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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 4/25/21. 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 to the start of the third stage of the 2021 CDL Season! Wouldn't be a weekend of COD without something happening! What a rough start it has been to Stage 3, LAG looked much better in Cheen's debut but like I said they are inconsistent and will lose their next match. Minnesota scored very well for losing, Standy and Priestahh both had 100+ points but Florida ended up being Optimal. and lastly, Optic did what they did and beat up on Seattle as expected.
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. Today we get Atlanta FaZe against NYSL who has brought in Hydra and replaced DiamondCon. LA Thieves get London Royal Ravens after their reverse sweep of Seattle, and lastly, a game that should be a bloodbath we get the Stage 2 champs in Toronto Ultra taking on Dallas Empire.
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Sunday5, April 25th, 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: London Royal Ravens Home Series
Best of 5
- LA Thieves (-290) vs. London Royal Ravens (+200)
- Atlanta FaZe (-450) vs. New York Subliners (+310)
- Toronto Ultra (-150) vs. Dallas Empire (+115)
Slate Overview
LA Thieves are coming off a thrilling 5 game match against Seattle as they were down 2-0 to start and were able to complete the reverse sweep and bring it back to get the dub. They looked pretty good, especially Kenny and Drazah. Venom is still not up to what he could be but is definitely improving and is far too cheap still. And with Atlanta FaZe being so expensive, we are going to need the value. London was able to grab Control from Optic but LA Thieves have been a bit better in Control recently. And since Drazah has joined, The Thieves have been much better as a team as well. Thieves should win this one.
Oh Atlanta, It's hard to even think about betting against them. And unless they make a drastic change, I think that continues. Cellium, Abezy, and Simp are one of the most lethal trios in the league and can win a game by themselves if needed. Abezy is elite and is definitely one of the most lethal players in the league right now. Subliners made a change in adding Hydra to the roster who has been killing it in the Challengers scene. Clayster is going to need to step it up though as he has looked awful in his last few matches. I think NYSL is always a team that could be in for upsetting a team. They need to be on their A-game though against Atlanta and I'm going to need some improvement before I make any big assumptions on an NYSL upset. Should be a sweep by Atlanta
This game I'm excited for. Dallas made one of the biggest moves in benching Huke. This was a complete blindside and I don't think anyone saw it coming. I really think this is why Toronto is favored. The addition of FeLo from the Challengers scene is going to be great to see as he is been one of the best players in Challengers right now and this could be a big move for Dallas. I think this one is going to be close though. I don't expect Toronto to come out and sweep Dallas as they did against Florida. Either way, picking players from this game could be the GPP move.
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
Abezy/Simp/Cellium: These guys are elite plays, and I highly recommend going and grabbing at least two guys. Yes, it's going to be difficult. But they have been automatic and have been optimal so many times. They get a lot of kills and are all sporting 1.09 K/D or better between the three of them. They are all getting high amounts of kills in Hardpoint and Control and all average 23 kills or more per 10 minutes in Hardpoint and 20 or better in Control. There isn't much more I can say about this elite crew. Atlanta will be chalky. I like Abezy the most but he's expensive, next I like Cellium for his value, and Simp is right in the middle there and has been good as well. Simp has just been a little inconsistent recently, so that makes me hesitant to play him at that price.
Drazah: Since joining the roster, Thieves have gone 3-1. He has made this team so much better and definitely made them a contender again. Venom has looked much better as well since Drazah joined as well. They won 3 straight before losing to Toronto who ended up winning the Major anyways. They came out and won against Seattle as well at the beginning of Stage 3. He has had 126 and 111, in the two games that DK has scored. He has positive K/D in all three game modes including a 1.03 in Hardpoint, 1.27 in SnD, and a 1.09 in Control. He is an elite play and has an elite matchup. He is one of my favorite plays on this slate.
Other captain plays: Kenny, Insight, Shotzzy
COD DFS Value Plays
Arcitys: This is only a play for a sweep but at 7k he's too cheap. In sweeps, he has had 128, 122, 109, 130, and 131. I like the upside we get here, it is massive. If he does sweep that is basically a free 100 points for him and at 7k, I could even see captaining him as good play as well and making it a little bit easier to grab some of the top plays on the slate. In all the games that FaZe has swept, Arcitys has done +10 or better in all of them. He is really good against bad teams, and with how bad NYSL is playing right now we could be seeing another sweep incoming.
Venom: 6.4k is pretty cheap for a dangerous LA Thieves team now that Drazah has been brought on. Also, they are playing a very poor London team right now who can seem to find who they are as a team. They have made 4 roster changes since the beginning of the season and most of them haven't worked out so far. Zaptius didn't look great in his debut either. Venom is playing much better and has improved a lot in respawn game modes. He has 1.0 K/D in hardpoint and 1.14 K/D in Control. He is still struggling a bit in SnD but that is so low scoring I'm not as worried about it. He is getting 23 KP10M in Hardpoint and leading the team at 22.1 KP10M in Control. He had 123 in their sweep of Subliners and 90 in the 5 game match against Seattle. He is definitely improving as a player and I like him at his price.
Other value plays: Felo, Cleanx, Cammy, Illey
COD DFS Stacks
Atlanta FaZe: Subliners have lost two straight now. And in both of those Clayster looked horrible going -20 or worse. FaZe is such a dominant team that it is hard to pick against them. Until they start losing, then FaZe is going to be a team that is going to be chalk and is going to be the top team to stack. The only issue is grabbing multiple of them. They are very expensive. Getting Abezy might be the best play but he's the most expensive. My favorite though is Cellium, he's the cheapest of the big three and has been scoring really well. If this ends as a sweep I really like Arcitys. He tends to play really well in sweeps and scores over 100. He is only 7k and makes it a bit easier to grab a couple of big players. Simp has been kinda underwhelming recently and so it makes me hesitant to grab him at 9.8k so he makes him my least favorite FaZe play but will always be in play for his ability to be extremely explosive.
LA Thieves: I feel like a broken record, but Drazah has made this team better and is 3-1 since joining the squad. They have a great matchup against a struggling London team and should look good winning this one. I don't want to say Sweep, cause I think there is a chance that London grabs one map from them, but I'm definitely not ruling the possibility out of a sweep happening. If both FaZe and Thieves sweep, I do expect that to be what's optimal. It's definitely a cash game move but could even be a GPP play if the Toronto/Dallas game ends up being lower scoring. Drazah and Kenny are the top plays here, and I love Venom for some value. TJ I'm fading until I seem improvement, he just hasn't been up to par recently and that worries me slightly.
Other Team Plays: Toronto/Dallas
Summary
- TLDR: LA Thieves 3-1, Atlanta 3-0, Dallas 3-2
- Atlanta chalk, but good luck fitting more than 2 of them. With it being more than likely a sweep
- Thieves will be the next set of chalk, I really like Kenny and Drazah. Venom for value
- Dallas/Toronto should be a bloodbath and I like shotzzy, Insight, Cammy, Cleanx, and even FeLo for the nice value play.
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