Day 2 of IEM Fall 2021 Europe brings another slate of BEST OF 1 matches to DraftKings. As we found out in Day 1 with our Sinners lean call win, upsets seem to be more common in these 1 map matches. Each team bans 3 maps and the remain map is what is played, so it just seems easier for teams to eliminate the maps they are the weakest at. Because these matches are short and scoring is lower than usual, I recommend you go lighter than normal when registering for contests and also expect that an upset or two will happen!
Match Breakdown
On Thursday, September 30, 2021, DraftKings is offering a 4 match CS:GO slate with a lock at 1:00pm ET. Here is my ‘Notes Sheet’ for this slate.
Building Lineups
In these best of 1 map slates, I like to try to find some value in the underdog teams I expect to win, or in a single player from an underdog who I expect to score medium-to-high even in a loss. Looking across today’s matches, I am leaning towards Double Ponies and FaZe as the dogs who upset. A look at these team’s salaries illustrates the type of value we are looking for. A DBLP stack of 2 of their top options, bodyy ($11.4/$7.6) and Djoko ($10.2/$6.8) costs $4.2k less than an OG stack of mantuu ($14.7/$9.8) and flameZ ($13.2/$8.8).
Now, I’m not 100% sold on a DBLP win, but on the other hand, I’m not convinced OG will absolutely win either, so where do you want to put your money? Personally, I’d rather save with the DBLP or FaZe players I think will do the main damage for their squad in a possible loss and save the salary to roster the best player on this slate, ZywOo ($15.6/$10.4), and a few of his heavily favored friends on Team Vitality (-750).
The Ninjas in Pyjamas (-135) versus FaZe (+105) match is one that interests me. I don’t really trust NiP right now. Every time I think I have them figured out, they go and lose spectacularly and I wonder why I ever considered rostering them. FaZe intrigues me a bit, mainly due to the pricing of their players. broky ($12.0/$8.0) and Twistzz ($10.5/$7.0) both seem to be solid value plays, so I can see myself playing them to try to get leverage on what I think will be a possible upset and higher ownership on the NIP side. If we look at the salary savings of playing FaZe over OG, then the broky/Twistzz combo costs $3.6k less than an OG stack of mantuu/flameZ.
In Cash contests (50/50s, Double Ups), I recommend going extremely light, or staying away completely in a Best of 1 slate. If you do play, the likelihood of 3 players from the same team being on the optimal build is pretty low. Instead, I’d steer towards 3/2/1 lineups from some combination of VIT, DBLP, and FaZe players, rostering ZywOo in everything.
In multi-entry GPP contests, I am sticking primarily to 3/2/1 builds, or even 2/2/2, leaning more heavily on VIT, DBLP and FaZe again to fill the 3/2 spaces in those builds and a sprinkle of OG. Also consider that in best of 1 matches, the top players on a team don’t always score the most points, so don’t be afraid to leave some salary on the table when constructing your multi-entry GPP lineups.
Player Pool
These are players I am considering in cash and GPP lineups, along with my preferred captain plays. When constructing lineups, make sure to follow one of the strategies laid out in the Building Lineups section above.
