RADIO
Jason Malmanger's expert League of Legends (LoL) DFS advice and DraftKings, FanDuel lineup picks for EU Masters slates on 4/30/20. His top LoL value plays and eSports DFS recommendations.
Welcome back RotoBallers to my League of Legends DFS column! We will continue to extend our analysis for LoL DFS across different leagues and sites, bringing you the insight you need to succeed. Thanks once again for the outpouring of support from the DFS and eSports communities. I can't thank you enough for the kind words on Twitter, and your support has afforded me the opportunity to write about something I love every day.
This Thursday through Saturday, the final EU Masters groups finish out one group at a time. Today group A takes center stage, and we will now see three consecutive two-game slates as each they finish up theirs double round-robin format in a day. Meanwhile, FanDuel has an all-day slate where you will receive points for each player for all three games that they play on Thursday, which changes strategy over there a bit. Spring season is coming to a close, but there are still some massive contests posted in the FanDuel and DraftKings lobbies, including the 15-dollar Shock Blast that pays 25k to first place!
Today, I'll be providing my League of Legends advice, analysis, and lineup picks for the EU Masters slates on DraftKings and FanDuel that lock at 12:00 PM ET on Thursday, April 30th, 2020. Make sure you are following me on Twitter @Mr_Malmanger as I often post starting lineups when I see them and other useful info for the slate.
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Group A Slate 1
12:00 PM: Gamers Legion (-180) vs. BT Excel
Group A was supposed to be a three-horse race with GL, XL, and GO all neck and neck ahead of YDN. Instead, we had seen XL look broken, dropping all three games in the first week, not exactly what the UK fans were hoping for when the tournament started.
In the first round-robin, XL lost to GL in which they played a bizarre Ziggs/Pyke bot duo. That straight-up stank, Deadly, has never played a mage of that type in competitive play. The kid is a CARRY player, and I believe that XL, with the time off and zero pressure as they have nothing to lose, will get back to what they do best.
Textbook front to back league of legends, and I think that will get them over the hump vs. GL. GL, you should recall, is a mid-tier team in the Prime League that has been hot since their playoffs started. I think this match will have some regression to the mean on both sides resulting in a long-awaited XL victory.
Send0o - TOP ($6,000 DraftKings, $8,000 FanDuel)
The top-laner has suffered during the team's recent struggles, and I look for them to get him back on his Sett pick. He is 6-0 on the champ, and this pick could set XL up for success in this matchup. Send0o has a higher KP% and kill share than his mid-laner Special does that will make him a great value piece for slate one as I'll be looking to stack the second matchup more heavily.
Deadly - ADC ($7,200 DraftKings, $9,600 FanDuel)
The ADC is second on his team in KP% and first in kill share with 33.2% that's 8.5% higher than second place. He is 6-0 on Miss Fortune for the year, and also unbeaten on Aphelios. This kid needs to be put on a carry, and if XL can play their own game on Thursday, I think they make a high-value stack for DraftKings and FanDuel.
12:45 PM: You Die Next vs. GamersOrigin (-650)
If yesterday taught us anything again, it is the importance of finding the right game to target. This game is going to be the right one of the first two for the DraftKings slate. Whoever wins this one will likely push past 20 kills, and that will put the game stack on the table for Thursdays slate one.
I like targeting both sides though I will be much heavier on the GO side than that of YDN. YDN is a hard focused early game team, and that gives them a shot to upset GO with a heavy snowball comp. GO is a more careful team, but if they are forced to fight back from an early deficit, they will have to push the pace a bit.
Gabbo - YDN - TOP ($5,600 DraftKings, $7,800 FanDuel)
The top-laner for YDN is going to be a nice choice for those looking for a big upset, a piece of the game stack, or a value one-off on Thursday. He has better KP% than his jungler and a better kill share than his mid-laner. Those stats are more than enough for me to look his way on Thursday.
Bluerzor - GO - JNG ($7,200 DraftKings, $9,000 FanDuel)
Bluerzore leads his team with 77% KP and should be a main playmaker for the French champions here. Just like some of the junglers in the LPL, we could see him carry this game before his carries have time to come online. He also has played a lot of Karthus so he can bring an extreme late-game jungler to bear if GO wants to scale. Bluerzor will make a slightly cheaper captain than his carries on Thursday.
XDSMILEY - GO - ADC ($7,800 DraftKings, $10,400 FanDuel)
The most expensive player on both slates, he also comes loaded with upside and security. I would love to find a way to captain him since I expect the game to go late; he will likely be busy. Aphelios, Kaisa, Varus, or Miss Fortune Smiley can carry the game on many different champions both early and late, just another reason I love the GO ADC here.
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Group A Slate 2
1:30 PM: GamerLegion (-375) vs. YDN
Slate two is tough to call, which is the better spot, but I think this game will be the better of the two. Both of these teams are more early game focused. In the first round, YDN ran out that crazy triple assassin comp and got destroyed in 24 minutes by the Germans.
The Italians were able to pick up a win later in the week vs. XL with a more standard if early game focused comp. With them focusing so heavy early, they are always a threat to snowball a game out of control or to slowly lose it.
Rabble - JNG ($6,600 DraftKings, $8,600 FanDuel)
Rabble sits third on the team in KP% behind both members of his bot lane. He has played 16 different champions this split that's good for first on the side. With that kind of flexibility, it allows GamerLegion a lot of leeway in drafts to pinch the Tabasko's champion pool. Being able to push Tabasko off of his favorite Elise, or other early game junglers will disrupt what YDN want to do and give an advantage over to Rabble.
Nite - MID ($7,600 DraftKings, $8,900 FanDuel)
None of the mids in this group are on another level from the others, but I think Nite will be in a better spot than the others here vs. YDN. He is second on the team in kill share, and I'll take the discount vs. the likes of Toucouille on DraftKings.
2:15 PM: GamersOrigin (-260) vs. BTXL
The first matchup between these two was a snoozer with GO winning a very safe 10-5 match. Looking at the two teams once again, I expect this game will go a bit faster with the feeling out process being done now. I like the French champs to repeat their first-round result with XL taking another loss.
They have been very convincing, and haven't lost even a single baron throughout the tournament. I don't mind hedging a bit in GPP as I expect XL to be much lower owned due to their poor performance in week 1. You know the drill with GO by now, and who their best plays are.
Bluerzor - JNG ($7,200 DraftKings, $9,000 FanDuel)
XDSMILEY - ADC ($7,800 DraftKings, $10,400 FanDuel)
HustlinBeasT - SUP ($6,000 DraftKings, $7,900 FanDuel)
Group B Slate 3
3:00 PM: BTXL (-200) vs. YDN
The third slate on DraftKings could be dicey, and I almost expect the seeding to be determined by this time. That would render this slate meaningless, and leave the teams playing strictly for pride. I'm going to call them straight up, but as I said yesterday, be prepared to pivot based on the way the day plays out.
I like XL here, they are simply a better team than YDN and will be playing for the revenge factor after losing to them in the first RR. This will be the matchup to target heavily on this slate. Game stacking is most definitely on the table for this one as well.
I like sticking with the main men on XL here.
Send0o - TOP ($6,600 DraftKings, $8,000 FanDuel)
Deadly - ADC ($7,800 DraftKings, $9,600 FanDuel)
KaSing - SUP ($5,800 DraftKings, $7,300 FanDuel)
3:45 PM: GamersOrigin (-200) vs. GamerLegion
The finale on Thursday should be another banger. I like GO here, and the French champs have a 75% win rate on the blue side compared to the Germans 40% on red.
GO went off in the first matchup, winning 22-6, and I like them to win again, but perhaps not by so much. You know what to do here since we've already talked about the GO side winning several times.
Summary
- On DraftKings, be prepared to change your mind a lot. In these rapid-fire slates in the past, we have had a lot of overreactions to results. Also, be cognizant of the outcomes for each team and how they impact seeding. Organizations need to finish in the top two to advance to the knock out stage.
- On FanDuel, with the bizarre choice to put everything together, I like the value of Excel. They played down in week one I'd look for them to rebound and go 2-1 today.
- Yesterday showed the power of matchups and the usefulness of game stacks in these best of one scenarios. I'm not against throwing out a few variants in the MME scene. Especially on the last slate if everything is already decided.
- Have some fun guys we're running out of these precious slates, and when the break is here, we will miss this nonstop all day long LOL sweats.
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Looking Forward
The League of Legends DFS action never stops, and we here at Rotoballer have got you covered. EU masters are in full swing, and we will have two weeks of the group stage to keep us busy while waiting for LPL/LCK playoffs to finish up. Then it will be on to MSI, and it will be summer split before you know it.
Be sure to check back throughout the week as we'll be publishing daily eSports DFS articles, analysis and lineup picks for League Of Legends, Counter Strike, Rocket League and eNASCAR. Thanks for reading, and good luck RotoBallers!
More ESports DFS Analysis
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Readers of RotoBaller's eSports DFS articles have been winning money on DraftKings and FanDuel regularly. Some of them are winning contests daily and bringing in some serious cheddar. Check one out below and lots more here!
Did you read a RotoBaller article and win too? Send us your screenshots on Twitter @RotoBaller and we'll add it to our winners Hall Of Fame!
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