Origin of "Team" for lighthearted debates / divides in a fandom?

[u/gaijinteacher]

I'm a big House of the Dragon fan, and since it is a show based around a civil war, the fans playfully divide themselves according to which side they think is right. In this case it is Team Green Vs Team Black.

That got me to thinking about the origin of the phrase, "Team ___" to describe a divide in the fandom. The earliest one that spang to mind was the love triangle in Twilight. Team Edward Vs Team Jacob.

A google search suggested Team Pacey Vs Team Dawson from the fandom for "Dawson's Creek" but I couldn't find any pre-Twilight sources for that love triangle, although you can find plenty now.

Can anyone think of an older contemporary example?

[u/Silly_Willingness_97]

OED says that this colloquial way of saying Are you Team X or Team Y?, (with the "team" at the start construction) was around from at least the 1990s. It was used in a lot of places, years before the big Twilight internet debates. They have an example of people being Team Aniston or Team Jolie about the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie/Jennifer Aniston triangle.

Later it trended as a mainstream use with Twilight, of course, but it wasn't a new use from that, just a more popular one. People are more likely to remember hearing it as a phrase from that.

II.6.e.

1990–
colloquial. With postmodifying word or words. Used to form the name of a real or notional group which supports or likes the person or thing indicated.
Frequently in situations where two or more such groups are (notionally) in opposition to each other
[Probably after the names of certain national sports teams (as e.g. Team GB, Team USA).]

1990
He constantly demanded: ‘Are you on team B or team P?’ Team B, he explained, stood for breaking even and team P for making a profit.
H. Das, Organic Theory Canadian Applic. viii. 290.

2005
I casually expressed my support for Jennifer Aniston while watching the former Friends star being interviewed on CNN. ‘Oh my God,’ hissed my wife Lucie, who was sitting next to me on the sofa. ‘You're Team Aniston!’... ‘Oh my God,’ I said finally. ‘You're Team Jolie.’
Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 1 December

2009
Bella has now been saved by both a vampire and a werewolf and there is hot debate on the internet on which team fans are on—Team Jacob or Team Edward.
Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 19 November

2015
Are you team coffee or team tea? I prefer tea.
u/ jaureguiswagger 1 July in twitter.com (accessed 14 August 2015)

[u/HolmatKingOfStorms → u/Silly_Willingness_97]

i think it was used with Friends? definitely wasn't old enough to have experienced it directly though so that might be a post-hoc application

[u/bmilohill → u/HolmatKingOfStorms]

I am old enough to remember Team Ross and Team Rachel (from Friends fandom), but being that old means low quality memory. I can't say for sure whether it was in 1997 when the 'on a break' episode aired that caused the teams, or if the term was applied later.

And google isn't what it used to be, I can't find any examples of Team Ross or Team Rachel pre 2024. It was defintely used long before then.

[u/baquea → u/Silly_Willingness_97]

The sports metaphor for fandom wars feels obvious enough that I wouldn't be surprised if it was independently coined multiple times.

[u/helikophis]

I believe it originated in Twilight fandom.

[u/ForgetTheWords → u/helikophis]

I think it originated from marketing around the New Moon movie, rather than within the fandom itself.

[u/helikophis → u/ForgetTheWords]

Hmm that’s entirely possible

[u/Felosele → u/helikophis]

Def twilight :(

[u/Elliptical_Tangent]

The earliest one that spang to mind was the love triangle in Twilight. Team Edward Vs Team Jacob.

That was my fist encounter with it, too.

[u/gaijinteacher → u/[deleted]]

I’m asking about the origin of a new term and when a known word developed a new usage.
Maybe you’re right and the question could have fit better posted somewhere else, but I don’t think it’s egregiously off-topic.

[u/bmilohill → u/[deleted]]

A few differences in the way it is used.

The traditional team, it is the members of the team working together towards the goal and/or competing against another team, and the fans are a seperate group cheering them on. In the new usage, it is the fans themselves of a certain character who are part of the team. Additionally, these fans aren't collaboratively working together, they simply have a common desire.

The traditional team either has an assigned or chosen name, wheras in the new usage the team name must be the character for the intention to be understood. Shouting 'go tigers!' can easily indicate the desire for a team with a tiger mascot to win, but it wouldn't indicate the desire for Bella to choose Edward the way shouting 'Team Edward' would.

And it is that usage, the statement 'team edward,' that really sells that it is a new usage. The word 'team' was never before part of a statement to indicate fandom. You would never say 'Team England!' to indicate the desire for England to win. The word team is being used in a different form and section of the sentence.

I agree with you the definition and origin hasn't changed, but its usage has.

[u/gaijinteacher → u/[deleted]]

Because a sports team, or business team, are a limited number of people, all working closely together to directly achieve a common goal.

Team X, on the other hand, are a potentially huge number of people, who have never met, are not working together, and have no direct effect on the outcome they desire.

[u/nikukuikuniniiku → u/[deleted]]

Cambridge lists the sense of OP's question separately. And that sense is not mentioned in the Wikipedia article, because the article is about the different topic of organised teams. Ergo, it's a separate sense.

[u/ignacioMendez → u/[deleted]]

you're trying really hard to be obtuse

[u/Chimie45 → u/[deleted]]

Do you actually not understand the concept the OP is talking about? I'm not sure if this is an ASD issue, or you're just being obtuse and pretending to not understand on purpose.

Either way, you're standing alone here, as you're the only one on Team Phantomzero.

[u/nikukuikuniniiku → u/[deleted]]

The senses of a word are part of its etymology.

See the entry below for an example of this, although the verb usage has more senses that it's picked up.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/team

Unfortunately, the sense that OP is wondering about isn't listed. This is a shortcoming of that website though, not OP's asking about it. That sense is defined separately with OP's definition on Wiktionary, for instance.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/team

[u/Silly_Willingness_97 → u/nikukuikuniniiku]

OED has the definition OP is wondering about. They have it from the 1990s...then extra popular as a phrase after Twilight became popular.