Teams



Teams are groups comprised of four individuals that are formed to fight alongside one another. In Beacon Academy and other schools, students are put into teams to learn together and practice with other teams while training to become Huntsmen. The first letter of their names is then used to make their team name. In some cases, the first letter of surnames is used for the team name instead.

Teams are formed with the intention of forming lasting bonds and fostering empathy between the team members. After graduating from an academy, a team may stay together or disband for its members to pursue solo careers.

Formation at Beacon
The day after arriving at Beacon Academy, first-year students (such as Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, etc.) are gathered at the edge of the Beacon Cliffs overlooking the Emerald Forest where Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch stand before them and explain the procedure of the Beacon Academy Initiation that they will soon undergo. After being launched from the Cliff and landing in the forest below, the first pair of students to make eye contact with each other are partners for the rest of their time at Beacon, which consists of four years.

To complete the team of four, as seen in "Players and Pieces", the two pairs of students who pick matching relics found at the abandoned temple are combined to form a team, and Ozpin chooses the leader based on who displays the best leadership skills during the initiation.

As of "The Badge and The Burden", the team members of each respective team share a dorm. Even Team JNPR, a co-ed team, share a single dorm.

It appears to be a requirement for team members to be tested against other teams in one-on-one sparring matches. This is seen in "Jaunedice" when Cardin Winchester and Jaune duel.

In "End of the Beginning", it is unknown if any of the teams at Beacon remained active after the academy's destruction and its headmaster's disappearance. In particular, Team RWBY is no longer active due to the separation of its members and a member of Team JNPR, Pyrrha Nikos, was killed.

Trivia

 * Since first year students were seen speculating how teams were going to be formed and even asking others to join theirs the morning before being assigned teammates, it seems that the process and details of creating teams at Beacon are kept secret until the initiation. Glynda herself calls what the students heard as "rumors", although Pyrrha apparently knew the teams consisted of four students each beforehand and Nora was aware that the test would take place in the forest.
 * It is unknown what would happen if the first year students that survive the initiation are not divisible by four or an even number, as they would not be able to create pairs or full teams. It is possible that the leftover students are made into teams with less than 4 members, or they could be absorbed into other teams to make them consist of five or more members.
 * It is also possible that when deciding whom to admit to the school, Ozpin makes sure that the total number is divisible by four.
 * Though the aforementioned theory may not be accurate either, as there is no guarantee that the number of surviving students would be divisible by four.
 * There were twenty black and white chess pieces visible in the temple, two for each piece in chess, both white and black. This would mean that there was a possible total of ten teams of four able to pass the initiation.
 * All team names follow Monty's color naming rule, just like the characters' names. This means that a team name has to be a color, mean a color, sound like a color, or make people think of a color.
 * Each team has its own motif: RWBY's is fairy tales, JNPR's is cross-dressing warriors and legends, CRDL's is birds, and CFVY's is seemingly various sweets.
 * The motif of SSSN is currently unknown, though people used to draw parallels to the Chinese novel Journey to the West before more of the characters' basis were known.
 * All of the teams also have a member whose name alludes to a shade of red: Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Scarlet David, Velvet Scarlatina, Cardin Winchester, Arslan Altan, Roy Stallion, Octavia Ember, Cinder Fall and Summer Rose.
 * Due to only having shown two members of each team, it is unknown whether the teams from Atlas Academy also follow this pattern.
 * Under most circumstances, all letters in a team name consist of their members' first initials; however, there are three cases in which the last initial is the one in the team name. However, Lie Ren is usually referred to as Ren, suggesting that his culture (like some real-world Eastern cultures) puts one's surname before one's personal name. It is likely, but uncertain, that Sky Lark and May Zedong are similar cases
 * Despite the fact that all teams introduced so far have their first letters and even entire titles represent the name of their leaders, Jaune, Weiss, and Ruby were all shown to be surprised at who would command the group, indicating that not all teams may follow this pattern.
 * If this was a tradition for names of teams to reference their leaders, however, it is unknown how changes of leadership (if allowed in the first place) would affect the title so it would spell out a word.
 * Weiss, for example, commented to Peter Port how she thinks she should have been the leader of Team RWBY, indicating that the name might stay if she had gotten what she wanted.
 * This may merely be the students' lack of knowledge as to how teams are assigned.