousesports side of things, Ropz and Frozen are the ones to target. They both are averaging over 70 DK points per game and have safe floors as they have not dipped below 50 DK points.
On the other side of this game, FRIMZ and Brollan stand out for Fnatic. KRIMZ was listed above as one of my favorite value plays on the day and he should be paired with Brollan who has been a consistent player for Fnatic. Brollan has a 1.09 K/D ratio over the last month and also has a career 1.04 K/D ratio against Mousesports.
Monkey Knife Fight - DFS Prop Picks
For those of you looking to get involved with the DFS prop bets, below are my recommended picks for this slate. Our friends at Monkey Knife Fight have the best, most fun and easiest DFS props games. It's super simple to play and to win real money. Just choose your ESports contest, and make your picks! Get a 100% instant deposit bonus up to $50 using promo code: BALLER.
- 8:25 AM: Kill Confirmed- Frozen, Ropz, Brollan (2x)
- 12:00 PM: Kill Confirmed- S1mple, NiKo, Electronic(2x)
- 4:00 PM: Kill Confirmed- Mantuu, Device, Xyp9x (2x)
Be sure to check back throughout the week as we'll be publishing daily ESports DFS articles, analysis and lineup picks for League Of Legends, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, and eNASCAR. Thanks for reading, and good luck RotoBallers!
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