Call of Duty DFS Lineup Picks (5/9/21) - DraftKings Daily Fantasy

May 8, 2021

Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 5/9/21. 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! Back to another weekend of COD DFS! Florida winning another one and clinching the 2nd seed was probably one of the last things I saw happening at this stage. Owakening and Skyz looked great and Havok finally showed glimpses of last year's performance,  Toronto once again pulled off another sweep, and LA Thieves ended up disappointing me, as NYSL beat them and almost swept them. On to the next!

 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. A tough set of games ahead of us today, London takes on Seattle Surge, Atlanta FaZe gets Optic Chicago, and lastly, Dallas Empire looks to finish Stage 3 with a win against Minnesota Rokkr! 

Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings for Sunday, May 9th, 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!

Call of Duty: Paris Legion Home Series

Best of 5

• Seattle Surge (-135) vs. London Royal Ravens (+105)
• Atlanta FaZe (-285) vs. Optic Chicago (+205)
• Dallas Empire (-115) vs. Minnesota Rokkr (-115)

Slate Overview

It's hard to base Seattle's new team performance when it was against one of the best teams in the league, this match is going to be the true test to see how Decemate fits in with Seattle against London. This is going to be a close game for sure, but I do like Seattle to win this one. It's hard to pick London when they just consistently look horrible. Seattle was able to steal a round and looked great in the first map of hardpoint against FaZe so that does give me hope for picking them. But something very interesting is how cheap this game is. Prestinni and Decemate are both near the bottom of all players in pricing but do have the ability to score really well. This is a great game to grab cheap players from that can score well.

Normally I'd be on Optic but man have they looked rough in these last two matches. I can't say Atlanta has looked as great as they have been this stage but they have been the better team and have won 3/4 in this stage. All but the match against Seattle has made it to game 5 and I wouldn't be surprised to see this one go that far as well. If that is the case, I do see Atlanta winning this one. They are the better SnD team and if it comes down to the last map, I'm taking Atlanta to win it almost every time. They have struggled a bit in hardpoint though, so I do give the edge to Optic their. Control I give to the advantage to Atlanta as well.

What is going on with Dallas, that was embarrassing for them, they were swept by Florida. Shotzzy was the only one that showed up in that game, as everyone else just looked horrible in respawn. game modes. Minnesota on the other hand has been a bit up and down as well, but with how Dallas has been playing recently. This might be a good spot for Minnesota to take advantage of. This match has big playoff implications as whoever wins this moves up a seed. Minnesota has been the better Control team and the better SnD team. Hardpoint on the other hand is a tossup. I see Minnesota winning this one 3-1 and I'm giving Dallas a hardpoint match. They looked awful though and I wouldn't be surprised if Minnesota came out guns blazing.

COD DFS Basics

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. In hardpoint rounds, players with positive K/D ratios are usually the highest scorers and these rounds are often the bloodiest.
5. 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.
6. 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

Standy: Standy has been one of the best rookies this year and is the only player on his team with positive K/Ds in all three game modes this season. I really like this matchup against Dallas who looked absolutely horrible against Florida. The last outing against Dallas Standy had a 141 DKP. With over 113 kills. That is absolutely crazy the amount he got. The thing is, I really could see him pulling something like this again. Minnesota should be able to take over and win this one with how poorly Dallas has been playing. In stage 3, Standy has a 1.06 K/D in Hardpoint, a 1.03 in SnD, and a 1.33 in Control. Control is something Dallas has struggled in so I can see Standy getting his fair share of kills in this map. Minnesota has a great team and definitely has the ability to win this one. Really comes down to how everyone else is playing because Standy should be able to do his fair share and get some high scores.

Octane: Octane is the definite carry for Seattle, and with a game that has playoff implications. Octane could be on his A-game in this one. Even when Seattle is losing, Octane is the one that continues to get lots of kills and score at least decently. In his wins and 5 game matches, he scores very well with scores of; 133, 114, 104, 112, and even a 122 against London last time out. He holds the best K/D on his team as he has a 1.05 in Hardpoint, a 1.23 in Octane, and a 1.04 in Control. He is the best play on Seattle Surge and in a favorable matchup, he is a fantastic play on this slate that shouldn't have any sweeps in it. This is definitely more of a GPP play as Atlanta is on the slate and will more than likely be the higher owned and cash play, but I love Octane for GPPs and big tournaments.

Other captain plays: Simp, Abezy, Cellium, Attach, Dashy

COD DFS Value Plays

Priestahh: Priestahh is probably one of my favorite plays on this slate. He and Standy are a fantastic pair together and have been thriving since his arrival. For Priestahh to be only at 7k is way too cheap. He has 125+ DKP potential and has been a very solid pick for Minnesota. His match against Toronto was a rough one but pretty much everything else is has been at value or over. In his 5 game match against LAG, he had 126 DKP with 96 kills. That's insane someone for 7k has the potential for that amount of kills is also getting quite a bit of hill time as well. Priestahh should be looking at a 100+ DKP performance here and I'll take that for 7k every time. Priestahh has a .92 K/D in hardpoint, a 1.86 in SnD, and a 1.11 in Control.

Prestinni: You guys know how I feel about Prestinni. This matchup is a great one and he is far too cheap. He has struggled in recent games, but I think it is a good game for him to excel in and get lots of kills. London has also struggled in this stage and pretty much all season. Now that prestinni has got more into his zone in recent weeks, I really like him as the cheapest play on the board. He and Decemate are far too cheap for what their upside brings to the game. At 6,600 on this slate of games, there is a good chance Prestinni could end up being optimal. If he gets at least 85 DKP that is a good score for his price and has done that in a good majority of his games, along with a few games at 100+ as well. Prestinni has been really good in Hardpoint where he holds a 1.12 K/D, this is Seattle's best game mode and I can see them getting at least two wins in the hardpoint. This can lead to a lot of kills as he leads the team in engagements on his team.

Other value plays: Decemate, Arcitys, PaulEhx 

COD DFS Stacks 

Minnesota Rokkr: When I first started today's article, I didn't think Minnesota would be my most confident stack. Although they haven't been great at this stage they also haven't been horrible. They were the only team to take a round off of Toronto Ultra in Stage 3.  And Dallas has just got swept by Florida. Minnesota has the potential to do very well and I really like them as a whole. Standy is an elite rookie who can take it to the next level in due time. The experience that Attach and Priestahh have is also a fantastic addition. Those guys are my three favorites. Accuracy has been extremely weak recently and I love getting Priestahh for much cheaper. I do like Minnesota to win as they have been better in Control and SnD in stage 3 so far.

Atlanta FaZe: This is going to be your cash gameplay as Atlanta will always get a lot of ownership, so might as well hop on the trend. They should win this match with how poorly Optic has played in their last two matches. I do think Optic manages to get a win in Hardpoint but everything else should be a win by Atlanta. So in that case, all these players need to be on their game to score well. A sweep isn't likely in this one and that's going to cause a big hit to players' scores. Arcitys has been playing very well and I think he is a viable option on this slate. I also like Abezy and Cellium. Abezy has boom ability while also staying consistent. He is usually at least getting 90+ DKP in every match. So he is my favorite FaZe play. Cellium has also been very consistent this season but just doesn't have as much boom potential that Abezy does. I don't love the Simp play as he is expensive and hasn't looked good in recent matches. That probably means he's going to go off for 150. So don't fade him completely but I do prefer other plays to him.

Other Team Plays: Seattle Surge, Dallas Empire, Optic Chicago

Summary

1. TLDR: Seattle 3-2, Atlanta 3-1, Minnesota 3-1
2. Atlanta will always be chalk as the name recognition alone grabs ownership.
3. All these games are close so I'm going to list off plays from each team that I like as heavy stacking might not be the option in this one.
4. Seattle: Octane and Prestinni are my favorites, I don't mind decemate as a pivot to Prestinni though.
5. London: PaulEhx and Seany
6. Atlanta: I hate saying it but I'm fading Simp, his price along with these last few games has been ugly to watch.  Cellium for consistency, Abezy for upside. Arcitys has improved a lot so I don't mind grabbing him in some areas. (Note: Fading Simp is extremely risky as he still is one of the best players in the world. He just hasn't been up to standard in Stage 3)
7. Optic Chicago: Dashy and Envoy
8. Dallas: Shotzzy and maybe Illey
9. Minnesota: Attach, Priestahh, and Standy

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