Team generator

How the teams are made

Names are shuffled with your browser's secure random number generator, then dealt out one by one like cards, so team sizes never differ by more than one person.

Choose Number of teams when you know how many groups you need, or People per team when you know the group size, for example pairs for a lab or fives for five-a-side.

Turn on Pick captains and type the captains, one per line. Each captain goes to a different team and is listed first, then everyone else is dealt out so team sizes still differ by at most one. Leave the box empty and the generator picks one captain per team for you. Captains also work as a way to keep two people apart: make both of them captains.

For fairer matches, turn on Balance by skill and add *1 to *5 after each name. The strongest players are spread out first, so every team ends up with a similar total. Use Keep apart for people who shouldn't play together.

Fair teams for PE, classrooms and five-a-side

For a PE lesson, decide the number of teams first and let the generator fill them. Kids accept a random split far more easily than one picked by two captains in front of everyone, and nobody is chosen last.

In a classroom, use People per team for pair work or groups of four. If the class has an odd number, the generator simply makes one group one person bigger, so you never end up with someone working alone.

Keeping the split balanced

Random teams can still come out lopsided, for example all the strongest players together. Turn on Pick captains and put your strongest players in the captains box: each one starts a different team, and everyone else is shared out around them.

If two people shouldn't be on the same team, make both of them captains. It's the quickest way to keep friends, rivals or siblings apart without anyone noticing.

Sharing the result

Copy teams puts a clean list on your clipboard, ready to paste into a class chat, a group message or a whiteboard. Shuffle again keeps the same names and settings, so you can redo the split in one tap if someone arrives late.

Questions