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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 2/18/22. He analyzes the COD slates and top lineup targets for eSports DFS contests.
Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for DraftKings! A much better weekend than it was previously. Nailed the picks in last week's article and gonna look at getting them all right again. Looks like a more heavily favored slate this time around with fewer games being close. Atlanta and Seattle still sit atop the standings coming into the final weekend before the first Major of the season. Both teams are looking to finish strong, but lots of teams in the middle still looking for a shot at an upper bracket spot.
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! We have Paris taking on LA Thieves in the first matchup of the day then we have the first place Atlanta FaZe taking on Minnesota who look to get back on track after back-to-back losses, and finally, the game of the day belongs to Optic vs Toronto. Toronto has played very well so far and Optic is still trying to find their groove should be a fun one to finish the night off.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Friday, February 18th, 2022, at 3:00 PM EST. 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: Major 1 Qualifiers
Best of 5
- LA Thieves (-1800) vs. Paris Legion (+775)
- Atlanta FaZe (-385) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (+255)
- Toronto Ultra (-205) vs. Optic Texas (+155)
Slate Overview
LA Thieves pulled out a close one against Florida Mutineers and I think if this game was against anyone in the Top 5 I wouldn't be picking them to win right now. But this is Paris we are talking about who is 12th in the league right now. They are massive underdogs in this match so if you are looking for a way to win your GPP, take a shot on Paris and make sure you grab Temp while you do it. But the safe pick is a well-rounded Thieves team. Octane, Kenny, and Envoy is such an elite trio and Drazah has had his moments as well. LA Thieves to sweep though, If Paris has a chance to win a map it is in Control which has been their best game mode.
Atlanta is 3-0 so far and they look to continue their reign of terror onto the inconsistent team of Minnesota Rokkr, a team I can never get right for the life of me. Their best chance of sneaking a map win is going to be in SnD. Otherwise, Minnesota has been dominated in Control and Hardpoint this season. They most recently lost to London and it was not very pretty. Atlanta either sweeps this one or wins in map 4, I don't give much of a chance to Minnesota in this one.
Other than their match one loss to Seattle, Toronto has gone 6-0 in maps pulling off two sweeps against LAG and Florida. They now get a bit of a tougher task in Optic Texas who looked much better in their sweep over Paris last weekend. This game is definitely the closest on the slate and if you are looking for your GPP winner it might be in the hands of Optic. Shotzzy looked unstoppable last game and they are going to need for him to continue that momentum into this game if they want a chance at stopping a surging Toronto team.
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 the K/D ratio.
- 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/Control 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
Envoy: Envoy looked much more like himself this last weekend going +18 and +12 in his two games with 90+ kills in both of them. He has been playing extremely well and this matchup is juicy for him. I think either way he ends up scoring very well, in the case of a sweep he's going to get that extra 45 points but even if they don't sweep and end up going to map 4, they get another hardpoint a game mode where Envoy can drop 30+ kills on and make up a lot of that bonus. Envoy holds a 1.08 overall K/D and has a 1.17 K/D in hardpoint where they could see two maps. He's expensive so putting him at flex is an option as well. If you are looking to pivot Kenny or Octane have both been solid as well.
Cellium: He's the cheapest of the Big Three and I will continue to take him at that cheaper price. Simp hasn't quite played up to his potential this season and I think Cellium has been overall the better player. Abezy popped off last game as he dropped 153 FPs. Cellium has been a bit more consistent and I like the matchup against Minnesota although they are an inconsistent team I think if this ends in 3 or 5, Cellium is still going to score insanely well. I'll take the discount on him compared to the other two every day. Cellium currently leads the league after two weeks with a K/D at 1.31!
Other captain plays: Abezy, Kenny, Insight, Octane, Cammy(if he plays), Shotzzy(GPP)
COD DFS Value Plays
CleanX: CleanX has been one of those players when I'm not on him he pops off and breaks slates, but when I am on him he just plays mediocre. So if superstition means anything to you do with that info as you will, but I think CleanX is in a good spot where the game might stay decently close but I do think Toronto comes out on top. CleanX leads his team in engagements per game by quite a bit in hardpoint, he is 2nd in Control and SnD. Usually, the higher the engagements mean he can be getting a lot of kills but also dies a lot as well. For CleanX that is the case but I think he is cheap enough to make it worth it and take a chance on him to play well. And depending on which Optic team we get, we could also see a sweep from Toronto if they continue to play at the level they are playing at.
Temp: Although I don't like Paris as a team to win, there is still a lot of value in picking a player I think is going to get swept or maybe Paris takes a map and that might even work out better for Temp, who has been killing it lately. He has scored 120, 99, and 115 FP in the three matches that went 4 or more maps. He holds a 1.06 overall K/D and holds a top 5 K/D in Control this season so far. 7,200 is far too cheap for his potential even if they do sweep, a solid 70-80 points from his viable at that price.
Other value plays: Arcitys, Bance, Dashy(GPP), MajorManiak(Punt)
COD DFS Stacks
LA Thieves: This is more of a target of teams against Paris as they just have struggled heavily this season since their first game against FaZe where they almost pulled off the upset. LA Thieves looks to improve to 3-1 and I think they can do it dominating fashion. Optic was able to sweep Paris in last weekend's game and I think we could see the same here. LAT pulled out a close one with Florida Mutineers and Envoy balled out to help them get the win. Drazah has struggled in his last two games and although he is fairly cheap still, I do prefer Kenny or Octane for just a couple extra hundred. Envoy killed this last weekend going +18 and +12 in his last two matches with 90+ kills in both games. The games they played last weekend were much tougher tests, I don't see Paris giving LAT much issue. A 3-1 at worst but I'm going to say sweep.
Other Team Plays: Atlanta FaZe, Toronto Ultra, Optic Texas(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: LA Thieves 3-0, Atlanta FaZe 3-1, Toronto 3-1
- LA Thieves: Envoy, Kenny, Octane
- Paris Legion: Temp
- Atlanta FaZe: All
- Minnesota Rokkr: Standy, MajorManiak(PUNT)
- Toronto: Insight, CleanX, Cammy(there is a chance that he does not play so be on the lookout for confirmation of that)
- Optic: Shotzzy, Dashy
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