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Dan Palyo's DraftKings and FanDuel DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 5/24/20. He analyzes the COD slates and top lineup targets for eSports DFS contests.
Hello there, fellow eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for FanDuel and DraftKings!
We have a two-match slate today as the COD league wraps up the Seattle Surge home series. If you've never played COD DFS, don't worry - I'm going to include a breakdown of the scoring and basics here in addition to my picks for Sunday's slate.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Sunday, May 24nd, 2020 at 4:00 PM. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @ThunderDanDFS as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions!
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Call of Duty: Seattle Home Series (Best of 5)
- London Royal Ravens (-110) vs. Optic Gaming LA (-125) - O/U 4.5 games
- New York Subliners (-105) vs. Chicago Huntsmen (-130) -O/U 4.5 games
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 is as follows: Hardpoint, Search & Destroy, Domination, Hardpoint, Search & Destroy.
- In hardpoint rounds, players with positive K/D ratios are usually the highest scorers and these rounds are often the bloodiest.
- The Domination round is a good bit different than the others as teams attempt to control flag points on the map. These rounds can be bloody, but also can be relatively low-scoring depending on how aggressive or defensive teams get in this round. Players can earn +1 for successful flag captures during this domination round.
- There are NO sweep or "games not played" bonuses for teams or players that finish their match early. That means we don't necessarily have to target the biggest favorites on each slate.
COD DFS Captain Considerations
Slasher has been on an absolute tear for Optic recently, posting 141, 124, and 148 FD points in his last three games (not counting the Optic sweep of Minnesota last night in the consolations). He has surpassed teammate Dashy to post the best K/D ratio on the team with a solid 1.1 and is solid in every format. He averages over 36 DK points per hardpoint round and over 30 DK points per domination round, giving him an awesome ceiling in a series that could be very bloody and high-scoring on both sides.
MackMelts (Mack on FD) over the last two tournaments, Mack has elevated his play to an elite level and is posting some of the best stats in the league. He had scored 100+ fantasy points in five straight games before finally being held in check by London yesterday. He led New York to a 3-0 sweep of the Guerillas in the consolation round last night and this N.Y. team is scrappy enough to take Chicago to five games or even pull an upset. If they do, he'll be the high-scorer on the slate. He's the second-most expensive player on DraftKings, but underpriced at only 9500 on FanDuel.
Other captain plays: Formal, Skrapz
COD DFS Value Plays
Dashy has had a mediocre weekend so far for Optic, which was caused his price to drop to 8300 on FD and 8400 on DK. Slasher is the hot player from Optic right now, but we've seen the 120+ fantasy point upside from Dashy before and this feels like a great time to buy low.
Wuskin is getting badly disrespected on DK as he got priced all the way down to 6400 for today's slate. He's priced appropriately on FanDuel at 9700 (and still playable there), but using him on Draftkings will allow you fit any combination of other high-priced plays that you want.
Other value plays: Accuracy (both sites), Prestinni (DK)
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COD DFS Stacks
Let me just start this section by saying that this slate is absolutely wide open. Both of these matches have the potential to go five games and Vegas is predicting that a sweep in either series is highly unlikely. There are a few ways we can approach stacking today. We can try to stack two teams, one from each game, or we can stack two teams from the same game and hope that the other game goes only 3-4 games and players underperform. On FanDuel. you have to play a player from a third team, but on DraftKings you do not. I am going to be trying both strategies today with my builds.
London is a slight underdog here against Optic Gaming, but these Vegas lines are so close that you may as well throw them out the window. These matches are toss-ups and London is just as likely to win as Optic is in my opinion. London is led by the aforementioned Wuskin and I'd be starting my London stacks with him and teammate Skrapz. I'm not that big on either Wuskin or Skrapz in the captain slot today however, I think there are some other better plays there. Dylan and Seany are potential third pieces of a London stack but I'm not sure if you have to go there today as it's pretty easy to make builds on both sites without moving off their primary pieces.
Optic Gaming L.A. is lead by Slasher and Dashy and I'll pair them together in all my stacks probably. People will play Slasher based on his good recent performance and fade Dashy, but I think that's the wrong move, personally. Kuavo and Tjhaly are both worthy of consideration as a third piece to an Optic stack and both are excellent value options on FanDuel at 7700 and 7400, respectively. These two teams split their season series and their most recent match was really high-scoring. Stacking this match will several pieces from both sides is absolutely in play.
Chicago has looked great so far this weekend, going 2-0 with wins over Optic Gaming and Minnesota. The insertion of Prestinni into the lineup has given them a very balanced attack and because of that we are going to have to consider stacking them a few different ways. Prestinni and Scump are viable plays today, though they are not the values they were on Saturday, especially on FanDuel where they got priced up. Formal is in the best recent form but got priced up to a whopping 10200 on FanDuel. He's a lot more viable on DK at only 8600. Both Arcitys and Envoy are viable plays for Chicago, too, and I would mix in 2-3 Chicago players into my lineups today.
New York is a hard team to stack. MackMelts is a great individual play every time out, but figuring out which of their other players has a big game can be a headache. Attach, Accuracy, and Zoomaa are all viable here but I have no real confidence in any of them based on their inconsistent play.
Summary:
1. This is a tough slate to play if you’re only building one lineup. If you are an MME player, it should be a lot of fun. Even if you just want to practice builds there are plenty of cheap contests on both sites where you can make multiple builds for a dime or quarter each.
2. My favorite stacks are (in this order) Optic Gaming, Chicago, and London. I’d rather play Mack as a one-off from New York than stack them.
3. Match-stacks are absolutely in play in both matchups today!
Good luck in your contests today and thanks for reading!
RotoBaller Testimonials
Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and more here!
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Another profitable night after a few break even or off nights due to trying to get too cute with lineup construction. @RotoBaller free articles remain ? as they have been. @mr_malmanger @ThunderDanDFS @grownfool pic.twitter.com/l015HO49GX
— John Deacon (@Jdeacdfs) April 24, 2020
Looking Forward
Be sure to check back throughout the week as we'll be publishing daily eSports DFS articles, analysis and picks for League Of Legends, Counter-Strike, Rocket League, Call of Duty, and eNASCAR. Thanks for reading, and good luck RotoBallers!
More eSports DFS Analysis
RotoBaller Testimonials
Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and lots more here!
Did you read a RotoBaller article and win too? Send us your screenshots on Twitter @RotoBaller and we'll add it to our winners Hall Of Fame!
Had a member of slack take down the Insomnia Special last night. Pretty cool seeing that @RotoBaller logo up at the top! #Esports #LOL #Draftkings pic.twitter.com/S5FFRSUNB1
— "Thunder Dan" Palyo (@ThunderDanDFS) April 16, 2020
