RADIO
Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 3/6/21. 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 back guys to the coverage of the First CDL Major of the 2021 Season! Great to be back as this weekend the best of the best are going to be taking each other on this weekend! That slate went a lot smoother than I thought it was going to. NYS had me on edge but ended up pulling off the reverse sweep and beat the Florida Mutineers. Both FaZe and Thieves picked up sweeps and Arcitys actually paid off for once! The match between Dallas Empire and Optic Chicago was definitely one of the best matches of the year so far. Every map was a nail-biter and Dallas pulled off the upset in Round 11 of game 5 to send them to face Atlanta in the Semi-Finals.
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! The final slate of the first Major of the season is upon us and it's going to be a nice two gamer to finish it out! We have LA Thieves taking on Optic Chicago and New York Subliners taking on LA Guerrillas. The losers of these matches are out of the major and the winners go on to play each other for a chance back at it in the final stages of the tournament.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Saturday, March 6th, 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: Atlanta Home Series
Best of 5
- LA Thieves (+250) vs. Optic Chicago (-350)
- LA Guerrillas (+170) vs. New York Subliners (-225)
Slate Overview
The line on Optic vs LA Thieves quite surprised me, I did expect Optic to be favored but that's a heavy line to hold on to them. Do I think Optic wins? Oh hell yeah. Optic is going to want another shot at taking out Dallas and Atlanta, so I can see them coming in guns blazing and taking out LA Thieves pretty quickly and sending them packing. LA Thieves are fresh off a sweep against Toronto but just before that they have been swept by Dallas and LAG. Optic is a very dominant team and this one should go their way favorably, I would not be surprised if it ended in a sweep but I'm giving LAT one game as hardpoint really comes down to what map is picked, and unfortunately, we don't know that until after the slate locks. So a sweep is definitely in play here.
This one could go either way honestly. Both teams are very evenly matched and it's really going to come down to map selection. I give the edge in Snd to LAG due to recency bias as they have played well in SnD. NYS gets Control though slightly. It's really going to come down to hardpoint I think. This one is going to be a battle and it's going to be a fun one to watch. I love close games like this as it makes it harder for everyone to pick so the contests aren't as tight but with it being a two-game slate, it's going to be a very chalky slate and not many players are going to be low owned. Hedging this game could be the difference between a takedown and missing the green.
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
DiamondCon: Diamoncon has been slightly inconsistent this season but when the dude is on. He is a straight killer and dropped 104 kills in the crazy reverse sweep that he helped form yesterday. He has multiple games of over 100 DKP this season and he is currently been playing a little better than Clayster who has been off in the last three games as he hasn't performed as well as he did at the beginning of the season. DiamondCon has the 7th best K/D in the league at 1.08 K/D. He is also averaging over a 1.05 K/D in each game mode. He is playing very well right now and could be a good option and pivot off of a struggling Clayster. He really only has one rough game so far this season and that was a blowout against Optic. DiamondCon should be looked at heavily here whether in the captain spot or not.
Envoy: Okay we all know Dashy is a good play at this point therefore I'm not gonna bore everyone with the same story over and over. Dashy is a fantastic play and should be highly considered. Just look at this as a pivot. Envoy leads the league in hill time by over 5 seconds at 93.5 seconds per Hardpoint game. That is an insane amount and in that time he is also averaging a 1.12 K/D in that game mode. Envoy is a great way to get different and has the potential to surpass Dashy in a game if he stays hot. Optic should be able to win this one fairly quickly as they are one of the most dominant teams in the CDL right now and they are going to be looking to try and get revenge against Dallas and Atlanta FaZe farther down in this tournament. I expect Envoy and Dashy to be dialed in and lead this team to a win.
Other captain plays: DASHY!!!, Clayster, Slasher(GPP), Silly(GPP),
COD DFS Value Plays
FormaL: You guys are gonna get sick of this one... DK just makes it too damn easy at this point. Seriously.. 7k? FormaL has been one of the most consistent value plays this season and I don't see that changing as long as they keep him in this price range. The dude is just demolishing and now has the 5th highest K/D in the league at 1.12 right now. He is also a top 5 player in both Control and Hardpoint games. He is also great at getting hill time at over a minute per hardpoint game with only Envoy on his team averaging more. He is one of two players averaging over 100 DKP below 8k and he is the one in the better spot to continue that trend. Give me all the formaL no matter how chalky he is.
Asim: Asim looked improved today against Florida. He struggled in the first hardpoint and Control but when full beast mode in the final hardpoint and SnD and helped propel this team back into contention as they were down 0-2 coming into the third map and was able to pull off the reverse sweep. He has the ability to go off in big-time spots but he is also can tank at times. He is at times risky but is currently playing better than Mack and I will take the 1.2k difference in price on him. 6 of his 7 performances this year have all landed him 85 or more DKP so far and have been a reliable value play so far this season.
Other value plays: Vivid, TJHaly, Silly, Scump(PUNT), Temp(GPP)
COD DFS Stacks
Optic Chicago: This is the 2nd time that Optic has had crushing defeats in game 5. Both against some of the top teams in the league. Optic is getting a good matchup though against LA Thieves who although swept Toronto yesterday has been swept by LAG and Dallas within the last week. Optic was at least able to take Dallas to game 5 and I don't expect this one to go that far. I would not be surprised if Optic pulled out the works here and swept LA Thieves here. The only place I see LA Thieves if they get the right map in hardpoint and they get right off the bat and take a 1-0 lead to start. But Optic is the better SnD team as well is undefeated in Control so far this season and that should continue. Optic is playing at another level right now and Envoy, Dashy, and Formal should all be looked at here heavily. Scump has not been scoring fantasy-wise well as he is more of an IGL player and tends to die a lot. There's a reason he's the cheapest on the slate and is not worth more than a sweep bonus if that is achieved.
New York Subliners: This one is going to be close. Both of these teams are very similar in a way as they are mediocre at every game mode. Neither team necessarily excels at anything and that is a little worrisome. I'm giving the edge to LAG in SnD as they have shown a lot of improvement in that area. I do give a slight edge to NYS in Control though. Both teams though have the ability to win and lose in hardpoint and that's definitely going to be the deciding factor here. I do think the Subliners have the ability to win this and if Clayster can get back to himself as he was in previous games. This team could be a lot better. DiamondCon and Asim are both playing at high levels right now and should be highly considered here. Mack is still struggling to get back to his last year's level of performance and DK has priced him up, so I won't have much of him. Clayster is still a good play especially since his price has decreased slightly, just know he's been off lately and is a slight risk to use at the moment.
Note: LAG could win this. Might be a good place to hedge your exposure to this game. Vivid and Silly is the first places I would look. Assault has been playing well also but is more expensive than Silly and I'd rather have him.
Other Team Plays: Both LA Teams
Summary
- TLDR: Optic 3-1, NYS 3-1
- All teams are definitely in play here but Optic and NYS are my favorite stacks coming into this one.
- Both LA teams are underdogs. I think specific pieces in each of these teams are more in play rather than playing a stack. Temp and Slasher on Thieves as well as Vivid and Silly are the plays for the Guerrillas.
- This is definitely more of a GPP slate as there is going to be a lot of overlay.
- The best stacks here would be 3-2-1 or a 3-3.
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