The Capoeirista clan
Capoeira is a Brazilian art that mixes fighting, dance and music, and the Capoeiristas carry all three into their animations. "Acrobatic Brazilian fighters who kick like they dance." Most of their moves begin with the ginga, the rocking side-to-side step at the heart of capoeira.
Yellow, white and a green cord
A Capoeirista has brown skin, dark curly hair, a yellow tank top, white trousers and a green cord belt with two tails. On the minimap the side is green. After winning a fight the Capoeirista throws both arms up or raises one arm high.
The names are Portuguese animals and words: Gato, Macaco, Cobra, Beija-flor, Sabiá, Onça, Vento, Coral, Dendê, Maré, Pipoca and Faísca. Gato is cat, Macaco monkey, Beija-flor hummingbird, Onça jaguar, Vento wind, Maré tide, Pipoca popcorn and Faísca spark; dendê is the palm oil of Bahian cooking.
Ginga first
Meia-lua shows the pattern: three ginga sways, then a slow-motion spinning half-moon kick that sweeps through the defender (THWAP!). The narration: "Gato sways in the ginga, then sweeps a half-moon kick through Ronin."
The Aú kick is named after the aú, capoeira's cartwheel. The fighter crouches and cartwheels all the way to the defender in slow motion, leaving afterimages, and lands straight into a round kick (WHAP!). Rasteira is the sweep: a ginga, then a low spinning sweep that takes the defender's legs away. SWEEP! appears, the defender tries to get up and falls back to the floor with a THUD!, staying down rather than flying off.
The clan that speaks Portuguese
Every finisher has a voice callout, and the Capoeiristas' are the only ones not in English: "Meia-lua de compasso!", "Aú!", "Rasteira!" and, for the ultimate, "Axé! Roda Storm!". The on-screen label for the first is shortened to just "Meia-lua"; meia-lua de compasso is the full name of the spinning kick in capoeira.
Roda Storm
A roda is the circle of people in which capoeira is played, and the ultimate turns that circle into an attack. After four ginga sways the master runs once around the defender in slow motion, spinning in a half-moon kick pose, and lands three kicks with sparks and confetti on the way. It ends with AXÉ!, a word of good energy in capoeira, and a confetti burst in every colour.
A Capoeirista that is knocked out makes a cheerful exit: the figure shrinks to nothing in a sixth of a second, POP! appears in green, and confetti scatters in yellow, green, blue and white, the colours of the Brazilian flag.
Badminton: curve, save, circle
Meia Lua Curve (3 uses) loads a shot that swerves hard away in mid-air, the closest thing in the game to a kick that bends. Berimbau Save (2 uses) is named after the berimbau, the one-string bow instrument that leads a capoeira roda: each use arms one free save, so a shot that lands on your side bounces back over instead of costing a point.
The badminton Roda Storm is a zig-zag shot that leaves ink footprints along its path, showing where it will land. The opponent is dizzy for two and a half seconds, and for six seconds after the roda sends back everything that comes your way. The tell: "A whirlwind shot that lands on the ink footprints, then the roda returns everything for 6s." A fix on 1 October 2026 made sure the shuttle actually launches when it is called.
Computer-played Capoeiristas hit wider than any other clan and make more errors than any other, so rallies against them swing from side to side and end suddenly.
Picking the Capoeiristas
The Capoeiristas are the clan for players who would rather watch a dance than a brawl, and the only clan whose callouts are in Portuguese.