Since 2008 Atos has been a household name in the world of jiu-jitsu and grappling. Founded by Andre Galvao and Ramon Lemos, the team has been represented on the world stage by a succession of incredible athletes. 

From Galvao himself to the Mendes brothers, Guilherme and Rafael, the team boasts some of the most accomplished champions the sport has ever seen. 

Andre Galvao gets gold

Consider the many American standouts who have worn the crossed swords on their backs: JT Torres, Keenan Cornelius, Josh Hinger, Michael Liera Jr. and more, some of the most successful non-Brazilian grapplers on the planet. 

There are the surging black belts Lucas "Hulk" Barbosa, Kaynan Duarte and Gustavo Batista, who collect gold medals everywhere they go. 

And don't forget the seemingly bottomless pool of talent from the colored belt ranks: the Mendes brothers' Art of Jiu-Jitsu "Believe & Achieve" squad boasts the most dominant juveniles in the game, teenagers who are blooming into world-class athletes while most people are still finishing up high school. 

Gui Mendes offers Tainan Dalpra words of advice in 2016.

The team results from the IBJJF World Jiu-Jitsu Championship over the last 10 years tell a simple story of Atos's success. 

Galvao, Mendes, etc., represented Brasa in 2008, the year that Atos was formed. From 2009 on, they immediately made an appearance on the podiums of the black belt divisions, but they didn't have enough numbers to make any waves in the team standings. That continued for a few years as the team grew and became more established (and it didn't help that during this time Galvao was busy fighting MMA). Only three teams made the top three in the (adult male) team results in 2009-2010: Alliance, Gracie Barra and Checkmat.

All that changed in 2011 when Atos emerged in third place. Athletes placed on the podium thanks to the efforts of a handful of male brown and black belts. Guilherme Mendes and Ary Farias closed out the light-featherweight division, Rafael Mendes won featherweight gold, Gilbert Burns won at lightweight and Gustavo Campos placed third at middleweight. With 44 points, Atos signaled they weren't here just to take part. 

Over the next five years Atos steadily built its team and deepened its ranks. But Rome wasn't built in a day, and it took time for the results to manifest. 

Medals started appearing in the white, blue and purple belt divisions, reflecting the fact that Atos had opened an academy in Southern California in 2010. Competitors such as Michael Liera Jr., Rolando Samson, Mason Monsevais and Mike Carbullido helped back up the black belts by making the podium at blue and purple. 

2013 was a growth year for Atos as it acquired talents such as Keenan Cornelius and JT Torres, who made the trip west from the East Coast-based Team Lloyd Irvin. But Atos was still strongest at black belt, with six adult male medallists that year (Ary Farias, Rafael Mendes, Rodrigo Caporal, Claudio Calasans, Guto Campos and Andre Galvao). 

Atos enjoyed a breakout year in 2014, coming within two points of taking the spot from Alliance, which at this point in time had been number one for nearly a decade. 

Eight blue belt podium finishers (with two at light-feather and three at feather) and three medalists at purple and brown belt helped rack up the points. Again though, the black belts were among the strongest of the entire tournaments; Gui Mendes won once again at light-feather and Rafael took gold at feather, JT Torres and Roberto Satoshi took silver and bronze at lightweight, Guto Campos placed third at medium-heavy, Keenan (now a black belt) placed third in the absolute and Galvao earned his third World Championship title medal when Felipe Pena's gold medal was overturned due to a positive doping test. 

2015 and 2016 were less powerful years overall for Atos scoring less than half the points of Alliance in both years, though the black belts still took a respectable medal haul. 

There were only four male black belt medals in 2015, the lowest number since 2012. In 2015 Rafael Mendes took gold, but Gui had retired by this point opening up the stranglehold on the light-featherweight division. Calasans won his first (and so far only) IBJJF World Championship gold medal. 

2016 saw Ary Farias take his first gold medal, although it came when original champion Paulo Miyao failed a doping exam and the result was overturned. Mendes and Galvao added to their gold medal collections with their sixth and fourth titles, respectively. 

In the last two years Atos has pulled away from the rest of the pack, and it shows no signs of slowing down. 

Whereas the majority of the work had been done at black belt, now it was the time of the colored belts to do the heavy lifting. 

There were only four medals at black belts in 2016, but a combined 20 medals black through brown belt. In 2017 Atos again took four black belt medals, but claimed 23 medals at blue through brown. 

Jonnatas Gracie at the 2016 IBJJF Worlds. 

A scan through the names of those who medaled quickly reveals rising talents poised to continue success as they progress. Consider Johnatha Alves (then a blue belt) or purple belts Jonnatas Gracie and Kaynan Duarte, hyper-talented grapplers with enviable resumes who all took gold that year. 

And in 2018 the juveniles began to come of age: Tainan Dalpra and Mateus Rodrigues won their first World title in the adult divisions. Purple belt killers Lucas Rodrigues and Ronaldo Junior both stood out, with Junior now an equally-dangerous brown belt. 

The growth and success of Atos comes down to a number of factors: 

• The first is the numerous high-level black belts who formed the team. Galvao and the Mendes brothers led the way by winning no less than 12 World Championship titles while representing Atos. They enabled the team to be competitive on the world stage from the very beginning. 

• The success of Atos has attracted others, with visible athletes like Keenan and JT moving there in 2013, but more recently big name black belts including Erberth Santos (who repped Atos in 2016), Luiza Monteiro and Gustavo Batista. 

• Having been established in the USA for some years now, Galvao and the Mendes brothers have been able to produce their own homegrown talent (co-founder Ramon Lemos is coaching the national team in Abu Dhabi). The Mendes brothers have discovered a secret recipe to success when it comes to training kids, judging by the results of their enormous juvenile team and the performances of the athletes produced by their developmental system. 

• The team is now established in over 14 countries worldwide, meaning an international network of affiliates is helping it expand and identify further talent. 

• Atos actively recruits and develop rising talents from smaller, lesser-known gyms in Brazil, offering them an opportunity to join the team in exchange for travel, training and even lodging, giving younger athletes with fewer resources a chance to compete in international events. 

2019 and beyond 

Judging by the results in 2018, Atos seems positioned to do much of the same this coming year. 

A good indicator of possible success is to look at the points earned in the juvenile division. In 2016 and 2017, two years preceding incredible success in the adult divisions, Atos ran away with the juvenile trophy finishing in first place both years. While 2018 wasn't the team's strongest year in comparison -- it came in at third with 60 points -- Atos was still only 11 points short of first place Alliance. As the teenagers become eligible to compete in the adult divisions, they could earn valuable points for the team title. 

The black belts ranks offer many candidates for medalists. Lucas Barbosa, Gustavo Batista and Kaynan Duarte lay waste to any medium-heavyweight or heavyweight divisions they enter. The Americans JT Torres and Keenan Cornelius will surely be motivated to go for their first gold medals. And there are a score of B-squad members to back them up -- more than ever in fact. 

If the results of the last two years are anything to go by, then the domination by Atos could well continue unchecked. Join us as we follow the season from now through to the World Championships in May to see how it all plays out and whether a challenger will emerge.