Random Team Generator

How to use the random team generator

Enter one player per line in the List box. A column copied from a spreadsheet works, and blank lines and stray spaces are ignored. Then choose the number of teams in Split into (2 to 100) and press Generate Random Teams.

The result shows Team 1, Team 2 and so on, each with its members on separate lines. Use the copy button beside a team to take its member list to a chat or document. Pressing the button again produces an entirely new split.

The list can hold up to 1,000 names, and there must be at least as many names as teams, because an empty team would not be a team. The tool shows a message if you ask for 5 teams from 4 players.

When the numbers do not divide evenly

Often the players cannot be split into equal teams. The generator deals everyone out so that no team ever has more than one player more than any other team.

base size = players ÷ teams (rounded down); teams with one extra player = players mod teams

Example: 17 players in 5 teams gives a base size of 3 and a remainder of 2. Two teams get 4 players and three teams get 3, since 2 × 4 + 3 × 3 = 17. Which teams get the extra player is itself chosen at random, so Team 1 is not always the large one. Eight players in 3 teams works out as 3, 3 and 2.

How the teams are formed

The names are shuffled with the Fisher-Yates algorithm, driven by the browser's cryptographic random number source, and the shuffled list is then dealt out into teams of the sizes above. Because every ordering of the list is equally likely, every person has the same chance of landing in every team.

If a name appears on two lines, the tool treats them as two different people, which is what you want when two players share a first name. Delete accidental repeats before generating.

Example: 12 people split into 3 teams of 4 can be arranged in 12! ÷ (4! × 4! × 4!) = 34,650 ways, counting the teams as Team 1, 2 and 3, and every one of those arrangements is equally likely. Two friends will end up together with probability 3 ÷ 11 ≈ 27.3%, because once one of them has a team, 3 of the 11 remaining places are in the same team.

Random is fair, but not always balanced

A random split treats everyone equally, but it does not look at skill, age, height or experience. With a small group, one team may by chance end up with the strongest players. If that matters, run the generator once per skill level: put your best players in one list, the next tier in another, and split each list into the same number of teams. Then join Team 1 from every tier, Team 2 from every tier, and so on.

You can also redraw until the result feels acceptable, as long as the group agreed beforehand that it was allowed, because redrawing until you like the outcome is no longer a fair draw.

Where random teams help

• Sports and games: five-a-side football, relay races, volleyball, trivia nights and board games where everyone should share the same odds.
• Team-building events: mixing departments so colleagues meet people they do not usually work with.
• Classrooms: group projects, lab partners and debate sides without anyone choosing their friends.
• Chores and tasks: number the tasks, then let each team handle the task that matches its team number.

If you only need to pick one or a few winners, the random name picker is a better fit. If you want the whole list in a new order, for example to set a speaking order, use the list randomizer. To count how many ways a group could be divided, the combination calculator gives the number of ways to choose members for a team.