Someone asked for the lineage of the school I attend Invictus, and downvoted all the profiles from there. So here is an attempt to share what I know. Let me start by saying I don't know the exact timeline, or many details, I'm just a student. So this may get a bit messy. I'm also not in any sort of leadership position or in anyway in charge of anything. I've only met Kevin a few times as he operates in a completely different city than Invictus. My instructor is Rick Mitchell.

I'll link pictures to this post as I go (again I'm not the guy to ask about timeline or sequence of events, I don't know). I was going to post them directly but the forum doesn't seem to allow pictures inserted at certain points but just one at the end. If someone knows how to make the hyperlinks work let me know. Otherwise copy and paste.

And yes I'll address what I know about Lasu Rogers.

So I guess I'll start with where we are now. Currently Bankens is affiliated with Royce Gracie and potentially still affiliated with Academy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (specifically Edmilson Alves, see pictures) as he is still listed on their website. https://academyofbrazilia[...]ffiliates/

Royce has changed his website recently but Bankens was listed there in the affiliate section when it existed. https://web.archive.org/w[...]e-network/

And Royce was just at his school a few months ago and is in semi-regularly for the 360 things and seminars. I believe they are actually personal friends as well. https://www.facebook.com/[...]RZD7FsbvFl

https://i.imgur.com/LD6Q7FA.png

https://imgur.com/skSigkd

He started with Royce way back when and there are some pictures attesting to that claim as well. https://i.imgur.com/UL47Sq8.png

He was also an RCJ Machado affiliate for a time (more on this later when we get to Lasu)

I'm not sure if it was Royce who gave him his initial black belt in BJJ, Todd Nathanson or if that was Machado. All of them seem to recognize it as legitimate though.

Royce putting a black belt on him https://i.imgur.com/s6uET9a.png

I do know Carlos Machado gave him his first stripe though. https://i.imgur.com/KZQcKR3.png

Edmilson Alves also striped him https://i.imgur.com/sIuDAgl.png

And also endorsed him as legitimate https://i.imgur.com/DA2Ra6C.png

So as far as I can tell he is accepted by both Royce and Alves, but I don't know if he is still working actively with Alves. Or what exactly played out there.

So for lineage who knows? Gracie, Machado, Alves. Not everyone seems to have as clean a lineage as is being asked for. Next time I speak with him I will ask what he considers to be his.

DISCLAIMER, I don't know if any of the following is accurate information, its just what I can gleam from talking to people in the community.

So for the elephant in the room, Lasu Rogers. Let me just preface that I have never met Lasu, he has never taught a class at Invictus as far as I'm aware and nobody acknowledges him as anything in New Mexico. Everybody is aware he is a liar as far as his rank goes.

Back ten or 15 years ago this was not the case in New Mexico. There weren't many black belts if any here and he has had his claws in a lot of people that eventually became some of the black belts now teaching here in various places.

My instructor Rick said he was a white belt for a time under him and he did have legitimate skill when he wasn't wasted. Said he had a bad drinking problem and was constantly closing or just teaching drunk. I showed him some of the video footage available of Lasu, and he pretty much said, yep looks about right probably drunk.

Its also apparently gotten much worse over the years and he's a bit of a pscyho, so that in combination with his fake (or mostly fake rank depending on who you ask) has caused everybody in the city to distance themselves from him more than they already had. Rick said he would occasionally disappear for awhile and comeback with new stripes on his black belt, claiming his Brazilian cousins gave it to him.

Side note: That kid he promoted to 2nd degree black belt that first put him on the radar on here, apparently has a TBI and for lack of a better way to put it is unable to recognize that Lasu is a fraudster. So all the people making fun of him, just keep in mind this is a disabled person who doesn't know better, and Lasu in the very least is a good conman.

So here is where the big questions for Lasu come in. Is he at all legit? Well during the time Bankens was an RCJ Machado affiliate Lasu was recognized by or managed to greatly fool Carlos Machado. He as far as I can tell gave Bankens stripe number 2 on his BB with blessing from the affiliate. There is a lot of photo evidence to go along with this. https://imgur.com/a/kKA83eA

These are taken from multiple time periods over years so I don't think its a one off seminar type thing and there are a lot more pictures of Bankens(and Lasu) with the big green Machado patch on their back on facebook.

I noticed someone in one of the other threads said they called about Lasu to Machado and Nathanson and they denied ever ranking him. I asked around about this and a couple of people have personally witnessed Lasu being ranked by Machado (not sure about belt or stripe). I've included a picture of Lasu in the previous link at a belt ceremony with Machado so take that for what you will.

Apparently they had a falling out with him because Lasu is a crazy drunk, and liar and now nobody will claim him for anything. However in the pictures I posted look at his gi. He is wearing a black belt and a Machado gi in front of the man himself, so that lends some credence to the claims of these folks. Also I've heard from multiple people that Lasu can actually roll. But who knows a good blue belt can feel like a god to a new white belt so that's anecdotal at best.

As far as I know anything Rodgers has ever said about Fadda affiliation was made up. My guess is he saw Bankens get that affiliation and endorsement from Alves and just decided to claim it for himself as well, even though he and Bankens had fallen out around the same time as the Machado thing. Edmilision Alves posted on his facebook disavowing pure bjj and Lasu at the time. Unfortunately I can't find that post now but I did link earlier the post where Alves endorses Bankens as well as ranks him.

Unfortunately Bankens and a lot of other legitimate martial artists have had their names run through the mud because they got hoodwinked by this guy. Luckily everyone is aware of him now and all the places he tries to infiltrate tell him to kick rocks.

This is already a massive wall of text post so I'll end it there. Hopefully this helps. Next time Bankens pops into town I'll ask him about the initial black belt and his lineage if I get the opportunity to speak with him. OR any of you could call him, his number on his schools facebook and get the actual details from the man himself. He is a very nice guy.