Team Splitter
Paste names, one per line, and choose how many teams.
How teams are made
The whole list is shuffled using the Fisher-Yates method, which gives every possible ordering the same chance, and then names are dealt into teams in turn like cards. Because of the shuffle, it makes no difference who is typed first or whether friends are listed next to each other.
Team sizes
When the numbers don’t divide evenly, the extra people go to the first teams, so team sizes never differ by more than one.
| People | 2 teams | 3 teams | 4 teams | 5 teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2×3 | 3×2 | 2×2, 2×1 | 1×2, 4×1 |
| 7 | 1×4, 1×3 | 1×3, 2×2 | 3×2, 1×1 | 2×2, 3×1 |
| 8 | 2×4 | 2×3, 1×2 | 4×2 | 3×2, 2×1 |
| 9 | 1×5, 1×4 | 3×3 | 1×3, 3×2 | 4×2, 1×1 |
| 10 | 2×5 | 1×4, 2×3 | 2×3, 2×2 | 5×2 |
| 12 | 2×6 | 3×4 | 4×3 | 2×3, 3×2 |
| 15 | 1×8, 1×7 | 3×5 | 3×4, 1×3 | 5×3 |
| 16 | 2×8 | 1×6, 2×5 | 4×4 | 1×4, 4×3 |
| 20 | 2×10 | 2×7, 1×6 | 4×5 | 5×4 |
| 24 | 2×12 | 3×8 | 4×6 | 4×5, 1×4 |
Balancing skill
The splitter is purely random and knows nothing about who is good at what. For a casual game that is usually the fairest option, because nobody can accuse anyone of stacking a team. For competitive games, use the result as a starting point and swap a pair or two by agreement.
Good uses
Pick-up sports, classroom groups, quiz teams, workshop breakouts, and game nights. To pick a single person instead, such as who goes first, use the raffle picker or the decision wheel.