Teams

Teams are groups comprised of four students that are formed to fight alongside one another and against other teams while training to be Hunters at Beacon Academy. So far, only three teams are known - Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and Team CRDL.

Beginning
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 Hunter 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 team with both genders, share a single dorm.

Team members appear to be required to be tested against other teams in one-on-one sparring matches. This was seen in Episode 11 where Cardin and Jaune duel.

Teams may 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

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 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. This would mean that there was a possible total of ten teams of four able to pass the initiation.
 * Each team has its own motif: RWBY's is fairy tales, JNPR's is cross dressing warriors and legends, and CRDL's is birds.
 * 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.
 * Currently, conclusive information is only known about Teams RWBY and JNPR, as little detail has been revealed about Team CRDL, such as most of their members' weapons, individual personalities, or abilities.
 * Coincidentally, all teams introduced so far contain an "R" in their names and, through it, their members: Ruby Rose, Lie Ren, and Russel Thrush.
 * All of the teams also have a member whose name alludes to a shade of red: Ruby Rose, Pyrrha Nikos, 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.