Random team generator
Random Team Generator
Paste a list of names. Shuffle it, deal it into even teams, or turn it straight into a random tournament bracket you can score live. The draw happens on this page, in front of everyone, before anything is built.
- Fisher–Yates shuffle: every order equally likely
- Teams dealt evenly, sizes never differ by more than one
- One click from the shuffled list to a live bracket, free
Or draw a bracket
Free, no account needed. Opens a live bracket you can score and share.
How the randomizer works
Three steps, and the middle one is the only one that matters.
Paste the names
One per line or separated by commas, straight from a group chat, a sign-up sheet or a spreadsheet column. Blank lines are ignored.
Shuffle
A Fisher–Yates shuffle reorders the list so every ordering is equally likely. The order appears on the page, numbered, and that number is the seed if you go on to build a bracket.
Teams, or a bracket
Deal the shuffled list into however many teams you need, or turn it into a live tournament bracket in one click, single or double elimination.
What “random” has to mean
Pulling names out of a hat is random until someone notices the hat was small and the last name in always ends up on top. Software has the same failure mode: a naive shuffle, sorting by a random number or swapping each item with any other, produces some orders more often than others, and the effect is big enough to see over a season of draws.
This page uses the Fisher–Yates method, which walks the list once and swaps each position with a random position not yet fixed. Every one of the possible orderings comes out with exactly the same probability. Twelve names have 479 million orderings; each has one chance in 479 million.
Even teams, always
The shuffled list is dealt round-robin, first name to team 1, second to team 2, and round again. Sizes differ by one at most, and which team gets the extra person is random too.
Random draw, random byes
In a bracket the shuffle decides who sits at the top, and the top gets the byes when the count is not a power of two. That is correct for a draw where nobody is seeded. It is the wrong tool if you want the favourites protected: use seeding for that.
Nothing is remembered
The shuffle happens in your browser and is not stored, ranked or learned from. Reload the page and the list is gone; build a bracket and only the final order goes on the board.
Random teams and random draws, wherever they are needed
PE class and youth sport
Split a class into four even sides in seconds, on the projector, with no arguments about who picked whom.
Pickup games and rec leagues
Fourteen people turned up; deal two sevens and play. Next week, deal again.
Office and pub tournaments
Draw the ping-pong, darts or trivia bracket live on a screen so the draw is seen to be fair before the first match.
Esports and gaming nights
Random-seed an 8 or 16 player bracket and post the live link in Discord. Losers bracket included if you want it.
Fundraisers and raffle-style draws
A random bracket for a cornhole or golf day where seeding would only start a debate.
Classroom groups
Random groups for projects or a spelling-bee bracket, shuffled where students can watch it happen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Paste the names into the box, one per line, and press 'Randomize into a bracket'. The list is shuffled, the shuffled order becomes the seeding, and a live bracket opens with that draw already in it. If you want to see the order first, press 'Shuffle the order' and the draw appears on the page; the bracket then uses exactly that order.
Yes. It uses a Fisher–Yates shuffle, which gives every possible ordering of the list the same chance, so no name is more likely to end up first, last, or next to any other name. Teams are then dealt from that order like cards, so nothing about where a name sat in your original list affects which team it lands on.
Paste the names, choose how many teams you want, and press 'random teams'. Names are dealt round-robin from a shuffled list, so team sizes never differ by more than one: thirteen people into three teams is 5, 4 and 4, never 6, 6 and 1. Press Copy to paste the result into a message.
Yes. Split into teams, copy the result, then paste the team names back in, one per line, and press 'Randomize into a bracket'. Or skip the middle step and enter the team names you already have. The bracket is the same free bracket maker as the rest of the site, so scores, live sharing and the TV view all work.
To whoever the shuffle put at the top of the list. A bracket needs 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64 slots, so a random draw of six names gives two of them a bye into the semifinals, and those two are the names in positions 1 and 2 after the shuffle. That is what a genuinely random draw means: the byes are random too. If you would rather byes went to the strongest entrants, type the names in seeding order on the 6-team or 12-team bracket page instead.
You can, as often as you like, but tell the room before you do. A re-roll is the one thing that makes a random draw stop feeling random. The usual etiquette is to shuffle once in front of everyone, and the bracket makes that easy: shuffle on a screen they can see, then build.
Shuffling and splitting into teams work with any number. A bracket holds up to 64 entrants on the free plan, which covers nearly every casual tournament; past 64 the tool still shuffles and splits, it just will not draw a bracket.
No. Shuffling and team splitting run entirely in your browser and nothing is saved. Drawing a bracket creates a free board you can score and share, still without an account; you can add one later from inside the editor if you want to find it again from another device.
Want the favourites protected instead?
The bracket maker seeds a draw from the order you type, byes to the top seeds, single or double elimination.
More Bracket Tools
The same free bracket maker, set up for the size or the job you came for.