Welcome back ladies and gents! This week begins the IEM New York 2020 Event and we have four matches on the first slate starting at 8:00 AM ET! Hope you guys enjoy!
CAPTAIN CORNER (Top FOUR Captain Picks For Slate (2 Top – 2 Value):
1.) TOP: ZywOo ($13,800) Vitality –
I know this is an easy one, and anytime that ZywOo is on the slate, he generally has a top-three max upside. No changes here for this slate as ZywOo and company get a match with the Swedes in fnatic, a familiar foe. Over the last six months of play, ZywOo has faced fnatic on seven maps while putting up some absolute stud-numbers of +81 K-D Diff, 1.75 K-D, and 1.48 Rating 2.0. ZywOo has topped 55 DK fantasy points in all four of his prior four matches, as well as averaging roughly 77 DK fantasy points over his last ten matches played. Over the last month of overall play, ZywOo has led his team in pretty much all categories with a 1.19 Rating, 0.75 KPR, 0.64 DPR, 1.29 IMP, and 78.9 ADR. The craziest thing about this play is that he is the FOURTH highest-priced player on the slate, which means you get a bit of a discount on a top player here. It likely is worth mentioned that Vitality are also listed as -215 favorites on the money line to win this match.
2.) TOP: blameF ($13,200) Complexity –
Going with blameF as a little cheaper top captain pick for this slate and I’ll tell you why I like him here. It isn’t because I think Complexity has been playing well lately, because that is not the case. Since oBo stepped-down from their roster, they have not played very well. However, one player has pretty much withstood the bad run and still produced good numbers even on struggling team. BlameF has still managed to average near 58 DK fantasy points over his last five matches, and a shade over 70 DK fantasy points over his last ten matches played. He continues to be the rock on this team and over the last month of play he is sitting with a 1.23 Rating, 0.75 KPR, 0.57 DPR, 1.25 IMP, and 83.6 ADR. G2 has lost all five of their prior five matches coming into this one, and we know G2 can be good at times, but when they are not playing well, they can give up rounds easily. Complexity is a dog in this match, however, I don’t think G2 should be favored over anyone at this moment.
3) VALUE: mantuu ($11,700) OG –
Always love getting mantuu in a good match up and if you haven’t really been keeping up with the CS:GO scene, BIG has not been playing all that well lately. Mantuu has averaged 69 DK fantasy points over his last five matches played against some top teams like Heroic, and NaVi. He has averaged 57.5 DK fantasy points against BIG in their last two meetings, where he also put up 21 total first kills, two 1v2 clutches, and a 4K kill round. OG has been off for a bit of a break, so hopefully the rust factor doesn’t set in too much here, but they took their last four out of five matches into three maps, so they were playing good CS before the break. Over the last month of play (13 maps) mantuu recorded a 1.21 Rating, 0.75 KPR, 0.54 DPR, 1.07 IMP, and 76.8 ADR, tops on the team.
4.) VALUE: TeSeS ($11,100) Heroic – TeSeS has had a pretty strong showing lately with Heroic having a hell of a run at the ESL Pro League. TeSeS has put up at least 75 DK fantasy points in three of his last four matches played. Those three matches were against OG, NaVi, and BIG. Three really tough opponents. TeSeS has carried a hefty 1.32 Rating against top five teams over the last month of play, while also sitting second on the team in production with a 1.11 Rating, 0.71 KPR, 1.22 IMP, and 79.2 ADR. He has carried a few times for this Heroic team over the last couple of weeks, so this is just a bit of a value piece at the captain spot if you are looking to stack up Heroic like me.
FLEX PLAYS (Top Four FLEX Options for Slate):
1.) niko ($9,000) Heroic –
I mentioned I will be stacking against FaZe here, and I think I will have some stavn, but I think my main second piece for this stack will be niko. Niko has been an anchor for this team in their run in the ESL Pro League, and he has the third best numbers on the team over the last month of play with a 1.10 Rating, 0.70 KPR, 1.13 IMP, and 76.2 ADR. He also has had his second-best Rating at 1.14 against top-20 ranked opponents, in which FaZe is ranked 17th in the World. He has averaged near 58 DK fantasy points over his last five matches (including a 31 in his last match against NaVi to be eliminated from the Pro League) and has averaged a shade over 60 DK fantasy points over his last 10 matches played. He has averaged almost 7 first kills over his last five, while recording two 4K kill rounds and two 1v2 clutches to boot!
2.) shox ($8,400) Vitality –
Another piece of a stack you will likely want to have if playing ZywOo is shox. Shox has been pretty bad in his last month of play, however, he has had about three weeks off, so hopefully he has cleared his head and is back ready to focus on this match at hand against fnatic. Shox has the second-best numbers against fnatic on the team over their last seven maps played sitting with a +16 K-D Diff, 1.13 K-D, and 1.13 Rating for that sample. He put up 61.5 DK fantasy points just three matches ago against this same fnatic squad with 38 kills, eight assists, and 31 deaths. He also recorded two first kills and a 4K kill round in that match to boot. He has averaged over 56 fantasy points for his last 10 matches played and is typically Vitality’s second-best player on the board.
3.) ISSAA ($6,200) OG –
Again, it is pretty important to stack the teams that you think are going to win, and I think that OG may not win, but I think they have a legit shot at making this a match and seeing three-maps be played in it. So, with that said, I will need a pairing for mantuu, and I think ISSAA has had the best numbers against BIG over their last two matches. ISSAA has actually been a top-2 scorer against them in those two matches with 49 and 55.5 DK fantasy points. He racked up a 1v3 clutch, as well as a 5K kill round in their most recent meeting, while averaged a smidge over six first kills between the two matches as well. The price is favorable, and I really like the 2-man stack here between mantuu and ISSAA in this one.
4.) KennyS ($5,400) G2 –
Not really sure if I am being a huge fish with this value call, or if he is really just priced correctly for as bad as he has been lately. Either way, KennyS has the upside to break a slate and he is sitting at mid $5K price tag as a flex option here. Purely likey will be using KennyS as a one-off, or maybe as part of a 2-man stack, but I totally feel that he can at least hit 6x his value or better even in G2 loses triumphantly. G2 are the -175 favorites in this one, we can’t ignore that fact. There is a high-chance I likely don’t play much of kennyS, because at this price and with G2 being favored, he could turn up chalky and that is exactly what I likely don’t want. Either way, I will likely slot him in a line up or two and hope he goes off at this price.
Honorable FLEX Mentions: stavn ($9,800), poizon ($7,200), NBK- ($4,000)
CHALK STACKS: (Where you should be looking for Cash Lineups first to last):
Vitality, Heroic, G2, BIG
CONTRARIAN STACKS: (In order I would play first to last in GPP):
OG, Complexity, Fnatic, FaZe