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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 1/20/23. 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! A King has fallen. Out of the left field, we learned that Scump has decided to step down from competitive COD and essentially retire. From what I have seen he would come in as a sub if needed but otherwise for now Scump is no longer starting with Optic. Dashy will be stepping back into the starting lineup with tomorrow's slate against the Seattle Surge. Last week went nearly to plan Toronto Swept and Seattle kept it close enough for Pred and Sib to score decently well. On the other hand, Minnesota looked awful all weekend getting swept by Boston and barely squeaking out a win against the London Royal Ravens. A great slate is ahead of us so let's dive right in.
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 things first we have the Florida Mutineers against the NY Subliners, next, we have Optic Texas taking on the Seattle Surge and lastly, we have the Toronto Ultra taking on the LA Thieves.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, January 20th, 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 Two Qualifiers
Best of 5
- NY Subliners (-400) vs. Florida Mutineers (+260)
- Seattle Surge (-125) vs. Optic Texas (-105)
- LA Thieves (+105) vs. Toronto Ultra (-135)
Slate Overview
My only issue with NYSL right now is their price. They have three players that are 9,600$ or more. That's almost as absurd as the pricing I witnessed on Saturday and Sunday last week. Skyz has no business being 10k he hasn't been playing well enough to earn that price. Hydra and KISMET I understand as they have played well this season. Priestahh on the other hand is all the way down at 7.8k and has looked much better recently and a ton better than Skyz has been all season. Florida didn't look too bad last week but it is going to be tough to pull one off on this hot NYSL team. For GPP purposes Florida is cheap and has the potential to pull off the upset, they will go low-owned and there is a ton of leverage to be made with this team. Give me 3-1 NYSL.
This is going to be an interesting match, for the second week in a row Optic will have a new rotation to their team. With Dashy back and Huke in the lineup, this could be potential for success or a recipe for disaster. Huke looked good for Optic in their one match last week against Boston, and he is quite cheap at only 7k. But you have a dynamic duo on the other team with Sib and Pred ready to get back on track after a couple of rough losses to Atlanta and Vegas. Seattle is struggling heavily right now, especially in SnD, their respawn has been the bread and butter for them but have been a bit off with that as well. I believe this one ends up being close and I will say 3-2 Optic as Seattle continues to struggle in SnD.
I was actually surprised to see the odds this close with this game. Toronto is playing near-perfect COD at the moment and looks like one of the best teams in the league right now. It took a while last year for LA Thieves to get a hold of things and it might be something similar happening this year as they have come out flat to start the Major 2 qualifiers. They lost 3-1 to LAG and NYSL, they have struggled to find their footing in SnD once again and even the hard point has looked a bit below par for them as well. Which is the last thing you want to do against such a good team like Toronto. LAT always has a chance with their roster being so good but until they find their footing, I have to take Toronto 3-1.
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
Standy: I focused on Scrappy last week but let's talk about Standy who has been incredible in the respawn game modes lately averaging a 1.15 in Hardpoint and a 1.65 K/D in Control. We get a bit of a discount when it comes to Standy as well who has averaged a 112 DKFP this season and scored over 120 in three games scored by DK. He is a great pivot option from Scrappy and can save you a little bit of extra salary where it might be needed on such a tough slate. Insight has looked pretty good as well and is also a possible option to pivot to.
Pred: Other than their game against FaZe last week where they got slammed, Pred has been incredible and they are going to continue to need him to be so that they have a chance against a tough opponent in Optic. This season Pred has averaged a 1.14 K/D in HP, a .97 in SnD, and a 1.16 in Control with a top 5 K/D overall K/D of 1.13 in the league. I believe this game could go the distance which means plenty of time for Pred to get his in all three respawn maps. We could be in line to see a huge score from Pred if this game ends up being as close as I predict it will be.
Other captain plays: Hydra, Kismet, Scrappy, Shotzzy, Sib
COD DFS Value Plays
Huke: We are getting a great price on Huke and even Illey who has played well recently too. This game like I said earlier could end up being a close one that could end up leading to some high scores. So being on the right plays in this game could be crucial to a higher-scoring lineup. We are getting a great price on Huke who looked good in his first game playing for Optic Texas, where he dropped a 1.20 in HP and a 1.19 in Control with +12 on 95 kills. It's a very small sample size to go off of but if we get anything similar then us getting him at 7k is going to be great value.
Priestahh: It's on the high end but if you want to be able to stack at all from this game, Priestahh will be a must-have with your pair of either KISMET or Hydra. I was surprised to see Skyz so expensive with him playing so poorly so the easy play was Priestahh who looked much better, especially during their Major 1 championship run where he averaged a 1.09 in HP, a 1.15 in SnD, and a 1.12 in Control. His price doesn't reflect his skill right now as it is much better than 7,800$. He will more than likely be pretty chalky but with the value as mid, as it is, we will take what we can get.
Other value plays: Brack(GPP), Drazah(GPP), Illey, Accuracy(PUNT)
COD DFS Stacks
Tough Pick: There is no easy pick when it comes to stacking teams on this slate, the two decent favorites I like are damn near impossible to stack with the way they are priced. NYSL is extremely overpriced, Toronto has every player above 8k making it difficult to stack them, and now makes me want to avoid CleanX at all costs. I don't believe there is a clear side to take on the Optic game because the duo of Pred and Sib can be so lethal that they can take over the game themselves at any given moment. Your best bet is to stack Toronto if you can Scrappy is a bit cheaper and if you can pair him with Standy and the team spot that is great but you use up a ton of salary doing that. There are a lot of ways to go on this slate but the best advice I can offer unless in GPPs is to avoid LAT and Florida.
Other Team Plays:
Summary
TLDR: NYSL 3-1, Optic 3-2, Toronto 3-1
- NYSL: Hydra, Kistmet, Priestahh
- Florida: Brack(GPP)
- Optic: Shotzzy, Huke, Illey
- Seattle: Pred, Sib, Accuracy(PUNT)
- Toronto: Scrappy, Standy, Insight
- LAT: Octane, Drazah(GPP)
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