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Hello there eSports DFS enthusiasts, and welcome back to RotoBaller's coverage of Call of Duty DFS contests for FanDuel and DraftKings! After three weeks off, we welcome back COD this weekend to our full coverage of Esports here at Rotoballer.
We have a four-match slate on Friday as the COD league heads to Minnesota this weekend for the Minnesota Rokkr home series. It was originally scheduled for last weekend but got bumped a week because of the events that transpired in Minneapolis in the wake of the George Floyd incident. 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 Friday's slate. If you want more COD content, our premium Esports package contains user-friendly cheat sheets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday slates.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings and FanDuel for Friday, June 12th, 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!
Call of Duty: Minnesota Home Series (Best of 5)
- Toronto Ultra (-215) vs. LA Guerillas
- Atlanta Faze (-4000) vs. Seattle Surge
- Florida Mutineers vs. Chicago Huntsmen (-260)
- Dallas Empire (-230) vs. Minnesota Rokkr
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.
Slate Summary
I am going to start with a very basic breakdown of the matches here. I think we can cross off the Atlanta-Seattle match entirely based on those absurd odds. Early in the week Atlanta opened up as -2000 favorites and have moved to -4000 which is just silly. Yes, I know that we saw LNG beat FPX in LOL earlier this week at the same odds, but I think it's reasonable to predict that Atlanta sweeps Seattle in this match and the players from both teams fail to reach their salary-based expectations.
The rest of the matches all carry 4.5 over/under totals and there's reason to believe that any of those matches go all five games. The team with the easiest potential path to victory is probably Toronto, who face the lowly L.A. Guerrillas. Toronto sits in 10th place and I wouldn't consider them a good team by any means. Targeting two "bad teams" that are playing against each other can often be a very viable DFS strategy in any sport if we expect both teams to score well and I do think that's very possible in this one.
The most compelling matchup for me is the Dallas-Minnesota match. These two teams sit at third and fourth in the standings, respectively, and have split their season series 1-1. Dallas won their first meeting 3-2, while Minnesota won the second meeting 3-1. This is a match I want some exposure to on both sides on this slate.
COD DFS Captain Considerations
Shotzzy is one of my favorite plays on the slate and is only the third-most-expensive player to roster at the captain position behind Fero and Skyz. He's an absolute fantasy monster and he has just an enormous ceiling if we get a full five games in this series between Dallas and Minnesota. He flashed his massive upside with 172 DK points against Optic back in April and still managed to nearly post 100 fantasy points in only three games against the league-leading Chicago team. He's one of the best K/D ratio players on this slate and I like using him in any format.
Methodz has posted 84, 86, and 91 kills in his last three matches and has an elite matchup here against the last place Guerrillas. We've seen some of the hardpoint rounds with L.A. get very bloody this season and the Toronto stud has 100+ kill potential in this match as long as it gets to game four which would be the second hardpoint round. He's 10k on FanDuel and 9.2k over on DK and I'm plugging him into the captain slot to save a few bucks off Shotzzy in some GPPs.
Other captain plays: Formal, Assault, Skyz
COD DFS Value Plays
Aqua is the best player on the L.A. Guerrillas and makes for a compelling GPP play in a match in which we could see players from both sides score well. He's a solid value at 8k on DK and 8.3k on FanDuel. Those are just not prices that you usually get for a team's best player.
Godrx feels too cheap for Minnesota at only 8k on FD and only 7k on Draftkings. He's had a few disappointing outings lately but is still the top K/D ratio player on this Minnesota squad. I like pairing him with Shotzzy on the other side in GPPs and hoping we get five bloody games in that match.
Other value plays: Decemate (DK), Mettalz, Cammy
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COD DFS Stacks
Dallas is my top stack on the board. They have everything we are looking for here in a team to target. They are solid favorites (but not favored too highly like Atlanta) and facing a worth adversary in Minnesota that theoretically should be able to win a round or two and push the series to 4-5 games. They sit right above Minnesota in the standings and would create some separation between them with a win here. Shotzzy is my Dallas captain in any Dallas stacks and Clayster is my favorite teammate with which to pair him. Huke is also a solid third piece and I prefer him to Illey.
Toronto is one of my favorite stacks today and I really like the idea of a full game stack here with pieces from L.A. coming back, too. I already mentioned starting your Toronto stacks with Methodz and adding another piece of two from the group of Classic, Cammy, and Mettalz would round it out nicely. I have to stress if you are making multiple lineups to mix these stacks up and don't just always stack the top two players on a team. I've seen a lot of GPP-winners in COD use variations of stacks that excluded one of their best players. As with any DFS sport there is variance and some guys may not score well even if their teammates do. Run it back with Decemate, Blazt, or Aqua.
Other stacks/ teams: Minnesota, Chicago
Fade: Atlanta (huge favorite, very likely to sweep)
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, and Call of Duty. 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
