Random team generator

Names 12 names

Split by

Teams 3

Press Draw to see the result

Seed (optional) Type anything here and the same seed always gives the same result — useful when somebody wants the draw checked.

Local · Fisher–Yates over crypto.getRandomValues

Paste your list, choose how many teams you want or how many people go in each, and the names are shuffled and dealt out. Eleven people into three teams gives four, four and three — the remainder is spread rather than dumped on the last team.

How to make random teams

1 Paste the names, one per line. A copied column from a spreadsheet works.

2 Choose whether you are fixing the number of teams or the number of people per team.

3 Draw. If anybody disputes it, type a seed and draw again — the same seed always gives the same teams.

The two modes answer different questions. Fixing the number of teams is what you want for a five-a-side league or a workshop with four tables. Fixing the size is what you want when the activity needs pairs of three regardless of how many people turn up. The seed is the feature worth knowing about: it turns a private draw into one anyone can reproduce, which matters more than it sounds when the teams decide who gets the good pitch.

Questions

How is the remainder handled? −

Dealt round-robin, so team sizes differ by at most one. Eleven into three is 4/4/3, never 5/3/3.

Can I make the teams reproducible? +

Is it actually random? +

Can I keep two people apart? +

Is my list stored? +

Sources

MDN — Crypto.getRandomValues()

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