Random Team Generator
Split a list of names into balanced random teams, with control over team count or team size and an option to keep the split fair.
Ratings are optional and any scale works as long as it is consistent. Leave them off and everyone counts the same, which turns balanced mode into a plain shuffle.
Balanced or random
Balanced mode sorts by rating and gives each player to the currently weakest team that still has room. It beats a shuffle badly when the ratings are uneven — and it is no better than a shuffle when they are wrong, which is worth being honest about before anyone argues about their number.
Team sizes are held within one player of each other whatever the ratings say, because an extra body is worth more than a rating point in almost every game. And splitting the two strongest players usually matters more than getting the totals exactly level: a team with both is a different game from a team with neither.
Things worth knowing
- Balanced beats random when the ratings are honest, and random beats balanced when they are not. If nobody wants to rate anybody, leave everyone equal and shuffle.
- Team sizes are kept within one player of each other whatever the ratings, because an extra body is worth more than a rating point in almost every game.
- The same seed always gives the same teams. Change the seed to redraw — and if you redraw until you like the result, you are picking teams rather than drawing them.
- Ratings are a guess. Two people who have not played together are worth less than the sum of their ratings, and two who have are worth more, and no number captures that.
- Splitting the two strongest players is usually more important than getting the totals exactly level. A team with both is a different game from a team with neither.
How to use
- Paste your list of names.
- Choose the number of teams or the size per team.
- Generate, and re-roll if the split looks lopsided.
- Handle any uneven remainder deliberately.
Frequently asked questions
How are teams chosen?
The list is shuffled with a proper shuffle algorithm — every ordering equally likely — and then dealt into teams. This is fairer than repeatedly picking a random name, which is slower and easier to implement wrongly.
What happens if the numbers do not divide evenly?
Some teams get one more member than others, and which ones is decided randomly rather than always falling on the last team. Handling the remainder deliberately matters, because always loading the same team is a real if small unfairness.
Can I keep certain people together or apart?
Not automatically — that is a constraint problem rather than a shuffle. The practical approach is to generate a split and re-roll if it produces a pairing you want to avoid, or to assign the constrained people first and randomise the rest.
Is a random split actually fair for a game?
It is unbiased, which is not the same as balanced. Random teams can easily put the strongest players together, which is fair in procedure and lopsided in play. Seeded or drafted teams are more balanced and less impartial — worth choosing between deliberately.
Why re-rolling repeatedly is not cheating?
Because it plainly can be, if you keep rolling until you get the split you wanted. If the point is impartiality, agree in advance to take the first result. If the point is a good game, say so and pick the teams openly rather than dressing selection up as randomness.
Does anything get uploaded?
No. The shuffle happens entirely in your browser, so the names never leave your device.
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged, or stored.