Team generator

How to make random teams

1. Paste your names into the box, one per line. A column copied from a spreadsheet pastes straight in.
2. Choose Number of teams or People per team and set the number.
3. Optional: add a skill from 1 to 5 after each name to balance the teams, and open Keep apart and keep together or Captains first for rules.
4. Tap Make teams. Rename a team by clicking its name, or tap Reshuffle for a fresh draw.
5. Send the result with Copy as text or Share link, or Print it for the gym wall.

How the balancing works

Without skills, the list is shuffled and dealt into teams whose sizes differ by one at most. With skills, the generator runs a snake draft: players are sorted strongest first (equal skills in random order), and the teams pick in the order 1, 2, 3, then 3, 2, 1, so the team that picked first also picks last in the next round. It then looks for a swap between a stronger and a weaker team that brings their totals closer, and repeats until no swap helps.

Worked example: 12 players with skills 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1 into 3 teams total 35, so the best possible split is 12, 12 and 11. The snake draft alone gives 12, 12 and 11 here; on awkward lists the swap pass closes the gap. Without captains or rules, the highest and lowest team totals end up at most one top skill apart, and usually within 1.

Captains and keep-together groups are not swapped, so with many rules the totals can drift further apart; the card totals always show where it landed.

What it cannot do

• It does not remember people between visits unless you tap Save list on this device.
• Balance uses only the skill you type. It knows nothing about positions, who plays well together or who turned up late.
• Up to 500 names and 100 teams. Skills are whole numbers from 1 to 5; any other number after a name stays part of the name.
• No live teams across devices: a share link sends a copy of the teams, and a reshuffle on one phone does not change anyone else's.
• Share links longer than 2,000 characters (roughly 120 to 200 names, depending on how long and how varied they are) may be cut short by some chat apps; Copy as text always works.

Privacy and what is stored

The names never leave your device. The page sends an anonymous page-view count and, when you make or share teams, one of three fixed words (teams-make, teams-share-make, teams-share-open); never a name or a number from your list. Nothing is stored unless you tap Save list on this device, which keeps the names, rules and team names in this browser's local storage until you tap Clear saved list. A share link carries the list after the #, which browsers do not send to any server, and opening one saves nothing.

Questions

How do I make random teams with names?

Paste the names into the box, one per line, choose Teams or People per team and the number, and tap Make teams. Each team appears as a card; tap Reshuffle for a new draw, Copy as text to paste it into a chat, or Print.

Is the random team generator really random?

Yes. Every shuffle uses crypto.getRandomValues, the browser's cryptographic random generator, with rejection sampling so no position is favoured. Without skills, every way of splitting the list into teams of those sizes is possible, and no setting favours anyone.

How do I make balanced teams by skill level?

Write a skill from 1 to 5 after each name, for example Ana 4. The generator then drafts like a playground pick: strongest first, in a snake order (1-2-3-4, 4-3-2-1), and then swaps players of different skill between teams while that brings the totals closer. Each card shows its skill total. Names without a number count as 3.

What happens when the numbers do not divide evenly?

The teams differ by one person at most. 30 names in 4 teams gives two teams of 8 and two of 7. With People per team, the number is a maximum: 23 names at 5 per team gives 5 teams, three of 5 and two of 4, rather than one team of 3.

Can I keep two people apart or on the same team?

Yes. Under Keep apart and keep together, write one line per rule, such as Ana / Ben. Keep-apart people always land on different teams; a keep-together line is placed as one unit. If the rules cannot all be met, for example a group bigger than a team, the page says why in one sentence instead of making teams.