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Split your list into 2 teams

Drop in any list of names and we will split it into two even teams in seconds — random, or balanced by skill rating if you prefer.

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Use case

When to use this

Perfect for two-sided games: dodgeball, basketball halves, debate clubs, paintball, capture-the-flag, hackathon east-vs-west, board games like Codenames. The tool removes the awkward picking-by-hand moment and stops the same friend group always ending up together.

How to use it

Step by step

  1. 1

    Paste your names

    One name per line, or comma-separated. Up to a few hundred works fine.

  2. 2

    Pick '2 teams'

    We pre-select 'Number of teams = 2'. Switch on ratings if the group is mixed-skill.

  3. 3

    Generate

    Press Generate Teams. Hit Regenerate as many times as you like until it looks good.

  4. 4

    Share or export

    Copy as text, download CSV, or jump straight into a printable bracket.

Why people use this

Splitting into two teams sounds simple, but doing it fairly in front of a group is hard. Captains pick their friends, the same kid is picked last, or the strongest player carries one side. Pasting your names into a generator solves both problems at once: the algorithm cannot see who is popular and, with ratings turned on, it can deliberately keep the two sides close in skill. We never upload your list. The split happens in your browser, so you can use real names from a class register or office without worrying about privacy.

Random vs skill-balanced

Random mode is the right default for casual games and warm-ups — fast, fair, no setup. Switch on skill ratings when the group has obvious differences (a mixed-level five-a-side, a chess club, a debate team). Rate everyone 1–5 and the balanced algorithm distributes high and low ratings evenly across both teams so neither side starts with all the strong players.

What 'fair' actually means here

When we say a split is fair we mean two specific things. First, team sizes differ by at most one — never by two — regardless of how the headcount divides. Second, in skill-balanced mode the total rating per team stays within roughly one rating point of the average. Those are mathematical guarantees of the algorithm, not marketing language. If you want to verify, generate the same input twice with different seeds: the per-team totals will land in the same narrow band each time. Pure-random mode trades that balance for surprise — useful when the ratings are noisy or the activity is recreational. Read the full algorithm description on the methodology page if you want the snake-draft maths.

Practical tips before you paste

Three small habits make the output noticeably better. (1) Strip leading numbers and bullets from your list — paste plain names, one per line, so the parser doesn't treat '1. Alex' as a name. (2) If you have ratings, append them after the name with a space, e.g. 'Alex 4'. The generator accepts integers and decimals from 1 to 10. (3) Decide up-front whether absentees should be excluded or kept as ghosts. Excluding gives tighter teams; keeping them lets you swap names back in later without regenerating. The 'Copy as text' button preserves your line order so you can edit and re-paste.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is the split actually random?

Yes — we use a Fisher-Yates shuffle seeded from the browser's crypto random source on each click. Two clicks produce two different splits.

Can it handle odd numbers?

Yes. With an odd group, one team gets one extra member. The tool tells you exactly how many people are on each side.

Does it remember my list?

No. Names live only in the browser tab. Close the tab and they are gone — nothing is sent to a server.

Can I lock specific people on the same team?

Not yet — we are intentionally keeping the free tool simple. A workaround: enter pairs as one entry like 'Alice & Ben'.

Is anything sent to your servers?

No. The team generator runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. The names you paste are kept in component memory only and are never transmitted, logged, or persisted unless you explicitly export them. Closing the tab clears the data. See the privacy and methodology pages for the technical detail.

Can I lock specific people onto the same team?

Yes. After generating, click any name to swap it with another, or use drag and drop in the team panel. For one-off groupings (siblings, carpool partners) this is the fastest path. For repeated locks across many regenerations, give the locked group a shared rating that's slightly above average and use balanced mode — they'll cluster together most of the time.

Why do I sometimes get the same split twice?

On very small inputs (under ~10 names) there are only a handful of mathematically distinct splits, so repeats are inevitable. The shuffle is cryptographically random — it's just that the space of valid outputs is small. Either add more names or accept the duplicate; either is fine.

Keep exploring

Related tools & guides

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