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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 12/2/22. 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! The MW2 Season is upon us already with the chance in scheduling we get an earlier season to start us off! I'll be around each week with an upcoming COD DFS slate! It will be a bit tough to start the season as we didn't get something similar to a Kickoff series as we did last year, so we only have Scrims to go off of and those are only so reliable. Changes to new teams I will be covering as they appear and this season we had quite a few with only 3 teams not making a single change in their roster. Bare with me over the first few weeks and go light as it could be upset central to start the season!
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! To start us off we have the Atlanta FaZe taking on the Boston Breach, Minnesota Rokkr taking on Optic Texas, then we have the Champs in LA Thieves taking on the now Vegas Legion, and finally, we have the Seattle Surge taking on the LA Guerrillas.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, December 2nd, 2022, 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
- Boston Breach (+185) vs. Atlanta FaZe (-250)
- Optic Texas (-175) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (+135)
- Vegas Legion (+175) vs. LA Thieves (-230)
- LA Guerrillas (+168) vs. Seattle Surge (-225)
Slate Overview
For the first week, I believe that any team other than probably London has a shot at winning against any team. Boston has looked great in scrims for the most part and made a great upgrade in getting Owakening from Florida. They get a tough matchup against FaZe who possibly upgraded their weakest position in Arcitys to Slasher from LAG. We can't look into scrims too much as there are so many moving parts with rules changes and Guns and Attachments being banned or heavily used. I believe Boston is viable for an upset here but it is hard to go against Atlanta so early in the Season. I'll say Atlanta 3-2 as Boston can keep this close.
Here is where I think the upset happens. Minnesota did a great job of changing up their team bringing in Cammy, Afro, and Bance to build around Attach. They easily were the biggest upgrade of the offseason and could be a potential threat to win a Major this year. Bance isn't my favorite but the rest of this team is going to be lethal. Optic was one of few teams that didn't make a change in the offseason as they hope to get Scump one last ring in his final season of Pro COD. It is going to be hard to pick against them with that in mind but I think this Minnesota team is going to be top-tier. Give me 3-1 Minnesota.
The LA Thieves did it, they won Champs after such a slow start to last year's season they went on to win the final Major as well as slaughter the Atlanta FaZe in Champs to take home the trophy. Paris Legion is now the Vegas Legion and with a rebrand comes an almost whole new team. Temp was the only one to stay as they bring in Clayster, Prolute, and TJHaly to round out this intriguing roster. They have performed well in scrims and have all the makings to be a contender. They get a tall task in the LA Thieves though, I'll give Vegas one map but they are going to have to prove it to me before I trust picking them. LA 3-1
Seattle had quite a disappointing end of the year after what looked to be a strong start that led to a Major win. They made no changes in the offseason and I don't believe they needed to either. They have solid players in Sib and Pred(ROTY) as well as Mack and Accuracy. They are poised to have a great season. LAG, on the other hand, I'm not sure what they are going to look like. They kept Spart up with the starting team and basically traded Slasher for Arcitys. Neptune and Huke round out their roster. I believe Seattle is the most likely to sweep out of the all teams coming into this slate.
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 a 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
Cellium: How can I not go with the MVP! He crushed all year last season and the change of the game I don't think will change that much. He is pretty expensive so if you need someone a bit cheaper then Simp is a great pivot from Cellium who has been playing well too. He is 1.2k cheaper and 8.8k could be a steal if he rebounds from a slightly down year last season. Cellium finished last season with the top K/D at 1.24 and there weren't many players close to him. I expect him to have a good year once again and be a focal point of this Atlanta FaZe team.
Attach: This is more of a GPP play as Minnesota is an underdog but I love the price we are getting on Attach, especially in the Captain spot. It can free up so much extra salary instead of taking someone to the top of the board. He had the 3rd highest K/D finishing last season with a 1.13. This is a great matchup for Minnesota to start the season and Attach has a much better team around him which could lead to them winning more games and could lead to more points all around.
Other captain plays: Pred, Octane, Simp, Sib, Owakening(GPP), Dashy
COD DFS Value Plays
Accuracy: Accuracy wasn't my favorite play last year but he had his moments and so far from the scrims I have seen, he hasn't been playing too badly. I believe those who are more AR-focused players are going to be the better players this season. We are getting a great price on Accuracy too at 6,800$ and is the cheapest player I would play other than maybe in Neptune in big GPP games. His overall K/D last season was at a .96 but if we end up getting the sweep that I see happening then he will get so many extra points it won't matter his K/D as much with how cheap he is.
Methodz: The game against Atlanta should be a great one to start the new season with. Methodz ended last season playing very well and from what I have seen he has played MW2 really well too. I love his price at 7,400$ and is a great price for a GPP line if you think Boston can pull it off against FaZe which doesn't seem as far-fetched as it used to. FaZe is beatable and Methodz finished with the 5th highest K/D at 1.09 last season. If we get a similar Methodz he could crush it at his price.
Other value plays: Attach, Drazah, Temp(GPP), Slasher, Afro, Neptune(GPP)
COD DFS Stacks
Seattle Surge: As I said before, this matchup is probably the most lopsided of the four that we have on the slate today. I really like Neptune for LAG but I don't believe that is going to be enough for this team. Seattle has an all-around better team and believes they will handle LAG fairly easily. I would of course start your lineup with either Sib or Pred. It might be difficult to fit both but if you can go for it. I would however pair it with either Accuracy or Mack to save some salary as they are both fairly cheap. If Seattle does end up sweeping they should end up being pretty optimal. LAG hasn't looked too hot in Scrims and that worries me for their upcoming season, they could very well improve as the season goes on but for now Seattle is the better team and should get the win.
Other Team Plays: LA Thieves, Minnesota Rokkr, ATL FaZe
Summary
- TLDR: FaZe 3-2, Minnesota 3-1, LA Thieves 3-1, Seattle 3-0
- Atlanta: ALL
- Boston: Owakening, Nero, Methodz
- Minnesota: Attach, Cammy, Afro
- Optic: Shotzzy, Dashy
- LA Thieves: Octane, Kenny, Drazah
- Vegas Legion: Temp, Clayster
- Seattle: ALL
- LAG: Neptune
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
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