RADIO
Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 2/4/22. 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! Wow, it is good to be back! I have missed COD and have been waiting for this day since we left off back in July! I'll be back each week with one article and will happily engage with those who DM me on Twitter as well throughout the weekend! We have a great first slate, with a couple of new faces and a new team in Boston Breach who replaced Dallas Empire's spot in the league. In our first slate, we have Seattle Surge taking on NY Subliners, Boston Breach taking on LA Guerrillas, and lastly, Florida Mutineers taking on London Royal Ravens!
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 I finally get to put all this knowledge to the test! We don't have a lot of stats for this season of COD as the Kickoff series is more for the League to fix bugs and such for the upcoming tournaments but we still get a look at some of the new players and the new rosters and how they look together.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Friday, February 4th, 2022, at 3:00 PM EST. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @DFSKoby or find me in the slack as I am happy to engage with readers and try to answer your questions!
Call of Duty: Major 1 Qualifiers
Best of 5
- Seattle Surge (-175) vs. NY Subliners (+135)
- Boston Breach (-275) vs. LA Guerrillas (+200)
- London Royal Ravens (-120) vs. Florida Mutineers (-110)
Slate Overview
Seattle Surge made quite the roster overhaul. Bringing on Sib and Pred as rookies, Accuracy, and Mack as well. This team looked very good in the Kickoff series making it to the finals. During that run, they played this same Subliners team who on paper looks like it has insane potential with Neptune and Hydra being the young guns and coming on with two of the biggest Veterans in the league in Crim and Clayster. I think some things change but Seattle still pulls it out all around they have a very good team but I do see it going 4 or 5 games.
A brand new team in Boston Breach they have Capsidal, Methodz, Nero, and TJHaly. This game is more of a fade of LAG in this spot who looked awful in their first outing of the season. It is the Kickoff series and so I'm taking only a little into account here but on paper, this team should be very good but they got smoked by Florida. Slasher is the only player I'm interested in, on the LAG side of things here but otherwise, I think Boston has some very good players in Capsidal and Methodz. I'm gonna say Boston in 4 but if LAG comes out more prepared this time around, we could see an upset. I think if it's any game LAG has the firepower to do so.
Florida and London are nearly even odds here. I just don't think that's how it should be. Florida looked solid and yes they were a bit underwhelming last season but I just can't trust London in the slightest. Afro was very solid towards the end of the season and they are going to need more than him to step up to make some moves here. I'm not necessarily expecting a sweep in any of these games but, I just don't think London is good enough to keep up with Skyz and Owakening. Florida in 4.
COD DFS Basics
- Like in CSGO, players receive two points for a kill and are penalized -1 for dying. Therefore, the simplest 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 is going to be a lot different in gameplay as it's round-based and not the first one 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 are going to be very crucial this year.
Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium DFS eSports subscription?
Like what you read today? You can show your support for Koby by using promo code KOBY when purchasing an eSports Premium Pass. You get 10% off and full access to all of our Premium eSports cheat sheets, DFS research tools, and optimizer!
COD DFS Captain Considerations
Skyz: Yes, I'm bringing him right back! Skyz was one of my favorite players to target last season because of how explosive he can be. He averaged over a 104 FPTS last season and we are honestly getting him kinda cheap at the moment, especially in this matchup where it could be close but Florida should handle it. This is a great spot for him, he averaged a 1.07 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.89 in SnD, and a .89 in Control which seems to be one of the weaker points in Florida's game so far. Love the matchup and will definitely be having a lot of him or Owakening who is a solid pivot as well and a bit cheaper if you need a little extra salary saved.
Mack: I think Mack fits into this team much better than he did with NYSL. They are working extremely well together and Mack looked incredible in their last series against NYSL. A little revenge narrative if you will. He dropped a +20 K/D differential in the kickoff series semi-finals. Mack wasn't the most consistent player last season but I'm expecting a lot more out of him, I do like him a little bit more as a Flex option on this slate with him being as expensive as he is but I do believe there is enough value on this slate, that putting him in the captain spot is doable!
Other captain plays: Methodz, Afro(GPP), Hydra (GPP), Owakening, Capsidal (Cheap captain option)
COD DFS Value Plays
Sib: Sib is far too cheap, we are getting an absolutely cracked player for 7,800$. Sib sat behind the reigning champs in Atlanta FaZe last season and I think they rubbed off a lot onto him because he came in slaying people in the kickoff series where he averaged a 1.04 in Hardpoint, a 1.00 in SnD, and a 1.24 in Control, which looks to be a game mode that Seattle will be dominant in the foreseeable future. In all 4 matches played in the tournament, he was the only one that finished with a positive K/D in all of them. Sib is an elite value play and should even be highly considered in the captain spot as well.
DavPadie: It's hard to pass up a player in this matchup at minimum price. If it was against a higher caliber team, I don't think I would be considering it, but Davpadie showed some great potential specifically in Hardpoint and SnD where he held a 1.03 and a 1.56 K/D in those game modes. They were able to take a map off of Toronto which is impressive in itself, as they look like one of the best teams in the league right now. 6k is far too cheap with the potential he has in this matchup alone. He should be able to pay off this salary fairly easily.
Other value plays: Capsidal, Pred, Neptune (GPP), Gunless (GPP)
COD DFS Stacks
Florida Mutineers: My trend continues of attacking those at the bottom (London and Paris), London really didn't improve their roster from the last season other than keeping Afro and bringing Gismo on the team. I think this is a great place for Florida to get some momentum going. They lost their rookie in Neptune but were able to pick up Vivid and bring on Davpadie as well. They looked pretty good in the Kickoff series and I think we are getting them very cheap on DK. Skyz and Owakening are elite plays and Davpadie had a great start to the preseason and is the cheapest player on the board! Vivid engages a lot and that can lead to higher kills but more often than not it leads to him dying more so he is probably the riskiest of the four players.
Other Team Plays: Seattle Surge, Boston Breach, NY Subliners, LAG (GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: Seattle 3-2, Boston 3-1, Florida 3-1
- Seattle: Sib, Mack, Pred
- NY Subliners: Hydra, Clayster
- Boston: Capsidal, Methodz
- LAG: Slasher
- Florida: Skyz, Owakening, Davpadie
- London: Afro, Gismo
More eSports DFS Analysis
More DFS Lineup Picks and Analysis
RotoBaller Testimonials
Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and lots more here!
Did you read a RotoBaller article and win too? Send us your screenshots on Twitter @RotoBaller and we'll add it to our winners Hall Of Fame!
Had a member of slack take down the Insomnia Special last night. Pretty cool seeing that @RotoBaller logo up at the top! #Esports #LOL #Draftkings pic.twitter.com/S5FFRSUNB1
— "Thunder Dan" Palyo (@ThunderDanDFS) April 16, 2020
