CS:GO Daily Fantasy Helper: ESL Pro League, Road to Rio, Thursday 5/14/20

With traditional sports on hold for now, esports has taken the front seat in DFS, and we now have Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to play on FanDuel. Affectionately known as CS:GO, two teams of five players compete on each map until one team reaches 16 rounds. Most series are played as a best-of-three and will feature teams from the ESL Pro League in North America, the CIS region, and Europe.

If you are new to esports DFS or CS:GO DFS, take a look at the introduction piece with a rundown of format and scoring. All matches are best-of-three, and players will receive a bonus for completing a 2-0 sweep.

Team Vitality versus Ninjas in Pyjamas

Team Vitality won their series on Tuesday 2-0 and look to be in good form. They are led by ZwyOo ($12,100), who is currently the top-ranked player in the world. He makes an obvious choice for the MVP spot, but should also be used in a normal player spot if you choose to go elsewhere at MVP. He should be among the highest-owned players on the slate -- he is simply that good.

Through the 19 maps, Vitality have played at this event, only ZwyOo holds a positive kill-to-death differential at +107. The next highest player is shox ($9.400) at -18, then misutaaa ($9,500) at -30. shox would be the next best option and comes in with four-straight maps of a neutral or positive kill-to-death differential.

Both apEX ($9,400) and RpK ($9,700) are low-end options, as they aren't consistent and don't have much of an upside, even when they are playing well. Over their last 10 maps, neither of them hit 30 kills at any point. It's all about ZwyOo -- the clear number one option -- then shox as a secondary play.

For Ninjas in Pyjamas -- NiP -- they are a strong team and see all five of their players come in with positive kill-to-death differentials. Of course, there is a difference from their top player Plopski ($11,500) at +60 and REZ ($10,400) or twist ($9,600), who are at +19 and +22 respectively. Plopski is the top option for NiP and is the only player in their lineup averaging over 20 kills per map. nawwk ($11,000) is averaging 19.8 kills per map, but I'm trying to be as specific as possible here.

REZ and nawwk would be the best options if you can't pay for Plopski. We should be in for a long series, NiP are the 11th ranked team in the world, while Vitality are the 13th ranked team. This should be a great series with plenty of fantasy points on both sides.

Team Heretics versus G2 Esports

Team Heretics are a mid-tier team an ended the group stage with a record of 3-4. The three wins came against three teams at their level or below, while the four losses came against teams who are better than them. They also ended the group stage on a four-match losing streak. They are a pretty straightforward team to breakdown, so let's jump in.

They are led by Maka ($11,700), who is having a phenomenal event and putting up strong numbers. He has a +105 kill-to-death differential, averaging 0.81 kills per round -- the third-highest in the event -- the third-highest damage per round, and the highest overall Rating. That is just the beginning for him -- the list goes on and on -- but one thing is clear, Maka is one of the highest upside players on the slate and is coming off of back-to-back 30 kill games.

After Maka, Nivera ($10,600) is the next best option and comes in averaging 19 kills per map but has only posted 19 kills or more in two of his last seven maps. Lucky ($10,200) is the only other player on Team Heretics who holds a positive kill-to-death differential and surprisingly, has posted 18 kills or more in five of his last seven maps.

Both kioShiMa ($9,200) and xms ($9,000) are very low-tier options with almost no upside and both averaging under 15 kills per map. They are punt plays if you are going for a stars and scrubs roster approach.

G2 lost yesterday to Astralis and now face a fellow French team -- Heretics. This is another win or go home series and G2 are the better team here -- coming in with an implied win probability of 71.4%.

kennyS ($12,000) is the best player on G2 and the second-most expensive player on the entire slate. He has a +80 kill-to-death differential and is averaging 20.2 kills per map for this event. In fact, all five players for G2 have a positive kill-to-death differential -- as you would expect for one of the top teams in the world.

huNter ($10,800) and Nexa ($11,400) are the next best options on G2, as they averaged 19.6 and 18.5 kills per map, respectively. Despite being priced lower, huNter has shown to have a higher ceiling and is my preference between the two.

Both AmaNEk ($10,200) and JaCkz ($9,900) are role players on a top-tier team. That is the best way to describe them and their fantasy production. They average fewer kills than the other three players, are cheaper, don't have as much upside, but that doesn't mean they don't bring fantasy value. G2 should win this series and they are some of the better 'value' plays.