Shuffled properly, then dealt out evenly
Shuffle a list of names and divide it evenly into any number of teams. For classrooms, workshops and five-a-side.
Letting captains pick is slow and leaves someone chosen last. A random split is faster and takes the social sting out of it entirely.
Names are shuffled with a Fisher-Yates pass and then dealt round-robin, so team sizes differ by at most one even when the count does not divide evenly.
What this calculator shows
- Every team with its members listed
- Participant and team counts
- The largest team size, so you can see the split is fair
What to keep in mind
- Teams are balanced by size only — skill, age and role are not considered.
- Uses a Fisher-Yates shuffle, which gives every arrangement equal probability.
FAQs
Are the teams evenly sized?
As even as the numbers allow. Dealing round-robin means sizes never differ by more than one person.
Can I balance by skill instead?
Not here — this randomises by name only. For skill balance, sort players into tiers first and randomise within each tier.
Is the shuffle genuinely random?
It uses Fisher-Yates, which gives every possible arrangement equal probability. Naive shuffles built on sort comparators do not.
How do I enter names?
One per line or separated by commas. Both work, and blank entries are ignored.
Worked example
Six people, two teams
Input: Six names, 2 teams
Output: Two teams of three
Note: With seven names one team gets four. Round-robin dealing keeps the gap to a single person rather than piling everyone into the first team.