COGnitive Gaming's newest roster brings a former player back into the fold and adds two ex-members of Murloc Geniuses.

Manager Dylan "Dylux" Walker has confirmed to theScore eSports that Mike "Glaurung" Fisk, Kayla "Faye" Murray and Rori "CauthonLuck" Bryant-Raible have joined Jeffrey "iakona" Dolan and Ben "Cattlepillar" Bunk on the COGnitive Gaming roster.

Glaurung returns

Glaurung was a former member of COGnitive Gaming, but left on Dec. 24 in a move that he described at the time as "mostly mutual," explaining that he left because he "didn't much like the direction the team was headed in" after the team's performance at World Cyber Arena in Yinchuan, China.

The team has certainly headed in a different direction since that time. After Heroes Rising, they removed Forrest "Syracuse" Holland and Donald "Scylol" Dobbin, while coach Antherus "xcyteZ" Ha resigned.

"My goal has always been to win an international tournament, and there are not many rosters capable of doing that. After our extremely poor performance at WCA I knew something needed to change," he explained.

Glaurung earned accolades for his aggressive and exciting play at the melee/flex position during the Road to BlizzCon. His playstyle became, in some cases, the old COGnitive Gaming's de-facto style.

But Cattlepillar,who is the primary shotcaller for the new roster, explains that the team has managed to blend Glaurung's aggression with his own approach to teamfighting and the draft.

"Glaurung ... had a very easy time fitting in with the playstyle of the rest of the team while still being able to successfully incorporate the aggressive playstyle he is known for," he said.

And now, according to Glaurung, the changes have built a new roster that he can believe in.

"I think we will be a very strong team, and my playstyle works very well also. Cattlepillar and I view the game in a very similar way, so when he shotcalls I still have a lot of freedom," Glaurung said.

"There is a dynamic there that I've never experienced before, I feel like I can truly trust my teammates now and that has opened up my hero pool."

COGnitive Geniuses

Joining Glaurung on the roster are Faye and CauthonLuck, two former members of the long-lived Murloc Geniuses roster. That fan-favorite team had some very close sets against top opponents during the Road to BlizzCon, but didn't manage to qualify for the World Championship.

Cattlepillar explains that it was "a pretty easy choice" to try CauthonLuck and Faye.

"Both of them have very extensive competitive experience and are top players in their respective roles. From our first block of scrims it was obvious that they were the perfect picks, both able to make individual decisions that complement shotcalls and map rotations, and very strong individual play."

Coming into a new roster after spending over nine months with the same teammates could be a potentially jarring experience, but CauthonLuck says the transition has been very positive.

"Compared to MG, the clearest difference between the roster has been the energy levels of the team during practice and scrims. The effort and intensity a team puts into practice behind the scenes is what will set the foundation for improvement over time, and that effort was becoming a bigger and bigger problem for MG over the last few months," he explained.

According to Cauthon, there were issues with consistency of effort that cropped up in Murloc Geniuses, leading to unenthusiastic practice and a lack of communication from some members. On the new COGnitive roster, he says, the ideas flow much more freely, and with greater enthusiasm.

"Players are constantly giving out ideas and input on what we should try for the next map, looking to learn from the different styles of play in our backgrounds and understand why certain things have historically worked or not worked for each of our teams, then figuring out how to get past those limitations," he said.

"For me, this level of effort and excitement to play or strategize together has been what I've always wanted from my team, so it's an easy thing to fit in when all of these things are occurring naturally."

Faye has been consistently in the conversation as one of NA's best ranged assassin players despite her old team's recent lack of success. She described this new COGnitive team as the best roster she's played with.

"I think we're all on the same page of what we want to accomplish during a game so we have good synergy," she explained.

Thinking ahead

There will always be excitement whenever a number of big-name players combine forces under the banner of a familiar eSports organization. But as iakona explains, it's more than just hype — the team has already had encouraging results against other teams in scrims.

"So now we’ve locked down the new roster, and have a very solid front and back line. We’ve been syncing really well in scrims, and have had a lot of success, so much so that it’s unbelievable," he said.

Cattlepillar adds that the success has him excited to represent COGnitive Gaming in both Enter The Storm and the regional qualifiers for the Spring Championship.

Like the other members of the new team, iakona got a taste of the Heroes LAN experience during the Road to BlizzCon, and now, with this new roster, he's confident that they can go the distance.

"I can’t wait to play in front of a live audience again in Los Angeles, and super stoked to go to Korea as well."

Josh "Gauntlet" Bury wants to sell you some waterfront property on Char. The water is lava. You can find him on Twitter.