CS:GO DFS Playbook September 9: Top DraftKings DFS Picks

Published: Sep 08, 2022

Updated: Sep 08, 2022

ESL Pro League Season 16 continues on Friday! Check out our favorite Counter-Strike: Global Offensive DFS plays for Draftkings with our esports playbook. Keep the CS:GO winning going! Check out our partners over on PrizePicks, Underdog Fantasy, Monkey Knife Fight & join our FREE Discord!

G2 (World rank: #9) vs. FTW (World rank: #53) – 6:30 A.M. ET

Moneyline Odds: G2 (-3035) | FTW (+1555)

Map Handicap: G2 -1.5 (-460) | FTW +1.5 (+345)

This is a best-of-three on LAN for ESL Pro League Season 16 - Group B

G2 - Rating at event: huNter- 1.31 | NiKo 1.25 | jks 1.07 | m0NESY 0.94 | HooXi 0.85

G2 - Rating past three months: NiKo 1.22 | huNter- 1.14 | m0NESY 1.14 | jks 0.98 | HooXi 0.75

FTW - Rating at event: kst 0.83 | Ag1l 0.83 | stadodo 0.73 | DDias 0.65 | arrozdoce 0.54

FTW - Rating past three months: kst 0.93 | arrozdoce 0.93 | Ag1l 0.92 | stadodo 0.92 | DDias 0.88

H2H Data:

These rosters have never faced each other.

Prediction: G2 wins 2-0.

G2 are massive favorites in this spot and their lineup continues to look better since adding jks & HooXi. Yes, we did see NAVI lose as a (-2100) moneyline favorite against Endpoint as part of Group A, but I don’t see the upset potential here at all. G2 now have a 9-5 W/L record across 14 maps played, and they should be in position to add two more map wins to that total here against FTW, who haven’t won a single map themselves at ESL Pro League Season 16. FTW are 0-4 at this event, and they have opened up with four or less rounds to start a half in three out of four of those maps, even when they were on the favorable CT side of Overpass. Thus, FTW are clearly outmatched and G2 should make quick work of them regardless of the form that G2 brings to the server on Friday. FTW have a 3-10 W/L record across 13 maps played with this lineup, and it is looking like they may put up a goose egg in the win column at this event. With $5K up top on Draftkings, it could be tempting to punt on a single FTW player in case this series stays at all close. Stadodo would be my favorite choice at $5,200 since he will have the AWP in his hands. Kst is the only member of FTW who posted a Rating above one on a map at this event when he had 21 kills, 14 deaths, and a 1.25 Rating on Overpass against FaZe, so he is another player you could look to at $5,600. Other than that, you are really grasping at straws if you decide to play FTW on this slate. G2 are the clear priority on Draftkings, and NiKo is my favorite option since he has been playing with the most aggression and may farm in this spot. I still don’t really want to touch HooXi, but if you were ever going to play him, I guess it would be in this spot. The projected map pool is a bit unclear for this series, but the maps don’t really matter at all: G2 should dominate.

NiKo leads G2 with 0.14 opening kills per round and 24.3% opening duel attempts across 14 maps played.

Favorite Draftkings Plays (In order of priority):

NiKo ($9,600) | m0NESY ($9,200) | huNter- ($8,400) | jks ($7,400)

Riskier Plays That I Can Get Behind:

HooXi ($6,400) | stadodo ($5,200) | kst ($5,600)

BIG (World rank: #14) vs. MIBR (World rank: #30) – 10:00 A.M. ET

Moneyline Odds: BIG (-240) | MIBR (+195)

Map Handicap: BIG -1.5 (+130) | MIBR +1.5 (-155)

This is a best-of-three on LAN for ESL Pro League Season 16 - Group B

BIG - Rating at event: faveN 1.12 | tabseN 0.94 | Krimbo 0.89 | k1to 0.84 | syrsoN 0.80

BIG - Rating past three months: syrsoN 1.09 | tabseN 1.03 | k1to 1.03 | Krimbo 0.97 | faveN 0.95

MIBR - Rating at event: JOTA 1.10 | brnz4n 1.01 | Tuurtle 0.95 | HEN1 0.85 | exit 0.83

MIBR - Rating past three months: HEN1 1.17 | brnz4n 1.15 | JOTA 1.07 | exit 1.06 | Tuurtle 0.97

H2H Data:

These rosters have never faced each other. The teams last played in June at Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022, which was prior to MIBR adding HEN1. BIG won 16-7 in a best-of-one on Nuke and faveN led the server with 24 kills and a 1.60 Rating.

Prediction: MIBR wins 2-1.

When k1to rejoined the BIG lineup to replace tiziaN, we were promised more firepower for the Germans. That idea made sense on paper, but they now have a 1-8 W/L record across nine maps played with this roster. The only win for BIG came against Evil Geniuses, who are #36 in the world and haven’t accomplished anything in a long time, thus BIG have not demonstrated that they can beat a good team right now. MIBR are not exactly an elite team at #30 in the world rankings, but they did have a good showing on Dust2 against FaZe, and the Brazilians have plenty of firepower themselves. MIBR’s best and most played map has been Dust2, which is also a map that BIG have made a name for themselves on, so it will be interesting if we see that map ends up in the pool especially as a possible decider map. It is difficult for me to fall in love with BIG as heavy favorites in this spot, all things considered. I think this will end up as a close series, and I think having exposure to both sides could be viable. I also expect this to be much more competitive than the first series of the day. SyrsoN never seems to reach his full potential in LAN environments and he has been the lowest-rated player for BIG at this event. The good news for BIG is that faveN and Krimbo in particular have looked very solid at this event, and faveN leads the team with a 1.12 Rating. As for MIBR, I said at the beginning of this event that JOTA’s form had been poor coming in, which made him an excellent target at cheap pricing since I expected him to return to good form sooner rather than later. He now leads MIBR at this event with a 1.10 Rating and is certainly a target again on Friday on Draftkings at $5,400. I lean towards stacking MIBR here since they are the cheaper team on DK, but ultimately I think this will be a tight series and I want to mix in some exposure to BIG as well.

Favorite Draftkings Plays (In order of priority):

Riskier Plays That I Can Get Behind:

Tuurtle ($5,000) | syrsoN ($9,000)