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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 2/24/23. 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! COD DFS can be a tricky one because we have teams like LA Thieves that decide they don't want to play like the former COD Champs and instead lose to Vegas Legion. Then proceed to go and blow FaZe out of the water. Luckily we don't have them to deal with so hopefully, we get a more straightforward and DFS-friendly slate for us. I have already been eyeing a couple of spots, and if we are lucky, they will translate to some excellent scores.
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! Atlanta gets a bit of a bounce-back match as they face the London Royal Ravens first up, next we get an absolute banger of a matchup when Optic Texas takes on the Toronto Ultra, and Lastly, we have a surging Boston Breach team taking on LA Guerrillas.
Today I'll bring you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, February 24th, 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 Three Qualifiers
Best of 5
- Atlanta FaZe (-800) vs. London Royal Ravens (+475)
- Toronto Ultra (-110) vs. Optic Texas (-120)
- LA Guerrillas (+165) vs. Boston Breach (-220)
Slate Overview
As the odds show, this game isn't projected to be very close. London came up short against Boston in their only match last weekend but held their own against a surging team. Atlanta is a different monster though and although they may have lost LA Thieves. It will still be a very difficult task to take them down. One thing I do want to note though is Skrapz is min price and if you are planning on the big upset play, it has to start with him, he has been one of the better players on the team recently and at that price is impossible to ignore. He would pair well with Asim or maybe Nastie. On the other side of things, we get some fair pricing on FaZe for once. These guys are all affordable and there is plenty of value on the slate to fit multiple of them. I'm going to say 3-0, but I will say I wouldn't be surprised if London took Hardpoint from them.
This game should be a very close one, and both have most recently made substitutes. Illey has been released and Ghosty has joined the team and didn't look too bad for the team in the respawn gamemodes. On the other side, Standy was benched in favor of Hicksy, I wasn't very impressed with his first outing but they were able to get the win over Vegas with him. Scrappy has been nothing but spectacular this year and continues to be impressive. He and Insight have been a great duo and are going to be severely needed to take down an excellent team in Optic. The Hardpoint is a tossup, and I believe it will decide how this match goes. I give Optic the SnD advantage and Toronto the Control advantage. I could see this ending multiple ways, I'm going to say 3-2 Optic but a 3-1 for either team is very viable as well.
I don't even know how to talk about LAG they seem like they are good enough to hold their own against teams but almost always just come up short. They have lost 5 of their last 6 games and have only looked good in Control and were swept pretty recently against Boston during the last Major. I don't know how to take on Beans though, I recommended him heavily last week and he got destroyed. Then on Sunday against London he looked amazing. I still fully believe that his price doesn't reflect his skill. He is a very good player and if I need the value I will take him over anyone in that range. I think Boston handles business once again and gets the sweep.
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
Abezy: Generally I have always been the person to go Cellium or Simp as my first player from FaZe, he has scored 90+ in 9 of his last 10 games scored by DraftKings. with 7 of those at 110+ as well, and we get a slight discount in price from Cellium who sits atop the pricing scale for this slate. 1,000$ is a lot of salary relief when it comes to getting another stud. So far during Stage 3, he has averaged a .97 in Hardpoint, a 2.14 in SnD, and a 1.33 in Control. Love the spot he is in with a potential sweep up for grabs, I've always said that when it comes to the big three of FaZe ill take one of the cheaper options.
Owakening: Owakening is one of the top plays on this slate. He has been playing out of his mind this season and gets a perfect matchup to continue dominating the game. The last time Owakening played against LAG he finished with a 1.54 K/D on 54 kills. During stage 3 so far he has averaged a 1.10 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.07 in SnD, and a 1.63 in Control which is nutty. The price is high for Owakening but he has shown he is worth every single penny this season. Since the beginning of December, he has only scored once below 80 DKP and the majority has been over 100+.
Other captain plays: Scrappy, Dashy, Cellium, Simp, Shotzzy
COD DFS Value Plays
Insight: I like Insight more for online games. He just seems to play a lot better than he does playing during LAN events. Online in Stages 2 and 3, he has averaged a 1.21 and 1.18 K/D in Hardpoint, a .87 and 1.09 in SnD, 1.17 and a .94 in Control. Including an incredible performance last weekend against Vegas where he dropped a 1.54 in Control. If you plan on playing Insight I would do so with stacking him in mind. I wouldn't run him solo as I would rather have the consistency of Scrappy from Toronto. 7,800$ is a great price for Insight in what should be a close game.
Ghosty: It is hard to go basically off of one game but I have gone off less before. Ghosty brings a level of hype that they didn't have before and I believe these guys played better last week than they did with Illey. Once Ghosty improves his level of play during SnD he is going to be a very well-rounded player. He had a 1.00 K/D in Hardpoint and a 1.05 in their one game of Control. The big thing about Ghosty is his price at 6,200$ which leaves a lot of room for hitting value. He had 80 DKP in his last game I believe he improves on that in this match against Toronto. I do prefer Beans in more Cash games but if you are wanting to get a bit spicier then Ghosty is a solid pivot.
Other value plays: Beans, Slasher, Vivid, Skrapz(GPP)
COD DFS Stacks
Boston Breach: I believe we will get Boston at lower ownership compared to FaZe. FaZe is -800 to win, everyone will flock to stack them heavily. I also believe that Boston has a higher chance at a sweep which can lead to a lot of extra points. Boston is also very easy to stack as Vivid and Beans are both fairly cheap. Owakening isn't overpriced for his ability either. Since adding Beans they are 2-0, they should be able to make 3-0 in two ways tomorrow. LA Guerrillas has some outside worries going on with their parent company laying off a large portion of the staff and the rumor looming that LA Guerrillas will not have a team at the end of the season unless bought out. Whether that affects these guys, I'm not sure but it's something to think about.
Other Team Plays: Atlanta FaZe, Optic Texas, Toronto Ultra
Summary
TLDR: Atlanta FaZe 3-0, Optic 3-2, Boston 3-0
- FaZe: All
- London: Skrapz(GPP/Punt), Asim(GPP)
- Optic: Dashy, Shotzzy, Ghosty
- Toronto: Scrappy, Insight
- Boston: Owakening, Beans, Nero
- LAG: Exceed(At most)
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
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