Teams

Teams are groups comprised of four people that are formed to fight alongside one another. In Beacon Academy and other schools, students are put into teams to learn together and practice against other teams while training to become Hunters.

So far, only three teams have been shown in the series: Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Team CRDL, however more have been mentioned to exist. Team CFVY and Team SSSN have been shown in the Volume 2 Opening and teased in production diaries.

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 the headmaster and an accompanying Huntress 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, with the leader being chosen by Ozpin 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 was seen in Episode 11, where Cardin and Jaune duel.

Some teams also seem to share certain personalities that make them different from one another, such as Team CRDL consisting of bullies.

Teams Introduced
Retrieved the White Knight pieces; Led by Ruby Rose.

Retrieved the White Rook pieces; Led by Jaune Arc.

Retrieved the Black Bishop pieces; Led by Cardin Winchester.

Contains Velvet Scarlatina, Fox, Coco and Yatsuhashi.

Contains Sun Wukong, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune.

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.
 * 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, and CRDL's is birds, CFVY and SSSN's motifs are yet unknow.
 * In Players and Pieces, two teams, RWBY and JNPR, were seen working together - both amongst their own groups and with a fellow squad of warriors - for the first time. However, it was before the official formation of the two teams involved.
 * All of the teams also have a member whose name alludes to a shade of red: Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, Scarlet, Velvet Scarlatina and Cardin Winchester.
 * 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 Professor 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 of how teams are assigned.