BLAST Showdown NA Fantasy guide

With the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown NA getting ready to start in a few hours, fans are locking in their fantasy picks. For those that are stuck on the teams fear not, Dust2.us has you covered with this guide to highlight some potential pick-ups.

The Million-dollar Men: High cost, high reward

• Grim (Complexity) - $215,000

• dumau (00NATION) - $225,000

• malbsMd (oNe + LOS) - $216,000

Despite the immeasurable disappointment of their failure to qualify for the Rio Major. Complexity put up impressive form in ESL Pro League and had gone 2-0 at the RMR before losses to Liquid, 00NATION and Imperial. Since the addition of Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli the team has made massive improvements, this is most obvious in the uptick in performances from Michael "Grim" Wince. Grim has posted 1.19 and 1.12 ratings for Pro League and the RMR respectively, although his event rating doesn't quite encapsulate the numbers he has been putting up in individual games. For one of the most in-form riflers at the event, Grim being priced at $215,000 is a no-brainer to pick up for your fantasy side. With Grim posting multi-kills in nearly 20% of rounds, you are almost guaranteed for that boost to be triggered if you choose to apply it.

Whilst Grim is cheap enough to be in everyone's team, the highest-priced player at the event is 00NATION star Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer. dumau has been touted as one of the next big stars to come out of the Brazilian scene for a while and despite a lack of tier-one experience, the young rifler showed how good he can be at the RMR. Having farmed against lesser opposition, including a 1.71 rating against Isurus, dumau did struggle in 00NATION's qualification match against Complexity not posting a single positive rating on any of the three maps. Now dumau has another chance to prove himself against some of NA's best although he carries a slight risk in the latter rounds against tougher opposition. With 00NATION matched up against the worst team in the tournament in VERTEX for their opening game, he is almost a lock on to farm up some points for your fantasy side.

Whilst the first two picks have some guaranteed points in the locker, the rest of the expensive options are extremely risky. The best of the rest is probably Team oNe rifler Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa, who despite having all the talent in the world has so far yet to fully fulfil his potential at the big LAN tournaments. Luckily for the teenager, and for fantasy players, the Fall Showdown is going to be online and therefore you can expect to see the Guatemalan star tearing up the server.

AWPers: The most expensive gun in the game, can reap some major fantasy points

• hallzerk (Complexity) - $204,000

• CeRq (Evil Genuises) - $187,000

• try (00NATION) - $203,000

The AWPer category is surprisingly cheap at this event, where some of the most impactful players in the world have held the big green gun theres only a few reasonable options at this event. It is also the only category that doesn't house a North American and/or a Brazilian, which maybe says something about the lack of American AWP talent (with the exception of Josh "oSee" Ohm). However, i think there is some incredible value to be found in a couple of the AWPers at the event.

Probably the most talented in terms of individual skill will be Santino "try" Rigal, the 00NATION AWPer showed just how impactful he can be at the RMR where despite only posting a event average of 1.06 he came alive when it mattered most. Against Complexity, it was try who kept the 00NATION team in the fight with a 1.44 rating on Ancient and 1.2 on Inferno. Coming in at a price of just $203,000, he screams value for money it is just whether you want to take a risk on 00NATION progressing through the bracket.

The other AWPer i expect to make a statement will be Complexity's hallzerk. Complexity wil lbe one of the favourites to progress through the bracket and whilst they are a team that doesn't rely on a star performer, hallzerk's ability on the AWP has already proven to be a smart addition to the team. The fact the Norwegian sniper can make just as much impact on the rifle as the AWP ans with hallzerk coming in at just $204,000 means that you could be tempted to put him in your team alongside another AWPer. With hallzerk's 1.6% Clutch round rate, putting the Norwegian on the clutch role and leaving the AWP boost to either try or my next suggestion might be a 500iq move. Equally, it could fail amazingly and is more of a risky play.

My last suggestion is Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov. Yes, the Bulgarian sniper is far from his best, the amount of red on his recent event page is startling when you consider he was a top AWP prospect just a few years ago. However, CeRq showed at the RMR that with this new functional Evil Genuises lineup he still has room to put up numbers, posting his best event rating of the year (1.12). Fantasy players looking to save some money or gain a risky advantage using a less popular player can consider CeRq a good bargain, especially if EG perform as well as they did at the RMR.

Basement Bargains: Underpriced players who could pick up significant points

• floppy (Complexity) - $199,000

• iDK (oNe + LOS) - $196,000

• FaNg (Complexity) - $184,000

There are a host of middle-priced players that would give exceptional value, so to be considered as part of the bargain bucket I set the limit to $200,000. Just under that price tag is our first bargain boy, Ricky "floppy" Kemery who has recently started showing the kind of form that had him hyped as one of NA's best before he switched to VALORANT. Now he is back and after a average event at Pro League, showing glimpses of his skill, he really stood out at the RMR putting in notable displays across the 14 maps Complexity played. This included dropping nearly 40 kills in regulation against Liquid on Overpass, no doubt the pain of missing out on the Major will leave a fire in the bellys of the Complexity players and floppy is a great budget option to replace Grim.

Another Complexity budget pick would be Justin "FaNg" Coakley, the Canadian rifler who has finally started to show glimpses of his talent. Long touted as a future breakout star of the North American scene, FaNg had struggled to make his mark in the Complexity team up until the RMR. At the RMR FaNg posted a 1.03 rating across the event and a 1.08 rating against Imperial in the final game, which was the best rating for the Complexity side. Whilst the ratings aren't earth-shattering, it is his amazing Clutch performances and $184,000 price tag that puts FaNg in the bargain bucket. FaNg is beginning to show signs that he might be, what they call in traditional sports, a 'luxury player' someone who will be inconsistent but have incredibly important performances in big situations. For a team that expects to win this event, they will need FaNgs clutch performances and high hs% to be able to pull of the feat there are two suggestions for boosters you could apply if you decide to pick-up FaNg.

The only reason I can possibly fathom Victor "iDK" Torraca has been priced so low is due to Team oNe not being favoured to make it far. However, with their first match being against an incredibly out-of-form MIBR, iDK could provide a short but sweet run of points to boost your team for an incredibly small price. Whilst, malbsMd has endured massive struggles at recent LANs the Brazilian rifler has been the reason oNe managed to notch up some wins at the RMR posting a 1.37 rating in two maps in the teams B03 battle against Imperial. Sure the 24-year-old lacks the pazzaz of some of the other picks but for $196,000 and a easy opening match you could do worse than find a way to fit this player into your side.

Best of the Rest: Some alternative options to round out your team

As stated earlier on, the fact that the event is online and mainly tier two NA teams means there is a lot of value in the mid-range, players from the recently resurgent Evil Genuises are very well priced for a team that is likely to go to the final at least. These kinds of events always through up some shocks and with the form that 00NATION showed at the RMR who's to say they can't upset the NA scene once again with some big performances? Below are a few of the players I would consider sensible acquisitions with varying prices.

autimatic (Evil Genuises) - $209,000
HexT (Evil Genuises) - $195,000
JT (Complexity) - $176,000
coldzera (00NATION) - $179,000
latto (00NATION) - $211,000
JOTA (MIBR) - $209,000

The BLAST Premier Fall Showdown NA kicks off at Today 04:30PM with pre-tournament favourites Complexity against heavy underdogs Sharks.