Under most circumstances, a team is defined as a group of people working together for a common purpose. And where Knightmare is concerned, it was the functional term used to denote a set of contestants.
Each team would consist of one dungeoneer and three advisors. Physically the team did not work together during its quest, as it was split according to role: as the titles suggest, the dungeoneer entered the Dungeon, while the advisors were based in the antechamber. Nevertheless, all four members would be seen together at the following times: before the dungeoneer set out upon the quest; during a valedictory scene after the quest had failed (see picture); after the quest had succeeded; after the dungeoneer had been recalled due to the end of the series.

In terms of gender, a team could be comprised of any combination, though all-male teams were most common (there were 42 of them). Nearly all teams, we assume, were made up of friends, and several included siblings.

Treguard and his assistants were the ones who most frequently addressed the contestants as "team", because characters within the Dungeon tended to be less concerned with the remote presence of advisors. Also, to refer to the adventurers as "team" was a way of subtly underlining the importance of teamwork to the success of their quest. Not all teams grasped the importance of co-operation, however.

And now, a brief foray into statistics. 69 teams appeared on Knightmare, 8 of whom won. Series 1 had 6 teams, Series 2 had 13, Series 3 had 12, Series 4 had 8, Series 5 had 9 (though around 6000 had applied), and Series 6-8 had 7 teams each.

See the Teams section of this Lexicon for detailed information on specific Knightmare teams' quests and performances.

[Previous versions provided on: 2006-11-25 21:10:12, 2005-11-24 17:57:40, 2007-01-21 16:47:44, 2007-04-17 18:53:52]

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