How the teams are built
The list is first shuffled with a Fisher–Yates shuffle, which gives every possible ordering an equal chance. The shuffled names are then dealt round-robin into the teams: first name to Team 1, second to Team 2, and so on. That keeps sizes as even as possible — with 7 players across 2 teams you get 4 and 3, never 5 and 2.
When you need something similar but not identical, the spinning wheel picker is there.
How to use it
Paste your roster with one name per line, set Number of teams, and press Generate. Press again for a different draw. The tool does not balance by skill — it is purely random, which is what makes it fair for pick-up games, classroom groups and secret-santa style splits. To choose a single winner instead, use the random list picker.
A class of 24 split into four groups gives six per group; 25 names give 7, 6, 6 and 6. Generating again produces a completely different arrangement, which is useful when you want people to mix rather than settle into the same pairings every week.
For a closely related job, the random number generator does it in one click.
Randomness and security
Every result on this page is produced in your own browser with JavaScript's built-in Math.random() pseudo-random generator. That is perfectly fine for games, giveaways, classroom picks and decision-making, but it is not cryptographically secure — never use it to generate keys, tokens or anything protecting real money or private data. Nothing you type is uploaded; the page never sends your inputs anywhere.
Once you are done here, the coin flip tool picks up where this leaves off.
Frequently asked questions
- Are the teams always equal in size?
- They are as even as possible. If the players do not divide exactly, the earlier teams get one extra member each.
- Can I make more than two teams?
- Yes. Set any number of teams up to the number of names you entered.
- Does it balance skill levels?
- No. The split is purely random — for skill balance, sort players into tiers and run each tier separately.
- Can I reshuffle?
- Yes. Press Generate again for a completely fresh shuffle and a different set of teams.
- What if I have fewer names than teams?
- Some teams come out empty, because names are dealt one at a time until they run out. Reduce the number of teams so that every group gets at least one name.