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Koby's DraftKings. DFS lineup picks for Early Morning Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on 4/15/21. He analyzes CS:GO slates and top targets for eSports DFS contests.
Hello Esports enthusiasts and welcome back to our Esports coverage of CS:GO DFS! We have a great tournament set for us in the Blast Premier Spring Showdown as 16 teams face off to be crowned champion and take home a $30,000 prize! Today went by so quickly, Spirit smoked Extra Salt, and Gambit absolutely demolished NASR as expected. MiBR tried to pull off an upset but yuurih and friends shut that one down, all three games ended in sweeps today as predicted. Tomorrow's games are shaping up to be the same
We get another chalky set of games today as Heroic takes on SAW, and Vitality sees their first action in a month against 9z. So let's get right into it! Today I'll be bringing you my Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DFS lineup picks, analysis, and advice for eSports DFS contests on FanDuel and DraftKings for Thursday, April 15th at 6:30 AM ET.
Be sure to also check out our awesome CS:GO Premium DFS Tools including our Research Station, Projections, and DFS Cheat Sheets! Feel free to follow me on Twitter @DFSKoby or find me in our Premium Slack, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have! Good luck in your contests RotoBallers!
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CS:GO DFS Picks
Best of 3 Series
- Heroic (-600) vs. sAw (+385)
- Vitality (-3300) vs. 9z (+1100)
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DFS Captain Plays
ZywOo: ZywOo has been one of the best plays since I've started playing CS:GO DFS. He's been named the No. 1 player in the world for two straight years in 2019 and 2020. He has a K/D of 1.38 and is averaging .86 kills per round and a minimal .62 deaths per round. He is pretty much a guaranteed 65-70+ DKP. He is averaging 76.2 DKP per game and is the top play by quite a mile. It is just very difficult to grab him without having to punt a spot or even two to grab him, especially in the captain spot. Vitality has been off for a month since they struggled in the ESL Play-ins. Hopefully, in this time off they reevaluated their team and were able to adjust what was needed to make sure they come into this match against 9z and win this one with ease. Cause it's going to be difficult to pick this team in the future if their struggles continue.
cadian: Grabbing either of these Captains is going to be difficult, but if you can grab them, make it happen. Cadian is playing at an elite level right now and is leading his team in just about every statistic. Over the last month, he has a 1.21 K/D and is averaging .71 kills per round and only .59 deaths per round. As the main AWPer for his team, you will see that he dies less than the rest of his team. This is something I like to target as well cause when cadian can get hot with his AWP then he is going to be difficult to stop. He has gone positive in his last 10 matches, with multiple games of a +10 or better. The only reason not to play cadian is his price, other than that load him up and lock him in. Stavn or TeSeS would be the pivots from him if you don't feel like paying 10.6k for cadian.
Other captain plays: Shox, Stavn, TeSeS, refrezh
DFS Value Plays
bit: I hate that I'm having to write about a team that is about to get swept, but at this point, you really are better off taking bit at 4k and hoping for the best. Grabbing him at 4k makes it a lot easier to build something you can be confident in. Plus you are pretty much guaranteed like 20 free points from the round not played bonus. DraftKings made it very difficult to build something with only Heroic and Vitality in it. bit has been pretty good in recent play, and when the team is winning he is scoring well also. The price tag is really nice, and he has had a few games where 9z has been swept and bit has been the only one to go positive. If he gets even close to positive at this point, I'll consider it a win. He has a 1.02 overall K/D and is averaging .66 kills per round and .65 deaths per round. If you are looking for someone who is consistently a little better from 9z, I would take a look at Try or max as they are the carries for the teams and have played well in games that 9z has won.
refrezh: Refrezh over the last month has been improving his game quite a bit, and I like the savings we get on him at 6,600. He played really well in the ESL Playoffs and only went negative once in the Grand Finals and finished with a -1 in a 5 game match. In the three previous games, he went +5, +9, and +15. Refrezh excels in games that Heroic is winning and they should be doing exactly that here against sAw. The only thing I worry about with this game is what the mindset is. They could be tired and choke this one away. But I don't think this happens. Heroic is just a much better team and has shown that in recent games. Refrezh over the last month has had a 1.08 K/D and is averaging .65 kills per round and .6 deaths per round. He also has a 1.05 rating against Top 50 teams.
Other Value Plays: RPK, try, max, rmn, MUTiRiS
Top Stacks / Team Picks
Heroic: Heroic is coming off a crazy performance in the ESL Finals against a tough GAMBIT team. They now get quite the easier matchup here against sAw who is ranked 37th in the world compared to Heroics' 3rd place ranking. Heroic is on a 10 game win streak against some of the biggest teams in the world including Gambit, Furia, and Complexity. It's going to be hard for Heroic to lose this one as they have the map advantage in every single map except for Dust2 which they only have one map played on, I assume this is more than likely the map they choose to ban as they are the least experienced at. Cadian is definitely the top play here but it's going to be tough to fit him in with ZywOo, as they are both 10.6k or more. I do really like stavn and TeSeS as pivots for sure. Heroic should sweep but I haven't been very impressed with sjuush lately, so I'd rather fade him and grab refrezh.
Vitality: I really hope, Vitality has taken the last month to fix their problems, because they have looked horrible in their last 12 games only winning 3. This is the No. 8 team in the world right now. This is definitely going to be a match they need to win and look good doing it. Vitality has already confirmed that this will be RPKs last tournament with the team as he will be benched. So he needs to show up for this tournament so that he has a chance to play for another team if he plans to continue to play CS. It's really hard for me to go against ZywOo, so I'm giving them a chance to show they are a better team than what they showed last time out. ZywOo and Shox are your top plays here and I recommend getting ZywOo in your lineup as best as you can. He is a Top 5 player in the world and can break a slate with his 70+ DKP per game scoring. With Nivera stepping down this makes it a lot easier and safer constructing a 3 man Vitality stack if that's the route you are going with no chance of substitutions. I think apeX is overpriced and I can't confidently recommend him. Misutaaa and RPK though have been in horrible form recently, so it makes it also difficult to roster either of these guys. I'm going to go with the RPK needs to play well to go out on top narrative. He is the cheapest of the team and has shown in the past he can score well and pay off his price.
Other Top Stacks/ Teams: 9z (GPP)
Predictions
Heroic beats sAw 2-0
Vitality beats 9z 2-0
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