Razah Company Academy, formerly known as E1 Sports, is a roster that has been surrounded by question marks during most of the season.
The team's lineup for the 2024 campaign was fully unveiled in March when Guilherme "Empttz" Goulart, Vitor "Peres" Peres, and Willian "Stk" Gonçalves joined Arthur "Ar7hr" Arantes and Henrique "Flastry" Pennacchia. Two days after revealing the players, the team announced the signing of Lucas "Lenda Diniz, who joined as an analyst to support the coach Luiz "Kizi" Sirico.
Surprisingly enough, E1 Sports stole the show in the first split of the season. After a slow start to the Brazil League 2024 Stage 1, the team finished in second place after back-to-back 2-0 wins against Black Dragons and w7m esports. Against all odds, the Brazilians had qualified for the BLAST R6 Major Manchester.
Despite the surprising qualification for the roster's first international event, fans expected a solid showing from the team. After all, Brazil is well-known for the amount of talent hidden in the country. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In Manchester, E1 Sports was, by far, the most underwhelming side in Phase 2. Although the expectations around the players weren't too high, they couldn't win any of their games as they lost against Team Bliss, PSG Talon, and CAG Osaka.
"In Manchester, we had three problems; the first one was the lack of experience of the whole group. The second one was our preparation, we didn't prepare well enough. The most important one was that our relationship with E1 Sports was disturbing, we knew that, after Manchester, we would have changes in the group that we didn't want," Peres explained in a written interview with SiegeGG.
Logically, Peres is talking about the departures of Kizi and Lenda. This decision was heavily criticized not just internally by the players but publicly also by the fans, who didn't understand the changes. It only takes a quick look at the announcement's reactions to have a vague idea of how the decision was welcomed. Eventually, Kizi and Lenda joined Oxygen Esports and Bleed Esports, respectively, and helped their teams to qualify for the Six Invitational 2025.
Meanwhile, E1 Sports added Alison "N1LL" Santos as the team's new coach. The Brazilian had experience working for teams like Team oNe, LOS oNe, Alpha Atheris, and ROC Esports.
"E1 forced us to do this change that we did not want, because of some internal troubles," Peres explained. The mentioned internal troubles also had an impact on the team's lineup. "After Manchester, Ar7hr left the team because he did not want to stay with this whole situation," the Brazilian added.
If that wasn't enough, E1 Sports was forced to make another signing as Empttz left "because of some health stuff." Eventually, the roster welcomed Peres' former teammates Vinícius "live" dos Santos and Guilherme "Bassetto" Bassetto. "I told my team that we needed to call live and Bassetto, because I know how they work and would fit like we want."
Considering the number of changes the team made to the lineup, fans didn't know what to expect from E1 Sports anymore. However, the Brazilians performed outstandingly in the group stage and, after having topped the standings between playdays three and seven, the defeats against FURIA Esports and w7m esports in the last weekend of action saw the blue roster dropping from the league's top two.
Unfortunately for them, after a 0-2 defeat against FURIA Esports in Brazil's playoffs and a 0-2 defeat against Black Dragons in Brazil's Last Chance Qualifier for the BLAST R6 Major Montreal, E1 Sports missed out on Canada — and therefore were forced to play the region's Six Invitational 2025 Last Chance Qualifier.
Following the team's result in Brazil's qualifier for Montreal, the team didn't have much to play until the Six Invitational 2025 qualifier. In the meantime, the lineup competed in Brazil's off-season competition Liga DBE Season 1, which they won after a 3-0 victory against Elevate. Three days later, the team lost against FaZe Clan in the semifinals of the BR Premier Finals 2024. Finally, on December 2, E1 Sports unveiled the decision to part ways with the lineup.
"We knew the possibility before both tournaments (Liga DBE and BR Premier Finals 2024), the confirmation came after the BR Premier Finals," Peres admitted.
Right in the same week, the players revealed that they would play the Six Invitational 2025 South America Qualifier under the name of RazaH Company Academy. For those unaware, the team's name comes from the popular Brazilian streamer and Team Liquid content creator Rafael "RazaH" Ribeiro.
Compared to the team that had just parted ways with E1 Sports, the squad had only suffered one change as the roster dropped N1LL to add Gleidson "GdNN1" Nunes as the team's new coach. The Brazilian competed for w7m esports at the Six Charlotte Major and the Six Berlin Major and had spent five months as Elevate Academy's coach — his only experience as a coach before joining RazaH Company Academy.
"To me GdNN1 is the best coach that I have worked with," Peres admitted. "Gdn has a lot of experience, and knows exactly how we should change our composure and tactics inside the match," he added.
When asked about if any esports organizations approached the players to compete in the qualifier, Peres mentioned Fluxo's name. "After parting ways with E1 Sports, some players almost got in Fluxo, but they sold the spot right after signing," Peres explained.
"After that, we choose to stay together and only accept really good offers for the Six Invitational, because, financially speaking, 100% of the prize to us is better than one or two months of salary. We chose Razah Company because we don't have contracts and buyouts, it's just a fun name and because we know that we are going to represent the Brazilian community," the Brazilian added.
Peres defined the team's partnership with RazaH as a "fun one" as no salaries are presumably being paid. "We joke that he needs to pay us on his stream, but it is only jokes."
"Razah helped us a lot as a friend, with US Visas, making jerseys, and more. It's more like Team Joel, with a cool name and with friendly support," he explained.
RazaH Company will start their adventure at the Six Invitational 2025 from Group C, which includes Team BDS, DarkZero Esports, Team Falcons, and PSG Talon.
"I would describe this group as a group with different playstyles, some teams more aggressive and some teams that cook more the round. To me our toughest opponent will be DZ, because of their international experience," Peres explained. "Recently we played a lot of BO3, with that i think we are more prepared than ever for BO3," he concluded.
Among the four teams previously mentioned, RazaH Company has only played against PSG Talon. The South Koreans won the match in maximum overtime in Manchester's Swiss Stage.
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