After reaching #1 in the world as a member of the Onward team Mayhem, Theta realized that there was a serious gap in the world of VR esports: there weren't any teams structured like professional esports teams. This wasn't too surprising, given the size of prize pools and limited reach of the scene at the time. But after spending countless hours studying the evolution of other esports, he realized there was an opportunity to gain a first-mover advantage.

He created Tempo and built it after frameworks he'd learned from studying dynastic esports teams such as CSGO's Astralis. The model used was a complete shift: most teams in VR esports (even until recently) were collections of friends, who played to enjoy each other's company and maybe win a prize if they were lucky. Scheduling, recruiting and all other organizational tasks were taken care of by players themselves.

This lack of division of labor is a serious problem: in no other competitive games do teams work like this. Coaches and managers handle tasks like scheduling, recruiting, training, and so on, and players focus on improving their in-game skill as much as possible. Trying to blend all of those together is impossible to balance effectively.

Tempo operates differently. Recruiting is handled by the coaching staff, and although feedback is gathered from players, it is the captain and coaches who make the decision to add or remove a player. The same goes for scheduling matches and practices. Players are expected to sign a code of conduct, and they can be cut if they violate it.

All practices are recorded, and detailed feedback sessions are held both before and after team events to ensure everyone is improving. A fitness program was implemented, as VR esports have much higher physical demands than traditional esports.

The result of all this? Tempo became the first team in the history of Onward to reach the postseason. Other teams had come close, going to the wildcard stage and narrowly missing the quarter finals, but Tempo did it - and beat some very experienced teams to reach that point. Other teams are now following Tempo's example in how they structure their teams, which is no surprise given the results.