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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 4/7/23. 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! After a couple of weeks off for me, I am back and ready to crush this weekend's slate. We have a couple of potential blowout matches, so let's see if we can find a diamond in the rough to get us a sneaky GPP play. A couple of changes were made, including Kremp for Vivid, Uli for PaulEhx, Fame for Attach, and lastly Vikul for Havok. This is one of those slates where you either fade it or get risky. With the odds the way they are, people are going to eat the chalk and hope for the best. We are here to get first and the best way to do that is to hope an upset rolls our way.
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! First up, we have the lowly London Royal Ravens taking on the Boston Breach. After that, we have the Florida Mutineers taking on the Seattle Surge. Lastly, we have the NY Subliners taking on the Minnesota Rokkr.
Today, I'll bring you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Friday, April 7, 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 Four Qualifiers
Best of 5
- Boston Breach (-650) vs. London Royal Ravens (+400)
- Florida Mutineers (+310) vs. Seattle Surge (-475)
- NYSL (-325) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (+230)
Slate Overview
This slate is going to be an interesting one as they are all fairly heavy favorites. Boston Breach made a change out of nowhere. They have replaced Vivid with Kremp, who was killing it in the challengers team for their Academy team. He gets a great chance to show what he has when they take on the London Royal Ravens, who made a mistake replacing Paulehx for the likes of Uli. They have lost every map so far and none of them have been remotely close. Boston is in a great position to dominate and get quite an easy win. I expect a 3-0 from Boston.
Florida didn't look too bad this weekend. They had a close game with FaZe that came down to the wire and even got a win on SnD. This is something not a lot of teams can claim they have done with how dominant FaZe has been in that game mode this season.
Unfortunately, Havok had to step away as he is dealing with personal issues and Vikul will come off the bench and rejoin the team. Havok is a very crucial part of this team. Had he been here, they would be alive for an upset. With him out, I don't see them being able to take down the wrath that is Pred and Sib. Seattle looked really good in their win over Toronto and I expect them to look even better against Florida. 3-0 Seattle.
Now here is where things get tricky. NYSL is a very good team. It's not an easy task to knock off FaZe, especially in game five where SnD is their strong suit. But this new-look Minnesota team is better than I thought and I think the odds are not doing them justice. The teams they beat were toward the bottom but I think this is the closest game of the slate.
If there is anywhere to take a chance in GPP, it is right here. Fame and Afro are the two I would start with. Cammy isn't a bad option either and will probably go a little lower-owned. Going triple favorites is chalky, take a little risk and hope Minnesota pulls it out.
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 three 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 five-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 five 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
Beans: I was thinking about going Owakening here. I decided against it because of the fact that Beans has been scoring very well recently besides one game against Toronto where he got slammed. I don't see that happening here, as London has been awful to start Stage Four. I'm heavily relying on Beans getting the sweep here as that will start him off with 67.5 DKP. Beans is a very good price of $8,200 and has an overall K/D of 1.00. Although he struggles a bit in Hardpoint, he makes up for it quite a bit in SnD and Control. By no means am I saying Owakening is a bad play. I just think going cheaper would help us overall in the long run.
Pred: Who else than the man himself? Pred has continued to be one of the best players in the league this season. After a stunning rookie season, he continues in excellent form. He averages a 1.17 K/D, which is second-best in the league. He also gets a stellar matchup against the Florida Mutineers, who are resorting to the bench in the wake of Havok being out. Pred is very expensive but he has shown to be worth every penny. Pred has continuously dropped over 100 DKP in 12/13 games scored by DraftKings. I don't want to second-guess myself on this slate too much, so I am sticking with someone who has been nothing but fireworks this season.
Other captain plays: Owakening, Afro(GPP), Hydra, Sib
COD DFS Value Plays
Fame: They are underdogs, and I'm sure a lot of people are going to go Fame after an insane Week 1 where he and Afro truly led this team to two much-needed victories after a very rough Stage Three. We are getting Fame for pennies on the dollar right now. While we have them in an underdog spot, I will jump on that. As I said before, this is definitely the GPP route for tomorrow's slate. Out of the options we have, I believe this to be the most likely of the three. After his first two games, Fame started off his CDL career with a 1.14 overall K/D, excelling in SnD and Control. I love a pairing of him and Afro together as they are going to be the reason they get a win here.
Accuracy: I really only like this play for the sweeping potential. Accuracy just needs to do the bare minimum here against Florida and just stay even on the day. Even if he gets 50 kills, he will still finish with 95 points after the sweep bonuses. That is perfect for his price. He also gets a decent amount of kill time on Hardpoint, which is an added bonus. He's cheap and Seattle has a good chance to get the sweep. That is all I need to hear to get on the Accuracy train. I do recommend a pairing with Pred.
Other value plays: Priestahh, Kremp, Bance
COD DFS Stacks
Seattle Surge: Boston is the chalk play. If you know me, I try to give you guys something different. Seattle has the second-best odds to come away with a win here. I think this last-minute sub situation Florida has with Vikul is not going to be a good look for them. Havok was a very crucial part of their team and I don't believe they are going to have the skill to knock off a team that is stacked with Sib and Pred at the helm.
The only one I'm avoiding from this team is Mack. He has been far too inconsistent this season, so I would rather fade than take a shot on him. Accuracy is cheaper and I believe he has the better floor of the two. I think Florida could take one map at most. Even then, I think that is a reach.
Other Team Plays: Boston Breach, Minnesota Rokkr (GPP), NYSL
Summary
TLDR: Boston 3-0, Seattle 3-0, Minnesota 3-1
- Boston: Owakening, Beans, Kremp
- London: Fade
- Seattle: Sib, Pred, Accuracy (value)
- Florida: Brack
- NYSL: Hydra, KISMET, Priestahh
- Minnesota: Fame, Afro, Cammy
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