Why use this wheel
Even every time
Names are shuffled then dealt round-robin, so team sizes never differ by more than one.
Reshuffle instantly
Don't like the draw? Shuffle again. Nobody can claim it was rigged when it takes one click to redo.
Copy the result
Copy all teams as text to paste into a chat, a whiteboard or a scoreboard.
Team names to draw from
Splitting people into teams takes one draw. Naming the teams takes twenty minutes and three arguments, so spin for that too — these three sets are sized for a typical group and none of them mean anything, which is the point.
Neutral, works anywhere
Nothing to mock, nothing anyone can be offended by, easy to shout across a hall.
- Atlas
- Nova
- Orbit
- Ember
- Tide
- Grove
- Summit
- Harbour
- Vertex
- Meridian
- Quarry
- Beacon
- Lantern
- Compass
- Anchor
- Prism
Animals
The set that works best with children, and the one adults get competitive about fastest.
- Otters
- Falcons
- Badgers
- Wolves
- Herons
- Foxes
- Bison
- Ravens
- Lynx
- Hornets
- Terrapins
- Magpies
- Stags
- Kestrels
- Adders
- Puffins
Colours
Best when the teams need bibs, tables or a scoreboard that people can read at a glance.
- Red
- Blue
- Green
- Yellow
- Purple
- Orange
- Teal
- Magenta
- Amber
- Indigo
- Crimson
- Slate
Why captains picking teams is the worst system
Two captains alternating picks is the traditional method and it is genuinely bad. It takes several minutes, it produces lopsided teams whenever the captains disagree about who is good, and it publicly ranks everyone present from best to worst. The last person picked knows they were last picked. In a classroom or a workplace that is a small cruelty repeated every single week.
Random assignment removes all of it. The split takes one click, nobody is ranked, and the result is defensible precisely because no human chose it. If the teams turn out uneven in ability, that is luck rather than judgement, and a reshuffle costs nothing.
How the split actually works
Names are shuffled first, then dealt out one at a time across the teams like cards — not chopped into blocks. That matters: dealing round-robin guarantees team sizes never differ by more than one, so ten people across three teams gives you four, three and three rather than six, two and two.
Because the shuffle happens before the deal, position in your original list has no effect on which team someone lands in. Pasting an alphabetical register does not put everyone whose name starts with A on the same team.
If a draw looks wrong — two strong players together, or a pair who should be split up — reshuffle. Nobody can reasonably claim a result was rigged when redoing it takes one click and produces a completely different answer.
Keeping people together or apart
There is no automatic constraint system, and that is a deliberate limitation rather than an oversight — constraint solvers produce splits that are no longer obviously random, which undermines the main reason to use one.
In practice there are two workable approaches. Reshuffle until you get a draw that works, which for one or two soft constraints usually takes a handful of tries. Or split the group manually into the pairs that must stay together, generate teams for the rest, and slot the fixed pairs in afterwards.
How to use the random team generator
- 01
Paste your roster
One name per line works best.
- 02
Choose team count
Pick how many teams you want to end up with.
- 03
Shuffle
Names are dealt out evenly and randomly across the teams.
Frequently asked questions
Are the teams even if my list doesn't divide evenly?
Yes. Names are dealt one at a time across the teams, so with 10 people in 3 teams you get 4, 3 and 3 — never 6, 2 and 2.
Can I keep certain people together or apart?
Not automatically, but you can shuffle again until you get a draw that works, or move a name and re-run the split.
Does the order I paste names in affect the teams?
No. The list is shuffled before anyone is assigned, so an alphabetical roster produces just as random a split as a scrambled one.
Can I generate teams of a fixed size rather than a fixed count?
Indirectly — divide your total by the size you want and use that as the team count. Twenty people in teams of four means five teams.
How many teams can I split a list into?
As many as you have people for. The team tool takes a target number of teams or a target team size, and rebuilds the split from your current list each time you draw.
Can I redraw one team without redoing the rest?
Not as a single action — a redraw reshuffles everybody. That is deliberate: pulling one team until it looks right is picking the teams by hand with extra steps.