Random Team Generator

How the random team generator splits players

Paste your players, pick how many teams you need and press the button. The generator shuffles the list with the browser’s cryptographic random source and deals players one at a time, like cards, so team sizes never differ by more than one person.

Worked example: 8 players, 3 teams

Eight players cannot divide evenly into three teams. After the shuffle the first player goes to team 1, the second to team 2, the third to team 3, the fourth back to team 1, and so on. The result is two teams of three and one team of two. If you want even teams, change the number of teams or add a substitute.

Team names, leagues and countries

The name option labels teams by number, color or animal. The second tool draws one random team from the NFL, NBA, MLB or NHL, or one random country from the list of UN member states. Use it to assign sides in a pick-up game, a fantasy draft icebreaker or a geography quiz. League lists change when franchises move or rename, so check the current season if it matters.

Is it fair?

Each shuffle uses uniform integers drawn with rejection sampling, which avoids the small bias you get from taking a random number modulo the list length. Nothing about a name, its position in the list or the time you press the button changes its chances. Your player names stay in your browser and are not sent anywhere.

Tips for picking teams

• Remove blank lines: the generator ignores them, but a stray space inside a name stays.
• For skill-balanced teams, run the draw once per skill tier and combine the results by hand.
• Press the button again for a fresh split; the old one is replaced, so copy it first.

Frequently asked questions

More pickers are on the Random Generator Letters home page.