This article is part of our DraftKings CS:GO series.
GAMES (EDT)
- 9:00 a.m. Espada vs. Hard Legion
- 9:00 a.m. Natus Vincere vs. pro100
- 9:00 a.m. Virtus.pro vs. Syman
- 12:30 p.m. fnatic vs. Complexity
- 12:30 p.m. Vitality vs. ENCE
Espada (0–2) vs. Hard Legion (1–1)
This matchup between Espada and Hard Legion has been very even in the past, with both teams having won a game apiece. This one could go either way, but Espada arguably have the most upside, with degster the big standout. Since Patsi joined the team, degster has amassed a K/D ratio of 1.32 with a team-high 0.78 kills/round, making him one of many excellent AWPers in the CIS region. Dima is another solid option at $7,000, and it is also noteworthy that Patsi has been in good form recently.
On the side of Hard Legion, it is a bit harder to call. Forester is the best player on the team, and he does have the potential to pop off here with Mirage being likely, but $9,200 is a lot for a player like this on a slate where you have two beasts in ZywOo and s1mple. If you want to target a Hard Legion sweep, it might be worth taking a chance on one of the lower priced players.
- Espada Players to Target: degster ($9,400), Dima ($7,000) / Patsi ($7,800)
- Hard Legion Players to Target: Forester ($9,200), kinqie ($6,000)
Natus Vincere (1–1) vs. pro100 (2–0)
Natus Vincere lost to Virtus.pro in a huge upset, and they will be desperate to bounce back with a win
GAMES (EDT)
- 9:00 a.m. Espada vs. Hard Legion
- 9:00 a.m. Natus Vincere vs. pro100
- 9:00 a.m. Virtus.pro vs. Syman
- 12:30 p.m. fnatic vs. Complexity
- 12:30 p.m. Vitality vs. ENCE
Espada (0–2) vs. Hard Legion (1–1)
This matchup between Espada and Hard Legion has been very even in the past, with both teams having won a game apiece. This one could go either way, but Espada arguably have the most upside, with degster the big standout. Since Patsi joined the team, degster has amassed a K/D ratio of 1.32 with a team-high 0.78 kills/round, making him one of many excellent AWPers in the CIS region. Dima is another solid option at $7,000, and it is also noteworthy that Patsi has been in good form recently.
On the side of Hard Legion, it is a bit harder to call. Forester is the best player on the team, and he does have the potential to pop off here with Mirage being likely, but $9,200 is a lot for a player like this on a slate where you have two beasts in ZywOo and s1mple. If you want to target a Hard Legion sweep, it might be worth taking a chance on one of the lower priced players.
- Espada Players to Target: degster ($9,400), Dima ($7,000) / Patsi ($7,800)
- Hard Legion Players to Target: Forester ($9,200), kinqie ($6,000)
Natus Vincere (1–1) vs. pro100 (2–0)
Natus Vincere lost to Virtus.pro in a huge upset, and they will be desperate to bounce back with a win against a pro100 side that had a great start to the tournament. This is the most uneven matchup on the slate, and several players on the side of Natus Vincere will have a chance to score well. s1mple is coming in as the highest-priced player at $10,400, but this is a truly elite player in terms of fantasy scoring who is going up against very weak opposition. For whatever reason, electronic has underperformed massively recently, but this is a guy who has been up there with the best riflers in the world for the past couple of years, and at just $7,000, it would be foolish to ignore him in a matchup like this.
This is a tough matchup for pro100, and while YEKINDAR is talented, he doesn't have quite enough upside to be considered.
- Natus Vincere Players to Target: s1mple ($10,400), electronic ($7,400), flamie ($5,400) / Boombl4 ($6,400)
- pro100 Players to Target: None
Virtus.pro (1–1) vs. Syman (1–1)
Virtus.pro have been really bad, which is why it was so surprising to see them come out all guns a' blazing and sweep a team like Natus Vincere. In fact, they have gone back to playing poorly since then, losing games to both Apeks and Sprout. Virtus.pro came out on top with a 2–0 sweep the last time these two sides met, but it is important to note that Syman forfeited the first map at a 15–12 scoreline due to connection issues and had to play the second with a stand-in. Regardless, Virtus.pro should still be a slight favorite against Syman, and the trio of Jame, qikert and buster are all decent options.
On the Syman side, n0rb3r7 is definitely the strongest player, but it is questionable if he has enough upside at $8,600. Both mou and Keoz are somewhat interesting at their respective salaries, but it depends a lot what maps we end up on, so rostering any Syman players here is a bit of a risk that should be reserved for GPPs.
- Virtus.pro Players to Target: Jame ($8,800), buster ($8,000) / qikert ($8,400)
- Syman Players to Target: n0rb3r7 ($8,600), mou ($7,400) / Keoz ($6,400)
fnatic (2–3) vs. Complexity (1–4)
fnatic defeated Complexity 2–0 the last time these sides met, despite a pretty favorable map veto for Complexity, with Brollan, JW and surprisingly, Golden, all having solid games. Brollan has been amazing recently, but on a slate where you have the likes of s1mple and ZywOo, you can definitely make an argument for fading him in favor of some of the lower-priced options on the team. JW is quite appealing at just $6,200, and the same goes for KRIMZ, who rebounded with a solid game against Vitality after a stretch of poor performances. Maps like Mirage, Dust2 and Inferno are likely, and KRIMZ leads all players on fnatic on these three maps with 0.70 kills/round and a K/D ratio of 1.14.
For those looking to target a Complexity upset, the trio of blameF, poizon and k0nfig are all decent options. blameF has cooled off significantly after making the move back to Europe, and instead, it has been k0nfig who has stepped up to the plate and delivered big performances for Complexity. However, with how this slate sets up, blameF and poizon are favored here at the lower salaries.
- fnatic Players to Target: KRIMZ ($8,000), JW ($6,200)
- Complexity Players to Target: poizon ($7,200), blameF ($6,800)
Vitality (3–2) vs. ENCE (2–3)
ZywOo absolutely carried his team to a 2–1 victory against fnatic, posting a mind-boggling 94 kills with a plus-43 K/D differential across three maps. He has such mad carry potential that he should always be one of the guys that you need to consider for your lineups, and he can go ham even in losses, as we have seen plenty of times in the past. His teammates, on the other hand, are completely unreliable, and it is anyone's guess who is going to show up on the day. Personally, I would just lock in ZywOo and move on, but if you really want to stack ZywOo with another player on Vitality, RpK makes the most sense at $5,800 since this is a top-heavy slate.
ENCE are coming off a 2–1 victory against Dignitas with sergej and allu having good games. allu is priced at $9,000, which is very high to say the least, but he does have slight value as a contrarian pick in GPPs due to the masses that will roster ZywOo after his insane performance against fnatic.
