DraftKings Call of Duty: Saturday Cheat Sheet

Games (EDT)

• 1:00 p.m. Dallas Empire vs. New York Subliners
• 2:30 p.m. London Royal Ravens vs. Florida Mutineers
• 4:00 p.m. Paris Legion vs. Los Angeles Guerrillas
• 5:30 p.m. Seattle Surge vs. OpTic Gaming Los Angeles

DAL (18-10) vs. NYS (13-15)

Friday played out essentially as we expected, which sets the stage for arguably one of the best Day 2 slates in recent memory. Call me crazy, but I'm more excited to watch these games play out as opposed to Chicago or Atlanta. We know who those teams are, but we're going to truly find out who Dallas and New York is following their Saturday matchup.

The Empire were scintillating in their series against the Legion, and probably should have swept them if they weren't obviously, and intentionally, trying out a few different Search and Destroy strats early in Map 2. Shotzzy was his usual dynamic self, but perhaps the biggest takeaway was the absolute emergence of Huke, who posted the second highest KD of Day 1 with a 1.43. The malleability of Empire's roster is easily one of the biggest advantages in the entire Call of Duty League, and it all hinges on what Huke can do in terms of first entries and rotation call outs. Shotzzy can do anything with his movement and gun skill, and Clayster and C6 are veteran presences who have seen, and done, everything possible in Call of Duty, but for Dallas to hang with any opponent, it all depends on Huke on making plays. Normally that means getting close to a 1.00 KD while also posting a near-lobby high in terms of engagements, but as we saw Friday, if Huke can go off, there's not a team in the world that can keep up with them.

iLLeY emerged as the second AR for Dallas, actually registering the highest Day 1 KD (1.47), but I'm not certain it's quite as actionable in this matchup, with New York benefiting even more from this new meta. Still, for a series that seems incredibly hard to predict, a $7,400 priced player who registered 127 points in just a four-game series Friday is hard to ignore, and should be a part of any NYS/DAL stack.

The Subliners play such a deliberate style, particularly with this meta, that I think people might overproject the kill figures, but when there's no other obvious matchups to target, you could do worse than some of the premier players in the entire league.

Prediction: DAL 3-2

DAL Players to Target: Shotzzy ($9,400), Huke ($8,000), iLLeY ($7,400)

NYS Players to Target: MackMelts ($8,600), Accuracy ($7,000)

LON (11-13) vs. FLA (18-8)

Florida got pushed to the limit by OpTic Gaming on Friday, but I think that has more to do with OpTic's new lineup as opposed to any sort of issues with the Mutineers.

The trio of Owakening, Havok and Skyz could be one of the best group of slayers in the league, and I say that with absolute sincerity. Even in this meta, which doesn't obviously benefit SMG players, Havok was almost "better" than what we've seen in May and June, which feels absurd to me. If Havok can repeat that performance Saturday, this could be a statement-level sweep of their home series hosts, but I'm not sure we're going to see that.

Everyone understands the dominance of Wuskin at this point, although it's fair to say the Royal Ravens superstar AR player likely could have put together better numbers Friday if not for a bizarre Game 4 lag issue in their matchup vs. the Surge (more on that later). But his twin brother, Skrapz, continues to do things with an AR that I wouldn't have thought possible just a couple of weeks ago. London lacks the five-tool firepower that the Mutineers have, particularly in this meta, but there's a bit of brooding confidence that I'm seeing, both on and off the field when it comes to the Royal Ravens. After all, it is "their" tournament, but it's also a chance to finally show that they can hang with some of the top-tier teams. Florida is already locked into a top-four placement heading into Champs, and while they still could fight for a 1 or 2 seed ahead of the championship, I think this series means way more to the Ravens. That doesn't mean they'll win, but don't just expect them to roll over either.

Prediction: FLA 3-1

LON Players to Target: Skrapz ($7,800), Wuskin ($7,600)

FLA Players to Target: Owakening ($9,000), Havok ($8,200), Skyz ($8,200)

PAR (7-15) vs. LAG (5-16)

We just saw this series last week, where the Legion surprised me with a dominating 3-0 sweep over the Guerrillas. Nothing has really changed since then, with both the Legion and Guerrillas getting annihilated in their respective Friday matchups.

I don't want to spend too much time on this seres because even if it extends to four or five games, I'm really not sure you're getting that many more points than if you took any number of Mutinners/Empire/Subliners players. There's also an added risk that a repeat of last week occurs, where either the Guerrillas or Legion go off, thus making it a quick series without any sort of high-engagement totals.

I'm leaning towards the Legion winning this series once again, but the only three players worth using in this matchup are all priced up too high for comfort. You can easily use the Legion or Guerrillas as team plays depending on who you think will win, and it's possible Shockz can post a positive KD in a much easier matchup, but otherwise this contest is simply one to fade completely.

Prediction: PAR 3-1

PAR Players to Target: Shockz ($7,400), PAR Team ($1,000)

LAG Players to Target: LAG Team ($1,200)

SEA (6-14) vs. OGLA (8-13)

I'm not going to focus on DFS for this final matchup. I'm not really sure how anyone can after the Surge got absolutely jobbed in their series battle against the Royal Ravens on Day 1.

For those unfamiliar with what occurred Friday, the Surge, who gained a bit of momentum after a Game 3 Domination win which extended the series to a fourth map against the Royal Ravens, basically were left to die in the opening moments of the game when Slacked, the team's primary SMG slayer, completely lost connection to his AT&T provider, booting him from the server entirely. With the Surge ahead by 15-20 points just a couple of minutes into the game, the easy choice would have been just to restart the contest and play Map 4 again, with both teams at their best.

But the easy choice is seemingly incapable of occurring for any team not named FaZe or Huntsmen in the Call of Duty League. Instead, the Surge were forced to play with a man down, and the lead almost immediately evaporated. By the second rotation of Hardpoints, the Surge trailed by nearly 150 points, with the entire team essentially not even moving off spawn as the Ravens gleefully annihilated their opposition. It got so bad, and so quickly, that Wuskin would even pull out a sniper towards the end of the game, just to try trickshots for the hell of it.

To be clear, I don't blame the Royal Ravens at all in this sort of situation. There's too much money at stake for every player not to take advantage of their circumstances, particularly a team like London who is still desperately trying to climb up the standings. And yes, these are the unfortunate perils of a league that was never intended to be played online. There's nothing we can do about the circumstances we have in front of us in terms of online play, but a competitive disadvantage, so blatant, so obvious such as this one, cannot just be shrugged away. Or at least it shouldn't, but that's what we got post game from the Call of Duty league, much to chagrin of Octane, Slacked and the rest of the Surge starting roster. They had every right to be upset, particularly since the Internet error occurred so close to the start of the game. The loss also essentially ruined their admittedly small hopes at achieving a respectable Champs seeding.

I assume the team's Internet woes can only be better Saturday, mainly because they can't be worse. I don't think it matters, because OpTic sure looked good with their new starting additions, which I can only imagine will be the focus of the broadcast team in lieu of Friday's utter travesty. But asking for a restart was asking for the bare minimum in terms of competitive integrity. It was asking for the obvious. It was asking for the truth. Yet we got none of it. It's a disappointing outcome for fans of esports. Not just Call of Duty, but esports fans in general.

Prediction: OGLA 3-1

SEA Players to Target: Octane ($9,800)

OGLA Players to Target: Drazah ($8,800), OGLA Team ($1,800)