Must Javs: Valorant DFS plays for May 26

We have our first slate for Valorant on DraftKings Wednesday, a three-gamer starting at 11 a.m. ET. I’m here to break down my top DFS builds as well as my strategy for this slate. The building itself is especially important. If you haven’t had a chance, read up on the Valorant 101 article.

I want to stress the importance of #hedgelife. Dive into this, as it is very important to my success in Esports.

As previously mentioned, my focus for this article is my plan for these slates. I have gone into this plenty in the past, but I want to discuss #hedgelife and what this means. When I say hedge, I really mean that we want to have action on both sides of the match. I will provide a ranking of my favorite stacks, but just because a stack is ranked last doesn’t mean I’ll have them in just one of my lineups. A few people have been lucky with game stacking in some of these slates, which means having both teams playing each other as your lineup. I do not recommend this approach, as it doesn’t often hit. Make sure to follow my Twitter for updates on starting lineups and any changes that I will be making as I research throughout the day. 

Lastly, I want to touch on contest selection. It’s the most important thing to me, and it’s the reason I hit big more often than not. A lot of DFS players focus on playing in contests with 35,000 people because it’s only $10 to enter and they feel it’s easy to win money. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a takedown and it barely cashed in the big GPP. Focus on contests with around 250-300 people, where you can max 7-10 entries. Use the #hedgelife strategy and max enter this contest and use the strategy in this article to profit. Trust me on this one.

Something else I want to touch on is the process. I’ve mentioned this quite a few times, but I thought I’d break it down further.

• Contest selection: If you don’t follow me on Twitter, please make sure you do. On a nightly basis, I’ve been tweeting my favorite contests. Find a way to do 10 lineups and focus on contests with under 500 people.
• #HedgeLife: I took a deep dive into this above, but here’s what I mean. If you do a 4-3 BLG-SB line, make sure you also do a 4-3 SB-BLG line. Do one line of four-man SB with SB CPT, then in your next line, do a four-man BLG with BLG CPT. Covers you on both grounds.
• #HedgeLife part deux: If you’re doing 10 lineups with five BLG stacks, make sure to do 2-3 DMO stacks to hedge that game.

Feel free to reach out with any questions if you have them. It seems like a lot, but it’s important to see what has made me successful in Esports. 

Valorant — Slate One

Welcome to Valorant. Another Esport is upon us, and I’m pumped to give us the edge. I highly recommend going light this very first slate so we can take time to review and see what the optimal is. I plan on playing some and focusing around hedging, but I might take a stand or two on this slate and take a chance.

As I mentioned in the intro, our very own Phaaaked and Freshie broke down the rules to Valorant. How should I build? Great question. My simple answer is similar to CSGO. Focus on 2-2-2 or 3-2-1 stacks with no more than three per match. This means to not going four players from the same matchup. 

I’m using Vegas odds and my research via VLR.GG to set my exposures. VLR.GG is similar to HLTV.ORG for CSGO. I’m using the last 5-10 matches and current form along with Vegas odds for my stack rankings.

X10 vs. Crazy Raccoon is almost a pick’em spread in Vegas. My lean is X10 over CR, but I’ll definitely have exposures to both. My lean is to go one, maybe two from this game and not a full three-man stack.

Sharks vs. KRU has the most lopsided Vegas odds on the slate. The Sharks come in with losses in three of their last five but are -385 favorites to win. Meanwhile, the form for KRU seems to be clicking with four wins in their last five. I’m skeptical on this match and also leaning going a max of two-man stacks here. My lean is Sharks because Vegas always knows something we don’t. I do see KRU as live dogs.

Finally, my main stand is going heavy Sentinels. They are -325 favorites and second-biggest favorites on the slate, but they should win this match pretty easily. They come in as one of the top teams and in some of the best form in all of Valorant. Sentinels are on a 10-game winning streak and seem to be in good shape to roll here. At first glance, I thought Team Vikings could compete here with sixteen wins in their last seventeen, but it’s all off weak competition. Sentinels should dominate here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Vikings put up a battle. For me, I won’t be playing any Vikings.

Stack rankings

• Sentinels
• Sharks
• X10
• KRU
• Crazy Raccoon

 Player pool

• SEN
  • CPT Options — Tenz (favorite captain on slate)
  • Player pool — All in play except zombs
• Sharks 
  • CPT Options — prozin, gaabxx
  • Player pool — prozin, gaabxx, light
• X10
  • CPT Options — Patiphan 
  • Player pool — Patiphan, Sushiboys, Scary
• KRU
  • CPT Options — Klaus
  • Player pool — Klaus, bnj, Nagz (maybe Mazino too)
• CR
  • CPT Options — Neth, Munchkin
  • Player pool — Neth, Munchkin, rion, Medusa

Favorite plays on the slate

(In order of preference)

• Tenz — Borderline lock in captain or flex.
• Dapr — Severely underpriced and my second-favorite piece in majority of SEN stacks. Shazam and Sick are next and in that order.
• Klaus — Severely underpriced for KRU and favorite one off from this team.
• Munchkin — Heavy carry for CR.
• Prozin and/or Gaabxx — The main plays for the Sharks. Being such heavy favorites, I’ll be overweight.
• Patiphan — Speaking of carry. He’s another one, but for X10. My issue is price so he’s my least favorite of the favorites.

I will update everyone in Discord if anything changes on my exposures and predictions. Remember to only do 3-3, 3-2-1 or 2-2-2 stacks.