Motta, DRUFINHO to move to North America to compete with Northwood University in CRL

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Collegiate Rocket League powerhouse Northwood University announced on Friday that Brazilian Rocket League professionals João Vitor "Motta" Brito Motta and Arthur "DRUFINHO" Langsch Miguel would be enrolling at the university for the Fall 2026 semester.

The two South American players, each decorated veterans of the SAM RLCS scene with 14 regional crowns between them, will join Gwil "Creamz" Muir and coach Nicholas "Nick" Marrone on a Northwood roster looking to bounce back from disappointing 4th and 5th place finishes in CRL Fall 2025 and CRL Spring 2026, respectively.

Northwood are the most successful program in CRL history, with four National Championship victories dating back to 2020 and a CRL World Championship win in 2022. The school has fielded professional North American players such as creamz, Stephen "hockE" Hoelbinger, Andrew "Druee" Prill, Kadin "Zineel" Zineelabidine, and Hunter "LionBlaze" Woitas, placing no worth than 3rd-4th in a CRL Championship since they emerged as the cream of CRL’s crop at the beginning of the decade.

The influx of international talent into CRL took Northwood off of their perch beginning in 2024 — no majority-American team has won a CRL Championship since Northwood themselves back in 2023 — but heightened levels of recruitment of RLCS-level American talent to top schools has made it harder for Northwood to claim the CRL crown. In the CRL Spring 2026 Championship, for instance, full-European roster Maryville took home first prize, while Northwood themselves were knocked out by West Virginia and Baylor Winthrop teams full of American RLCS pros.

The school now brings in Motta and DRUFINHO in hopes of returning to what they feel like is their rightful throne atop the CRL landscape.

Both Motta and DRUNFIHO have stood atop South American RLCS since their individual breakout 2022-23 seasons, with DRUFINHO in particular forming one-third of the historically dominant FURIA roster that ran South America in 2024 and for much of 2025. DRUFINHO collected two major top-four performances, with Motta placing top-six with Team Secret at the 2025 Raleigh Major.

The joining of forces between the two on Team Secret in 2026 resulted in a major step back for both players, however, as the roster struggled to keep place with FURIA and MIBR during Split 1 before suffering back-to-back early exits in Opens 5 and 6 after dropping Danilo "kv1" Michelini for Maurício "suco" Dalavia. The roster lost organizational backing from Secret after Open 5.

Motta and DRUFINHO went their separate ways prior to the RLCS 2026 SAM LCQ, with the former going to Plot Twist alongside Matheus "Royales" Rodrigues da Silva and Gianluca "sosa" Petrozza and the latter joining Olímpio "nxghtt" Torres and Bernardo "Bemmz" Siqueira Marta on Bigodes. Motta’s Plot Twist fell to BS+COMPETITION, who themselves were defeated by Bigodes in the grand finals to salvage DRUFINHO’s 2026 season.

The move to Northwood also signals that Motta and DRUNFIHO will be competing in North America for RLCS 2027, presenting each with a chance to make a comeback after disappointing hiccups in each of their decorated Rocket League careers.