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 went great! We ended on a great note as Toronto, LA Thieves, and Optic all won their respective games. Let's hope we can continue the momentum into this weekend and crush this slate!
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! To start week 2, we have Toronto Ultra taking on the LA Guerrillas, and to end Thursday we have Minnesota Rokkr vs Seattle Surge! On Friday we have Florida Mutineers in a great matchup against Dallas Empire and Lastly, we have Atlanta FaZe getting their first real matchup against a hot LA Thieves team.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Thursday-Friday, July 15th-16th, 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: Minnesota Rokkr Home Series
Best of 5
- Toronto Ultra (-3300) vs. LA Guerrillas (+1000)
- Seattle Surge (+220) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (-300)
- Florida Mutineers (+255) vs. Dallas Empire (-350)
- LA Thieves (+550) vs. Atlanta FaZe (-1100)
Slate Overview
First things first, LA Guerrillas are horrible. No doubt about that whatsoever. Toronto is a massive favorite and is in the perfect spot for a sweep. Go ahead and lock them in for the team spot. You can't really go wrong with any of these players though. The only one im hesitant on is CleanX cause his last performance wasn't very good but this matchup is so good that you can take anyone and more than likely get the free 45 DKP.
I don't think the oddsmakers ever give Seattle much credit but hey let them doubt. Minnesota let up a map to LA Guerrillas. And I do believe Seattle is a much better team than LAG is currently and Seattle could make a run at it. Do I think they win? No, but they have a good chance to push this to a map 4 or 5 and that can put the likes of Octane and Standy in elite spots to go off. Standy is very high in price this week so unfortunately, I have to fade him, he has been scoring well but not to warrant a 10.6k price. This one will be close, Im gonna say 3-1 Minnesota but I wouldn't be surprised to see this go to Game 5.
Again another one where we see the underdogs being undervalued. Florida Mutineers have been a very impressive team lately as Neptune has stepped up in a big way and with the help of Owakening and Skyz, this is a great team. They played against each other in the last Major and it went all 5 games with Dallas squeaking it out on top. Dallas has been playing very well recently and is definitely a contender in this year's champs! This is going to be a bloody match and so I like that for the likes of Skyz, Shotzzy, Neptune, and Vivid. Dallas 3-2.
Atlanta has two of the easiest matchups to start stage 5 and now get to come back down to earth with what should be a good match with LA Thieves who have been playing quite well with their new roster. With wins over NYSL and London, I don't think LA can beat Atlanta as they are just the most dominant team in the league right now, but I do think they give Atlanta a run for their money and might even steal a map from Atlanta. I think their best chance to get a map win is in Hardpoint or SnD. I'll give LA Thieves a map but wouldn't be surprised to see a sweep either. 3-1 Atlanta.
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
Cellium: I will continue to say this, Cellium is almost always at the best price point on his team. You will always see Abezy and Simp ahead of him and then Cellium who can put up the same numbers if not better on some occasions and he is always the cheapest of the three. He has gone over 95 DKP in 10 of his last 11 games and has multiple 120+ DKP games as well. I love this matchup too because I think LA Thieves can keep it close in each of the maps, therefore, leading to more kills the longer the game goes. Even in a sweep scenario or a 4-5 map game scenario as well. Cellium is by far one of the safest plays on the board.
Shottzy/Skyz: This matchup is going to be an insane one. The last time these two played they both dropped big numbers. I do think these guys are stackable, to be honest, this should be a game that goes all 5 maps. I give the edge to Florida in Hardpoint and Dallas the edge in Control. In SnD though it's a tossup. Both teams have been good at SnD and it might come down to which map is played to decide who ends up winning. For Shotzzy during Stage 4 he averaged a 1.01 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.21 in SnD, and a 1.15 in Control. In their stage 5 win though he had a 1.56 in Hardpoint and 1.50 in SnD, and a 1.31 in Control.
Skyz on the other hand has been great against Dallas, in their last two games against Dallas he has had 147 and 129. One of those was a Florida sweep and the other was a 5 map thriller that Florida came up short in. Skyz has been nothing but elite lately. During stage 4 Skyz averaged a 1.27 K/D in Hardpoint, a .90 in SnD, and a 1.10 in Control. As long as Skyz has some elite games in Hardpoint, he should score insanely well. This game should go 4 maps and therefore an extra hardpoint is going to be played. Either of these guys is great plays and could end up being in the optimal lineup for sure.
Other captain plays: Simp, Cammy, Insight, Octane(GPP)
COD DFS Value Plays
Bance: 8,200 is a bit high for a value play but I don't think Bance can be overlooked here. This should be a game they sweep here and in Bance's last 4 sweeps he has had 91, 118(against LAG), 130, and 116. He is a bit of a high-priced value play but I do think we get a lot of value out of Bance, he has been playing much better than CleanX and the matchup against LAG is so elite, I can't imagine that Toronto doesn't sweep here either. During stage 4 Bance averaged a 1.05 K/D in Hardpoint, a .94 in SnD, and a .98 K/D in Control.
Priestahh: Priestahh is a decent cheap play at 7k, he has 100+ DKP potential and had 102 DKP in their last matchup against Seattle last month. I do expect this game to go to 4 maps once again as Seattle is good enough to make that happen. If Minnesota does sweep though, Priestahh is in a great spot to smash. So far in Stage 5, Priestahh has averaged a 1.01 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.08 in SnD, and a 1.21 K/D in Control. At 7k he is probably the cheapest one I'm really interested in other than maybe Havok at 6,400$.
Other value plays: Vivid, Neptune, iLLey, Drazah(GPP), Havok (Punt Value)
COD DFS Stacks
Toronto Ultra: Toronto is in the freest spot right now. LAG is awful and in their last matchup, Toronto swept them 3-0 and that was with a better player in Cheen over MentaL. LAG has lost 9 of their last 10 games and has been swept in 4 of them. Toronto has been such a dominant lately and their only recent losses coming at the hands of Dallas and Atlanta is absolutely insane. I don't even think Toronto loses a map in this matchup.
Cammy and Insight are the Top plays and I also really like Bance at his price. CleanX is a little high for his recent performance so I'm not really on him as much but with this being a spot that is more than likely going to end up with a sweep, CleanX can be a viable option. Cammy's price has really got all the way up to 10.4k but he has had 100+ in 6 straight so he is definitely a good option if you can fit him. Insight at 9.6k is interesting and is a nice pivot from Cammy and can help save 800$.
Other Team Plays: Atlanta(Cash), Dallas, Minnesota/Seattle(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: Toronto 3-0, Minnesota 3-1, Dallas 3-2, Atlanta 3-1
- Toronto: All Players
- LAG: No Players
- Minnesota: Standy, Priestahh
- Seattle: Octane
- Dallas: Shotzzy, Vivid
- Florida: Skyz, Neptune
- Atlanta: All Players
- LA Thieves: Kenny, Drazah
More eSports DFS Analysis
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