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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 3/20/21. 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! Welcome everyone to Stage 2 of COD League! What a start to Stage 2, Seattle surged to a win over Florida, Atlanta made quick work of NY Subliners, Toronto almost made quite the comeback but lost to LA Thieves. And Last but not least Paris made Minnesota look like a bunch of scrubs!
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! My Name is Koby and I'll be here all season long to help guide you through the COD DFS world. Welcome back to another great weekend of COD DFS! For Saturday we have a great set of games as Optic Chicago takes on Paris Legion, Minnesota Rokkr takes Florida Mutineers as both teams need some sort of rebound, and last but not least we get the rematch between Empire and Surge. So let's dive right in!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Saturday, March 20th, 2021, at 3:00 PM. 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!
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Call of Duty: Toronto Home Series
Best of 5
- Optic Chicago (-600) vs. Paris Legion (+375)
- Minnesota Rokkr (+125) vs. Florida Mutineers (-165)
- Dallas Empire (-700) vs. Seattle Surge (+400)
Slate Overview
Optic couldn't finish it out against NYS in the Major but I think this new meta plays to their advantage. Dashy and Formal are playing excellent right now and the ARs are going to be in full force. Scump is more than likely going to be the main SMG player here but Envoy could also play SMG very well. Paris looked really well today against Minnesota as they swept them and it was quick. Paris could make this series very interesting and I think they take one off of Optic but a 3-1 win is what I'm thinking happens here. This plays to Dashys Strong suit of getting a ton of kills which makes him a very attractive play. Should be a bloody battle.
Both of these teams just got railed by their opponents. I don't know what's worse a loss to Seattle or a loss to Paris. Both of these teams haven't been great in Stage one. Now it's a matter of seeing who can rebound off their loss better. Looking at it closer, Florida is the better Hardpoint team. Minnesota is the better SnD team. Control is very close though. Minnesota is 4-3 in Control and Florida is 5-4, so it really comes down to which map is picked. This one could be a close one and I think it either ends in a 3-1 win by Florida or a 3-2 win by Minnesota.
So Seattle came out and shocked Florida with a very convincing win as Prestinni stepped up in a big way as the new meta really fit his playstyle and was able to take over with Octane as they both scored big. They now get another test against Dallas Empire who last time out swept Seattle. I don't think they will be able to pull it off as Dallas is a very good team but you never know with this Seattle team. I think it will be closer and Seattle will probably sneak one map off of Dallas but more than likely that will come in the form of SnD as they are horrid Control. This will be a good matchup to watch though as we might see a new team in contention if Seattle can pull off the upset.
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 K/D ratio. However, players can also earn fantasy points for planting or defusing bombs (three points each) in Search and Destroy rounds, so there are some players who we can target for other skills besides their ability to kill the opponent.
- 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 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.
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COD DFS Captain Considerations
Dashy: Dashy is already playing at a very high level and now that this new meta has come around. I think it plays to his advantage even more as he plays so well with an AR especially the QBZ which is more than likely what he is going to be running coming into this game. I expect Dashy to absolutely dominate and the only thing that makes it difficult to get him at captain is his price. 10.2k is a lot and in the captain spot, he is 15.4k that makes it quite difficult to get the rest of your lineup in without some major value. Dashy has been clearly the best player so far this year and I expect that to continue, He is 2nd in the league in overall K/D at 1.21, and is leading the league in Control kills and K/D. He is getting high amounts of kills in hardpoint as well and has only struggled slightly in SnD. He has a great matchup and I expect Optic to rebound off of their last performance in the Major.
Shotzzy: I like the discount we are getting here on Shotzzy, 2,100 is a big difference when it comes down to getting say your last player. Shotzzy has about a 1.00 K/D overall and is averaging 80+ kills in games that go longer than 3 maps. He is also averaging 103 DKP per game. Last time outing against Seattle he went 49/35 with 112 DKP. He can go off at any time and the matchup here is the perfect chance for a situation like that. Recently he has looked a little rough and gone negative in his last few matches but he is also playing against some of the top teams in the league recently. Seattle is the complete opposite of that, ranking 11th in the CDL. This should be a good spot for Shotzzy to rebound and return to MVP form.
Other captain plays: Octane, Huke, Envoy, Owakening, Attach
COD DFS Value Plays
Illey: Yep we don't love the Illey play but against Seattle, it's a play we have to consider. Seattle is still at the bottom of the league as only London is worse than them. Illey is just too cheap not to look at with a serious look because he is only 6.4k on a team that could sweep Seattle for the 2nd time. The last time they did illey went 44/41 and finished with 100 DKP after all the bonuses added. The problem though if they don't sweep he hasn't played very well nor scored very well either and that's the risk in rostering him. This new meta could help Illey it just depends on how he adjusts to it at he is a Flex player and can use an AR or an SMG. So this could be a spot that Illey makes improvements. We will see.
Prestinni: I really didn't want to talk just about Optic and Dallas the entire time. This is definitely a GPP play only. Do not play Prestinni in Cash games you will be donating right to DraftKings. Prestinni with this new meta looked like a whole different player. He dropped 77 kills with a 1.16 K/D. This was the first time all season that he has gone positive. That is why he is a GPP player. If he is able to keep this level of play against Dallas and help pull off the upset. He could be a low-owned stud that scores really well. Plus he is only 6k which is the 2nd cheapest on the slate.
Other value plays: FormaL, C6, Scump, Priestahh(PUNT), Skyz
COD DFS Stacks
Optic Chicago: Optic is probably the safest team on this slate. Paris did just sweep but Optic is quite a better team than Minnesota. I'm very confident in Optics' ability to win as they are a top team right now and don't necessarily have a weak game mode as they have improved tremendously in SnD which is somewhere Paris has struggled the most. They are 9-6 in Hardpoint and 8-1 in Control. I see them winning Control and SnD. And they might split the hardpoint maps which may lead to a 3-1 win by Optic. But I would not be surprised at all to see an Optic sweep coming into this one. Which could mean big points for some of Optics players. Dashy and FormaL are the top plays here and Envoy would be the third guy I would look to. If you need the value though and you don't have much left, Scump is viable but has struggled in the past to keep up with the rest of his team scoring-wise.
Dallas Empire: Dallas will always be a top stack coming into every slate. Seattle on the other hand looked very impressive against Florida, I know that's quite a difference in competition but that was a brand new Seattle team that we saw on Thursday. Prestinni and Octane absolutely killed it. Dallas is a whole other monster of a team lead by Huke and Shotzzy, Huke is playing at an MVP level right now but I'm not sure how the new meta affects him. He is very pricey and it makes it very difficult to get him into lineups especially if you are grabbing Dashy as well. Shotzzy started out slow but is looking better as of late as well. C6 is the main AR player and for once I like him as a play. His price is a little higher than I usually like to grab him but he could be a sneaky lower owned play from Dallas that could hit his value. Illey has been off and on this season but the matchup is favorable and the last outing against Seattle resulted in 100 DKP for him and he's dirt cheap at only 6,400.
Other Team Plays: Florida Mutineers, Minnesota Rokkr(GPP)
Note: This weekend of games is going to be interesting and the last set of teams who haven't played with the meta will play with it and anything could happen. Major upsets could happen and it could hurt the cash games but with how high-owned Dallas and Optic are going to be you should be safe in Cash games. Don't count out Paris and Seattle they may be major underdogs but both looked good in their first games of Stage 2.
Summary
- TLDR: Optic Chicago 3-0, Florida 3-1, Dallas 3-1
- Optic and Dallas are the top plays here on the slate. Will most likely be very chalky as well.
- Florida vs Minnesota game could be either bloody or a surprising sweep by one of these teams as they have both struggled so far with the new meta. A one-off from this game might be a good idea. Accuracy, Attach, Owakening, Skyz, Neptune are all great options to look at.
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