How to split a list into fair teams
Paste everyone in, say how many teams you want or how many people you want in each, and press the button. Send the link to the group and everyone sees the same teams.
Nobody signs up, no email addresses are collected, and the whole thing runs on your device. There is no limit on how many names you can paste in.
Why sixteen people at five a team is four teams of four
Because five a team was a target, not an instruction to cut the list into slices of five.
Almost every other splitter chops the list into chunks of the size you asked for. Sixteen people at five a team comes back as 5, 5, 5 and 1. That is not four teams, it is three teams and somebody standing on their own, and if you are picking a five-a-side you now have to redo it by hand.
This works out the team count first, then deals everyone out so that no two teams differ by more than one person. Sixteen at five a team gives 4, 4, 4, 4. Seventeen gives 5, 4, 4, 4, with the extra person going to one team rather than all the leftovers piling onto the last one.
Number of teams, or people per team
Both, because people arrive with one or the other already in their head and converting between them is the annoying bit.
- Number of teams. For a quiz night or a classroom. You know you want six tables and you do not care how many end up on each.
- People per team. For anything with a fixed format. Five a side, doubles, four to a car. You care about the shape of a team and the count falls out of it.
Keeping your own order
Tick "keep my order" and the list is dealt out exactly as you pasted it, rather than shuffled.
This is for a list that is already in some order that matters: seeded strongest to weakest, or ranked from a previous round. Because people are dealt round the teams one at a time rather than sliced off in blocks, an ordered list spreads across the teams instead of stacking your best four players into team one. That gives you a snake draft without having to do it manually.
Left unticked, the order is shuffled and the teams are genuinely random every time you press the button.
Sharing the teams
The link contains the teams themselves, so everyone who opens it sees exactly the teams you made.
It is not a link to a page that recalculates, and it is not a link to something stored on a server, because there is no server. The result travels in the address, in the part after the hash that browsers never send anywhere. That means the link keeps working, nobody needs an account to open it, and no list of who was at your works do ends up in anybody's database.
Splitting again makes different teams and a different link. If you have already sent one out, send the new one too, or the group will be looking at two different sets.
What it is good for
- Five-a-side, netball, rounders, anything where you turn up with an odd number.
- Quiz night tables and pub league groups.
- Classroom groups and school trip minibuses.
- Splitting a work list across pairs, vans or shifts.
- Secret Santa groups too big for one draw, split first then drawn separately.
Common questions
If I split 16 people into teams of 5, why do I get four teams instead of three teams and a leftover person?
Because five a team is a target for the team size, not an instruction to slice the list into chunks of five. This works out the number of teams first, then deals everyone out so that no two teams differ by more than one person, so sixteen people at five a team gives four teams of four rather than 5, 5, 5 and 1.
Can I set the number of teams instead of how many people are in each?
Yes, both work. Choose number of teams when you know you want, say, six quiz tables and do not care how they split. Choose people per team when the format is fixed, such as five-a-side or four to a car, and the number of teams should fall out of that.
How do I stop my strongest players all landing on the same team?
Paste your list already ranked or seeded, and tick "keep my order". People are dealt round the teams one at a time rather than sliced off in blocks, so an ordered list spreads across the teams instead of stacking your best players into team one, similar to a snake draft.
Is the shared link connected to an account or a server?
No. The teams themselves travel inside the link, in the part after the hash that browsers never send anywhere, so there is no server storing who was in your group and nobody needs to sign in to open it.
What happens if I generate the teams again after sharing the link?
You get different teams and a different link. If you have already sent the first link out, send the new one too, or the group ends up looking at two different sets of teams.
What is this generator useful for?
Five-a-side, netball or rounders when you turn up with an odd number, quiz night tables, classroom groups and school trip minibuses, splitting a work list across pairs, vans or shifts, and Secret Santa groups too big for one draw.