Dota 2 DraftKings picks (June 24)

Welcome to another Esports addition to DraftKings! We have a six-game Dota 2 slate on Thursday, which locks at 4:00 a.m. EST! This starts the qualifiers to their biggest event of the year and will be an exciting one! We will go to the overview and then into the slate breakdown!

Scoring

Dota 2 is very similar to League of Legends, so we will treat it the same way and make hedging a part of our daily routine. The difference is that instead of having to pick a Top, Jungler, Mid, ADC and Support, we will be picking a Captain, three core players, two supports and a team. Now, Dota 2 doesn’t have as much complexity where there will be a jungler going around to gank, but team fights will be just as important. Targets for support are players who obviously will rack up assists over the course of the match. 

I will give which team I am leaning more to 70/30, which means I will have them 70% to the 30% of their opponents in my lineup. Once again, please play light on the debut slate of Dota 2 as we look for what could be the clear edge. 

Slate breakdown

We have a huge six-game slate for Dota 2, and it’s going to be a fun one! I will break down which teams I will be targeting as my main stacks and then which teams will be my secondary stacks. Now, ownership is going to be everywhere for this slate and I don’t think you should overthink that part of stacking. The difference-maker will come with our secondary stacks or who we place as captain for the main stacks. Remember, think of your lineup like it’s League of Legends and don't get too cute. It’s a six-game slate, not a two-gamer.

To kick off the main stacks, there is something completely wrong, as Nemiga are coming in as underdogs versus Extremum, who got wrecked in Round 1 versus NaVi and put up a slightly better fight in Round 2 before being swept. For Nemiga, they put on a showing versus Trident Clan, and I expect the same here, making them a top priority stack for this slate. On paper, Extremum looks like the better team, but I will not be going that route. For the second series, I will stick with the same as yesterday with NaVi. Now, NaVi put a show on yesterday versus Extremum but will probably find themselves in a bloodier series here. HellRaisers can duke it out, as they did with Gambit, but this is a much tougher opponent for them.

Now, for the third main priority stack, I am stuck between Team Spirit and Gambit, who gets the easier series versus Fantastic Five, but they struggled versus HellRaisers today, a team that has not been active. Fantastic Five are in a similar situation and also has not played in a series since ESL One Summer. It’s split for me. Spirit is the better overall team and has yet to fail or fall below expectations. The field will most likely run to the dominating Negima, NaVi and Gambit, which makes me want to pay for the Team Spirit stack. Either way, you can’t go wrong with all four teams as a main stack.

Now for the secondary stacks, I am going to run back with the B8 stack, as DrWatson had him a huge series versus Notechies. Unique has also lost now seven rounds straight and six of those have come in the past week. Another secondary stack, also an underdog, is going to be Team Empire. They are in a similar boat of not being active since the ESL One Summer event, but Winstrike form has been off lately. They allowed Team Spirit to run away and sweep but left off where they ended at the Pinnacle Cup. Now, this could be the series to hedge, but I will be going heavier on Team Empire as overall numbers and stats lean to them to take this series.

Team Empire (+181)
•    Captain: Smiling Knight, depressed kid
•    Flex: Vanskor, sayuw

Winstrike (-244)
•    Captain: dyrachyo, re1bl
•    Flex:  yamich

Team Unique (-196)
•    Captain: Palantimos
•    Flex: Bignum, Slayer

B8 (+148)
•    Captain: DrWatson
•    Flex: nofear, dendi, TSA

Nemiga (+114)
•    Captain: Kiritych, TheChosenOne
•    Flex: All in Play

Extremum (-149)
•    Captain: G, mellojul
•    Flex: Chu, Blizzy

Gambit (-1,111)
•    Captain: Lorenof, dream’
•    Flex: Immersion, eine

Fantastic Five (+577)
•    Captain: Rari, Askold
•    Flex: 633, Le don

NaVi (-333)
•    Captain: V-tune, RAMZES666
•    Flex: All in Play

HellRaisers (+238)
•    Captain: Cooman, Young G
•    Flex: Resolut1on, Lil, Zayac

Team Spirit (-556)
•    Captain: Yatoro, TORONTOTOKYO
•    Flex: Collapse, Miroslaw

Puckchamp (-114)
•    Captain: Desperate-, meLes
•    Flex: Dukalis

Top Stacks

• Nemiga
• NaVi
• Team Spirit
• Gambit
• B8
• Team Empire
• Winstrike