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Koby Hanson's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for Call of Duty on 8/4/22. 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! We are finally here! COD Champs is upon us, it has been a great season and hopefully, I will see you guys around next February! But for now, let's crush the last two slates we have of the COD DFS season. We finished the regular season with a bang and had a crushing great slate, so hopefully, we can bring that into the final slates of the year. It is the best of the best the rest of the way through, so let's dive on in!
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 London Royal Ravens taking on the Seattle Surge, next we have the surging LA Thieves taking on the Boston Breach, after that, we have 2nd seed Optic Texas taking on Toronto Ultra, and Lastly we have the Atlanta FaZe taking on the NY Subliners!
Today I'll be bringing you my COD DFS advice, analysis, and lineup picks for eSports DFS contests on DraftKings on Thursday, August 4th, 2022, at 3:00 PM EST. 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: Major 4
Best of 5
- London Royal Ravens (-110) vs. Seattle Surge (-120)
- LA Thieves (-410) vs. Boston Breach (+285)
- Optic Texas (-164) vs. Toronto Ultra (+122)
- Atlanta FaZe (-155) vs. NY Subliners (+120)
Slate Overview
London has been one of those teams this year that has just not performed on LAN and if it hadn't been for their great play online this season, they probably wouldn't be in this position in Champs. Seattle has been one of the better teams on LAN this year but looked god awful in the final stage. They have had 2 weeks to prepare for champs and have hopefully made some changes to their game. This is by far the closest game of champs and could go either way. This one more than likely goes0 4-5 games, so attacking the top players i.e. Pred, Sib, Afro, Gismo. Should be a priority when making a lineup with either of these teams. I give the edge to Seattle because of how well they have played on LAN this season. Give me 3-1 Seattle.
LA Thieves has had Boston Breach's number all season long. They have two of the fastest wins in CDL History both against Boston. Those were both online too, now we get it on LAN where LA Thieves have been so much better. It does feel like a letdown spot and if you believe in that, then, by all means, go, Boston Breach, because that's how you win some GPPs but in all honesty, LAT is in form right now and is feeling good. I wouldn't be surprised if this is another 3-0 for LAT as they have been just the better team in all game modes. 3-0 LAT.
Optic Texas was looking good in their losers bracket run until it hit the brick wall that is Atlanta FaZe. Optic and Toronto have played each other twice recently and have split meetings. Both games however went to game 5. And both games Dashy has been elite. Toronto looked fairly rough during their Major 4 run and struggled heavily in Hardpoint. Seeing that, I believe that Optic is in a great position to get the win here. I'm going to say 3-1 as I think that they can take at least one of either SnD or Control.
NYSL made a miracle run during Major 4 and climbed from the depths of 11th place and made it all the way to 8th and grab the final spot of Champs. They get a tough task though as they have to take on the Atlanta FaZe. One of the toughest tests they could have had was to start Champs against them. FaZe was once again making a run at a Major but also came up short again. This time falling at the hands of LAT twice! They were great in HP and Control but struggled in SnD during Major 4. This one could be close if NYSL can steal an HP as that has been one of their better game modes. I do think they can take an SnD as well. Ultimately though this is Atlanta's to take and I'll say 3-1 FaZe.
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 a 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 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 will be very crucial this year.
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COD DFS Captain Considerations
Dashy: Dashy has been by far the best player for Optic this year and they are going to need that to continue, if Dashy flops then this whole team will need his AR to pop off. During Major 4, he was the one player to go positive overall in all 3 game modes for Optic with a 1.15 in HP, 1.25 in SnD, and 1.02 in Control. Dashy has scored 95+ DKP in all but one game scored by DK since April 1st. He has a very high floor and a great ceiling. He is up there and price but Dashy has shown all year why he is worth every penny.
Cellium: The likely MVP of the season still is priced cheaper than Simp. Like I have said all season long I will take him when he is cheaper. This time he is more expensive than Abezy but he has been trending down recently, so I will stick with Cellium who averaged a 1.30 in HP, 1.02 in SnD, and a 1.36 across 6 games during Major 4. This game should be a close one and that can lead to a lot more kills for Cellium, so even if they weren't to get a sweep. Getting that extra map of Hardpoint can lead to nearly as many points.
Pred: The presumed Rookie of the year is having a phenomenal first season, leading Seattle to their first Champs birth in the CDL era. He is 4th overall this season in K/D as a sub player is impressive. As the other 4 in the top 5 are all AR players. He has an insanely high ceiling scoring over 150 twice this season and averaging 113 DKP in the games scored by DK. He is just under 10k in price and has shown to be worth every dollar of that. They only played one game during Major 4 and Pred was a massive reason why they were able to even keep it close. Averaging a 1.54 in HP and a 1.55 in Control. His SnD has struggled so if they can improve on that then Pred is being set up for massive success.
Other captain plays: Octane, Sib, Shotzzy, KiSMET (GPP), Simp
COD DFS Value Plays
Scump: I don't think you can go wrong with either Illey or Scump, but I just feel like scump is made for these moments. He's one of the top-tier players in Call of Duty history and him being in champs just feels right. During Major 4 he averaged a 1.01 in HP, a.69 in SnD, and a .95 in Control. They aren't the greatest of numbers but he is fairly cheap and I love the matchup. These two teams just faced off during the Major 4 losers bracket run and Optic came out on top 3-2 where Scump went for 96 kills on a +3 K/D differential. As long as we get something similar we should be set up for a great outing for Scump.
Afro: This is more so of a GPP play. I do think this game goes the distance and that can be good for a player like Afro. He struggled during Major 4 but he has had an up and down year and if there is a time where London needs him most it is right now. He has been a great Hardpoint and SnD player for London and as long as he doesn't crash and burn too hard in Control, this could be a sneaky spot for those looking for an edge. He is 7,400$ and has shown he can make a difference in a game. I heavily prefer Gismo over Afro but for value purposes, Afro is a solid tournament play as well.
Other value plays: Kenny, Illey, Accuracy, CleanX(GPP)
COD DFS Stacks
Optic Texas: I wanted to go LA Thieves, But I believe that ends up being the chalk stack, and wanted to stay away from making that my focus. With Atlanta having a tough matchup with a hot NYSL team, I chose Optic because I believe they are still one of the most well-rounded teams in the CDL currently. With Illey back they get a dynamic leader to this team. Makes it to where Scump and Shotzzy can do their thing while Dashy still crushes it with his 1.20 overall K/D. They also have some solid pricing with Scump and Illey being towards the cheaper side of things making it doable to fit them in with a player like Dashy or Shotzzy. After LAT, I'm most confident in Optic getting this against an up-and-down team in Toronto.
Other Team Plays: LA Thieves, Atlanta FaZe, Seattle Surge, NYSL(GPP)
Summary
- TLDR: 3-1 Seattle, 3-0 LAT, 3-1 Optic, 3-1 FaZe
- London: Afro, Gismo
- Seattle: Pred, Sib, Accuracy(value)
- LAT: All (envoy pretty expensive, my least favorite)
- Boston: Methodz
- Optic: All
- Toronto: Cammy, CleanX
- Atlanta: Cellium, Simp
- NYSL: Hydra, KiSMET
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