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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 1/13/23. 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! We are back for the Major 2 qualifiers. The first Major was quite the ride with the NY Subliners coming out on top against the Seattle Surge in the Grand Finals. We had quite a long break in between these two majors with the holidays and with that we had a little bit of roster mania including a big drop of LAG's squad they brought up their academy team and kept Arcitys. And probably the biggest move ended up being Optic benching Dashy in favor of bringing Huke onto the team. Lastly and the one that matters for today came as a surprise to me and a lot of other people as PaulEhx was benched in favor of Skrapz. Paul was having a fairly good season so far, so to see him get benched was a bit of a surprise but I do believe Skrapz is a very good player and will fill his spot well.
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 finally get to put all this knowledge to the test! First up we have a great matchup between the Toronto Ultra and the London Royal Ravens, Next, the Minnesota Rokkr takes on the Boston Breach, and lastly, we have the Seattle Surge taking on the Vegas Legion.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, January 13th, 2023, at 3:00 PM EST. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @DFSKoby or find me in Discord as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions!
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Call of Duty: Major One Qualifiers
Best of 5
- Toronto Ultra (-400) vs. London Royal Ravens (+265)
- Boston Breach (+145) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (-190)
- Las Vegas Legion (+130) vs. Seattle Surge (-170)
Slate Overview
Toronto is rightfully favored but -400 is quite steep, there is a bit of unknown in the fact that London is now playing with Skrapz rather than with PaulEhx. London started the season great rolling off two wins and then completely fell apart after losing four straight and knocking themselves out of Major 1 competition before bracket play even began. Toronto has shown they have an advantage in SnD and Control as they have been very dominant in those game modes. Hardpoint has been a bit less dominant and is probably the only path to a win for London. Even then I still believe Toronto spoils Skrapz season debut and hands them the first loss of the Major 2. I have a feeling this could either be a sweep or a 3-1.
This next game is a fun one. Both teams have been very scrappy so far and both had good starts during the qualifiers before coming up very short during the Major. From what I see Boston has shown to be the better HP team while Minnesota is by far the superior Control team. SnD however is very close to a tossup. On paper, I like the Minnesota Rokkr I believe they are the more consistent and well-rounded team. On the other side, the duo of Owakening and Methodz can be a dangerous one. I just know if I do fade them they are going to bite me but I do think that Minnesota comes out on top of this one. I'm going to say 3-2 and it is going to be a close one.
Last but not least we have the Vegas Legion and Seattle Surge. Who have been near opposites when it comes to what they have been good at and what not. Seattle has been very good at respawn game modes and Vegas has been very good at SnD so far this season. This can make things tough for trying to figure out which way I want to go as either team could win the Control So I can see this game either finishing 3-1 Seattle or 3-2 Vegas. I am going to go with Seattle though as I believe the duo of Sib and Pred is a dangerous one and could take care of things on that 2nd hardpoint map.
COD DFS Basics
- Like in CSGO, players receive two points for a kill and are penalized -1 for dying. Therefore, the most straightforward 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 the game mode from Domination to Control for League play. This will be a lot different in gameplay as it's round-based and not the first 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 will be very crucial this year.
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COD DFS Captain Considerations
Scrappy: It is kind of hard not to go Scrappy the way he has been playing is on another level. He has played completely out of his mind and was a big part of their run in the finals before coming up short and taking third place. He is the most expensive player on the slate but he has also averaged the most DKP in the four games scored so far. Scrappy averaged 1.11 K/D in HP, 1.46 in SnD, and 1.22 in Control. Whether you have him in the captain spot or not, Scrappy should probably be one of your first clicks into your lineup.
Sib: I don't think there are enough good things I can see about Sib. The dude has been an absolute menace since joining the Seattle Surge last season during the Vanguard year. He has not stopped either, he has averaged a 1.16 in HP, a 1.02 in SnD, and a 1.12 in Control. You can tell that the Seattle Surge relies upon Sib and Pred to play very well and that almost translated to a Major win but came up just short. Pred is a bit more expensive so I do like Sib a bit more as they do have similar production and we are getting quite the discount.
Other captain plays: Pred, Attach, Temp(GPP), Owakening
COD DFS Value Plays
Afro: I don't understand why they continue to price him so low. 7,800$ is on the high end of the value side of things but he is still shown so far this season that he is one of the top players on this team and possibly in the league. Minnesota has a great matchup with Boston so that could end up being a 4-5 map match. So far in online play, he has averaged 1.11 K/D in HP, 1.55 in SnD, and 1.25 in Control all of which are the best on his team yet is priced as 3rd on his team. I could even see putting him as captain to save some salary elsewhere.
CleanX: I don't love going here because CleanX started the season so poorly but when it comes to the bottom of the barrel CleanX is one of the only decent options when we are talking more cash games rather than GPP. CleanX looked much better during the Major 1 so I'm hoping that he gets back on track and looks even better during the qualifiers. During the major, he averaged 1.08 in HP, 1.04 in SnD, and .96 in Control. Which is much improved compared to the .8 in HP and .78 in Control he was dropping during the Major 1 qualifiers. The matchup is better and it fits well with the likes of Scrappy.
Other value plays: Asim(GPP), Bance, Accuracy
COD DFS Stacks
Toronto: This is the chalk team stack for sure but it is the safe one. London is coming off a roster move and Toronto is only going to continue to get stronger as the season goes on. They have been very dominant in SnD and Control as well as being decently good at hardpoint. Start every Toronto lineup with Scrappy. From there I would either take Standy or Insight. CleanX I'm not huge on as he has been playing pretty poorly to start the season but this could end up being a sweep so CleanX is a viable option if you are in need of some deep value. If you are looking for a different route I would go with the Minnesota Rokkr but they are a bit more expensive to stack.
Other Team Plays: Minnesota Rokkr, Seattle Surge, Boston Breach(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: 3-1 Toronto, 3-2 Minnesota, 3-1 Seattle
- Toronto: Scrappy, Insight, Standy
- London: Asim, Skrapz(GPP)
- Minnesota: Afro, Attach, Cammy
- Boston: Owakening, Methodz
- Seattle: Sib, Pred
- Vegas: Temp, Prolute(GPP)
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
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