Random Team Generator

Paste or upload a list of names, choose how to split the group, and get random teams you can balance by skill, share, copy or print. No sign-up, no app.

Why use this over a basic name picker

How to split a group into random teams

Type or paste your names into the box, one per line, or upload a .txt or .csv file exported from a spreadsheet or sign-up sheet. If your list might contain repeats, use Remove duplicates, and use Sort A-Z for a tidy list to check before you draw. Next choose how to split the group: by the number of teams you want, or by the number of people per team. Press Generate teams and the names shuffle between the cards before settling into their teams.

If the result is not what you wanted, Re-roll makes a fresh draw with the same settings, and earlier draws stay listed on the page until you reload. When you are happy, Copy teams puts the lists on your clipboard as text, Export CSV makes a file for a spreadsheet, Download image saves a picture you can post in a group chat, and Copy share link sends the exact teams to someone else.

Balanced teams by skill rating

A random split gives everyone the same chance of landing on any team, but it does not make teams equally strong. If you know roughly how good each person is, give them a rating, for example Priya, 8, and tick Balance teams by skill rating. The generator deals the strongest people first to whichever team is currently weakest, then tries swapping pairs of people between teams and keeps any swap that narrows the gap between team averages. It repeats this from many random starting points and keeps the best result, so re-rolling still gives you different teams that are all fair.

This is a heuristic, and we say plainly how well it did: the page shows the lowest and highest team average and the gap between them. In our tests it matched the best possible two-team split, found by checking every combination, in all 60 random groups of six to twelve people. Over 200 random groups of 24 people rated 1 to 10 and split into four teams, the average gap between the strongest and weakest team was about 0.1 rating point, against about 2.3 for a plain random split. Ratings are only as good as the person who enters them. People without a rating are counted at the group average. There is more detail on the balanced team generator page.

Uneven groups and captains

Groups rarely divide perfectly. With 14 names and 4 teams, two teams get four people and two get three. If you split by people per team, 14 names at 4 per team makes 4 teams, so a team can end up one person under the size you asked for. Decide in advance how you want to treat a short team, for example by letting it pick first. The captains option treats the first names on your list as captains and spreads them one to a team, with everyone else drawn around them. That suits playground-style picks, club nights and classroom games where leaders are chosen beforehand.

Keeping people together or apart

Fair does not always mean unrestricted. Siblings may need to share a team, two people who dominate a game may be better apart, and a teacher may want to separate certain pupils. Choose two names and a relationship under Keep together / apart. The generator searches many random arrangements and swaps for one that satisfies every rule. If your rules cannot all be met, such as asking for two people to be both together and apart, it shows which rule failed instead of ignoring it. The more rules you add, the fewer valid splits exist and the less random the result.

Where random teams are useful

Classrooms and training sessions

Random groups mix pupils who would not usually work together and save time. For groups with a set size, see the random group generator.

Sports, clubs and pickup games

Splitting a squad at the start of a session avoids arguments about who picked whom. Try the five-a-side team generator or the kickball team generator, which start with the right settings.

Work, workshops and game nights

Random groups break up cliques at an offsite, and a quiz night needs quick, fair splits. Once you have teams, the team name generator will suggest something to call them.

Is a random split really fair?

A random draw is fair in process, not in outcome. With a small group you can easily get one team with all the strongest players by chance. If balance matters, use ratings, or apply rules to separate the top players, or re-roll until the teams look reasonable. Re-rolling because you dislike a result is fine as long as everyone agrees the rule beforehand, for example that the first draw is final or that each group gets one re-roll.

Random sports team pickers

Want to pick a real team at random instead of splitting people? Random NFL Team Generator · Random NBA Team Generator · Random MLB Team Generator · Random NHL Team Generator · Random Premier League Team Generator. Each one can also assign a different team to every player. For fantasy leagues, see the fantasy draft order generator.

Privacy

Your names are processed in your browser. A list you entered last time may be offered back to you from this device so you do not have to retype it, and you can dismiss or clear it at any time. A share link contains the names in the link itself, so only send it to people you are happy to see them. See the privacy policy for details.

FAQ

Is the shuffle really random?

Each draw starts from a random seed taken from your browser's cryptographic random number generator. A Fisher–Yates shuffle, the standard unbiased shuffling algorithm, then deals the names out. The seed is kept so that a share link can rebuild the same teams.

How do I make balanced teams?

Add a rating after each name, like Sam, 7, and tick Balance teams by skill rating. The generator tries to make every team's average rating as close as it can and shows the gap it achieved. See also the balanced team generator.

Is my list saved anywhere?

Only in your own browser (local storage), so the page can offer to restore your last list. It is never sent to a server, and clearing your browser's site data removes it.

Can I paste a spreadsheet or CSV?

Yes. Paste lines like Name,Rating or upload a .txt or .csv file. A header row of Name,Rating is ignored. Names that already contain a comma, such as Smith, John, are kept whole unless the part after the comma is a number.

Can I rename the teams?

Yes. Click a team's name after generating and type a new one, for example Red Dragons instead of Team 1. Copy teams, Export CSV and Download image use your names.

How do I make teams of a specific size?

Set Split by to people per team and enter the size. The generator works out how many teams are needed and shares the names between them, so if the group does not divide evenly a team may be one person short.

What happens if the numbers do not divide evenly?

The extra people are spread over the teams so that no team is more than one person larger than another.

Can I choose captains?

Yes. Tick the captains option and put your captains at the top of the list. They are spread one to each team.

How do I keep two people on the same team, or apart?

Open Keep together / apart, choose two names and a rule, and press Add. If the rules cannot all be met, the page tells you which one failed.

Can I share the teams?

Yes. Copy share link gives a link that rebuilds the same teams for anyone who opens it. You can also copy the teams as text, export a CSV, download an image or print a roster.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. The page is responsive, and copy, CSV, image and print all work from a phone or tablet browser.

Is there a limit on names or teams?

There is no hard limit. Very large lists with many rules, or balanced mode on hundreds of people, can take a little longer.

More team tools