The Shot on Goal – DraftKings & FanDuel Rocket League Preview – April 19, 2020 – fantasycruncher.com

Sunday continues the Rocket League Spring Series with the finals of the Winner’s bracket and continuation of the Loser’s bracket.

Core Plays

Ellevens ESports – CaioTG1, Caard, Tander + Avidity ESports – Renan & FirefoxD

Ellevens ESports didn’t embarrass Pera off the field on Saturday in the opening match, but they still managed to come away with a 3-0 series win. CaioTG1 and caard but ended up being in the optimal lineup from Saturday and those two plus Tander all ended up being 40% owned or higher options. This tells me that the field was in tune enough with how good Ellevens is as a squad. However on Sunday they face Avidity Sports who they are no strangers with. As I mentioned yesterday, Ellevens and Avidity matched up for the title this past season with Ellevens taking a 4-3 series win. In the regular season Ellevens also came out on top with a 3-1 series win.

This matchup is the finals of the winner’s bracket, as, despite the slate on Saturday, these teams played more matches to round out the bracket. Ellevens defeated True Neutral 3-1 in the semi-finals and Avidity defeated Team Renewed 3-0. This is essentially the finals of the winner’s bracket to get to the grand finals, though the loser of this match will still be the favorite of the losers bracket, so this is to secure a spot in the grand finals and avoid having to face the winner of the group of Team Renewed, True Neutral, eRa, and Pera in the Losers Final.

I think Tander goes under-owned here as a lot of people will chase Saturday’s data, but with a slight price drop, I still believe he is firmly in play here. If picking between CaioTG1 and caard I think the edge still goes to CaioTG1 as he showed a bit more goal presence and full rotation on-field putting him in action on both sides. I was all-in on Ellevens on Saturday and that ended up nicely with cashes, but I think Sunday will be a day to tune it back a little bit. I know that goes against calling them a core play, but on a three-game slate and only four roster spots, we are going to want to roster players from the winning team here and I still believe Ellevens is the team to beat in this tournament. On the flip side of this matchup, RenaN and FirefoxD are the guys I have interest in from Avidity and they could end up being a low-owned stack if Avidity can pull the upset. Avidity was able to sweep Team Renewed 3-0 in the semi-finals so this matchup should provide some of the best Rocket League play of the weekend. The 3-0 sweep of Team Renewed is also a pretty loud message sent as I would consider them the third-best team in this tournament. I very rarely suggest ever stacking a team and then bringing it back with players from the other team, though there could be a one-off in this group that allows that with this matchup. I dislike having high exposures to each team in a matchup, but the winner of this matchup likely carries players into the optimal lineup on Sunday.

Team Renewed – Math, Valt, PJ

Renewed played a quick match against eRa (Formerly known as Stiff Team), allowing just two goals, but scoring just nine as a team themselves. Six of those came from Math who had a strong scoring game, but the limited goals doesn’t give him much assist upside. Add in that eRa actually looked pretty bad, getting just 13 shots on goal through their three games. The fantasy output wasn’t necessarily glaring for Team Renewed but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t dominant in their matchup, as they were.

PJ had the quietest game here, not notching a goal on his five attempts. He played more of an anchor role which we talked about yesterday can severely limit the true upside, especially in quick 3-0 sweeps. So saying what I just said kind of puts us in a weird spot as Team Renewed will face off against Pera on Sunday. Pera was swept by Ellevens, but having watched all the matches I would say they at least looked crisper as a team than eRa did. Pera then went on to beat Chromax three games to two to advance to the second round of the loser’s bracket. As I mentioned above Team Renewed was swept 3-0 by Avidity ESports in the semi-finals.

Similar to Ellevens and Tander, I believe the field softens ownership on PJ and though it is always tough to roster anchor players we will get salary relief from a player on a team that is a favorite here. Math and Valt went under 30% owned on Saturday which was a bit surprising to me as I pegged Renewed as pretty large favorites against eRa. I think Pera is the best of the bad teams remaining, but the talent on TR should bounce back from their loss to Avidity.

Other Notes

True Neutral will face eRa, who after watching Saturday appeared to be lost as a team and pretty disconnected in their first matchup against Team Renewed. eRa did bounce back to defeat Locusts 3-1, though the group of Locusts, eRa, and Pera were noteably the three weakest teams entering this tournament. DraftKings is still listing ajgAnotherGuy_ above Reysbull and SHADDD which in my opinion is still a pricing error. I think True Neutral is the better team in this matchup and I will have exposure to Reysbull and SHADDD.

Cheat Sheet – DraftKings

Cheat Sheet – FanDuel (any player listed as STAR can also be considered for CPTN)