ESPORTS

CS:GO Daily Fantasy Helper: DreamHack Masters Spring, 5/29/20

With a lot of 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 DreamHack Masters Spring 2020 in North America 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.

Another week and another CS:GO starting, which means we have a new set of matchups to breakdown. The DreamHack Masters Spring event is in action, with a European series and a North American series.

Natus Vincere vs Ninjas In Pyjamas

Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) comes into this series with implied win win odds sitting at a very nice 69%. This shouldn't be a surprise, since they are taking on NiP, who recently underwent a roster change.

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way, s1mple ($12,000) is the best player on this slate and it's not close. He regularly posts over 20 kills on most maps, shows a ceiling of 35 kills in recent games, and has a negative kill-to-death differential in only two of these last 20 maps. Roster him.

electronic ($10,300) has 20 kills or more on 10 of his last 15 maps and is the Robin to s1mple's Batman. Expect consistency from him, along with a flash of upside when it is required.

Boombl4 ($9,300) is the cheapest player on Na'Vi, and with them being heavy favorites, he's a viable fantasy option. He comes in with 19 kills or more on eight of his last 20 maps. That may not seem amazing as he is a clear role player for Na'Vi. But we can the savings and spend up for s1mple.

NiP offer some leverage on this slate since they are the biggest underdog. When it comes down to it, they might be a team you fully stack -- hoping for the upset -- or fully stay away from. You can roll with players from Na'Vi and then grab the rest from the close 100T-EG series.

If you do look to NiP for options, nawwk ($11,700) is their best choice. He comes in with 20 kills or more in nine of his last 20 maps. If NiP are going to have a chance in this series with their new roster, nawwk will have to post big numbers.

REZ ($10,800) and Plopski ($11,500) are the next best options for NiP, as they have both shown 30-plus kill upside in their last 20 maps. Again, rostering a full NiP stack is hoping they can pull off the upset. You'll get them at lower ownership.

100 Thieves vs Evil Geniuses

100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses (EG) come into this series with even win odds, so we are dealing with a coin-flip matchup. EG are on the brink of being eliminated from group play, so they need to win this as well as get a bit of help from other teams.

jks ($11,000) has always been the star player of this lineup and comes in with 20 kills or more in eight of his last 15 maps. What's even better is that jks posted a positive kill-to-death differential on 13 of those 15 maps, with one of the remaining two maps being an even differential.

Gratisfaction ($10,500) isn't too far behind jks in terms of recent production. Gratisfaction has posted 18 kills or more in 11 of his last 15 maps, with 12 of the 15 maps being at positive or even kill-to-death differential.

Liazz ($9,200) is tied for the cheapest player on the entire slate, and as you would expect, he comes in with some inconsistency. Over his last 15 maps, he has posted as many as 24 kills with a low of only seven kills. He offers a wide range of outcomes, but he has a very cheap price tag on this slate.

Ethan ($10,000) was able to bounce back in his most recent series and posted a team-high 57 kills -- with a +7 kill-to-death differential -- over his most recent three-map series. Prior to that, he a total of 29 kills on three maps with a -31 kill-to-death differential. He is all over the place right now and has some risk associated with rostering him.

Brehze ($11,300) is as consistent of an option as you will find on this slate and comes in averaging 19.85 kills per map over his last 20 maps. He has always been strong when it comes to his Headshot (HS) Percentage -- career rate at 52.1% -- giving him a nice boost due to the bonus points associated with them.

stanislaw ($9,600) isn't known as a high-kill player and should generally be avoided. Both tarik ($9,200) and CeRq ($9,700) haven't shown too much upside as of late -- neither of them have broken 30 kills in any of their last 20 maps -- but I'd lean tarik for the savings.