1. What is the Team Picker?

The Team Picker is a free online tool that divides a list of people into balanced teams. You enter participant names, specify how many teams you want, and click Start. The tool shuffles everyone randomly and distributes them evenly across teams — no manual counting, no favoritism, no arguments about who goes where.

Under the hood, the Team Picker uses cryptographically secure randomness to shuffle participants before assigning them. This ensures genuine unpredictability — each person has an equal chance of landing on any team. The distribution algorithm guarantees balanced sizes: if you have 25 people and want 4 teams, you get three teams of 6 and one team of 7, not a random uneven split.

The tool also includes an optional Representative feature that randomly selects one person from each team to serve as team captain or spokesperson — useful for classroom activities, sports scrimmages, and workshop breakout groups.

2. How to Use the Team Picker

The Team Picker is designed to be straightforward. Here is a complete walkthrough:

1. Open the Team Picker. Navigate to this page. The tool loads with 10 sample names (Alice, Bob, Charlie, etc.) so you can see how it works immediately.
2. Add your participants. Clear the sample names using the Reset button, then add your own participant list. You can type names one at a time or paste a list from a spreadsheet.
3. Set the number of teams. Use the Number of Teams input to specify how many teams you want (2-10). Empty team boxes appear on the right to show the structure.
4. Enable Representative selection (optional). Check the "Pick Representatives" box if you want the tool to randomly choose one captain per team.
5. Click Start. The tool shuffles participants and distributes them to teams with a brief animation. Each name appears in its assigned team box one by one.
6. Review and use the results. Teams are displayed in color-coded boxes. Representatives (if enabled) are highlighted with a crown badge (👑). Share the URL to preserve your configuration.

3. Adding Participants

The Team Picker supports multiple ways to add participants:

Type names one by one

Enter a name in the input field and press Enter or click the "+" button. The name appears in the participant list immediately. Repeat for each person. This works well for small groups.

Paste a list of names

Click the expand button (arrows icon) next to the input field to switch to multi-line mode. Paste a list of names from Excel, Google Sheets, or any text source — one name per line. Click "+" to add all names at once. This is the fastest method for large groups.

Edit after adding

Once names are in the list, you can drag entries to reorder them using the handles on the left of each name. Click the "X" button to remove individual entries. Use the reset button (circular arrows icon) in the header to clear the entire list.

4. Configuring Team Settings

The Team Picker has two main configuration options:

Number of Teams

Enter a number between 2 and 10 in the "Number of Teams" field. As you change this value, empty team boxes appear on the right side to preview the structure. The Start button becomes disabled if you have fewer participants than teams.

Pick Representatives

Check this box to have the tool randomly select one representative (captain) from each team after generation. Representatives are highlighted with a gradient background and a crown emoji (👑). This is useful when you need team leaders, spokespeople, or captains.

The following screenshot shows the Team Picker with 3 teams and the Representative feature enabled. The representatives are highlighted with a background color and a crown emoji (👑).

5. Understanding the Generation Algorithm

The Team Picker uses a two-step process to create teams:

Step 1: Random shuffle

All participants are shuffled using cryptographically secure randomness (the Web Crypto API). This ensures the order is genuinely unpredictable — no patterns, no bias, no way to game the system.

Step 2: Round-robin distribution

The shuffled participants are assigned to teams in round-robin order: person 1 goes to Team 1, person 2 to Team 2, person 3 to Team 3, and so on. When we reach the last team, we wrap around to Team 1. This continues until everyone is assigned.

This algorithm guarantees the most balanced possible distribution. With N participants and K teams, teams will have either floor(N/K) or ceil(N/K) members — a difference of at most one person per team.

Animation

When you click Start, the tool shows an animated assignment process. Each name appears in its team box with a 250ms delay, creating a visual reveal that makes the process transparent and engaging for groups watching together.

6. The Representative Feature

When "Pick Representatives" is enabled, the tool performs an additional random selection after teams are formed:

• For each team, one member is randomly chosen as the representative.
• The selection uses the same secure randomness as the shuffle — every team member has an equal chance.
• Representatives are visually highlighted with a gradient background and a crown badge (👑).

This feature is useful for:

• Team captains in sports scrimmages who make game-time decisions.
• Group spokespeople in classroom or workshop settings who present the team's work.
• Point persons in corporate exercises who coordinate with facilitators.

7. Saving and Sharing Configurations

Your Team Picker configuration — including participant names, team count, settings, and generated teams — can be saved and shared via URL.

How it works

After generating teams, your configuration is encoded in the page URL. Copy this URL to save it as a bookmark or share it with others. When someone opens the link, they see the exact same team assignments you created.

Use cases for sharing

• Teachers can generate teams and share the link with students before class.
• Event organizers can distribute team assignments to co-facilitators.
• Coaches can send practice team lists to players.

Note on shared mode

When viewing a shared configuration, editing is disabled to preserve the original team assignments. To make changes, you would need to create a new configuration from scratch.

8. Use Case: Classroom Group Projects

Teachers frequently use the Team Picker for forming student groups in a way that feels fair and avoids the social dynamics of self-selection.

Group project assignments

Enter your class roster, set the number of groups needed for the project, and click Start. Students see their assignments appear one by one, and no one can claim the teacher picked favorites.

Randomized peer review pairs

For peer review or partner work, set the number of teams equal to half your class size. Each "team" of two becomes a working pair. The random assignment prevents cliques from always working together.

Discussion groups

During class discussions, quickly divide students into breakout groups. Enable Representatives to designate a discussion leader or note-taker for each group.

9. Use Case: Sports and Athletics

Coaches and recreational sports organizers use the Team Picker to create fair teams for practices, pickup games, and leagues.

Practice scrimmages

Divide your team into two groups for practice scrimmages. The random assignment mixes players in ways that manual selection might not, creating varied matchups and learning opportunities.

Pickup games

At recreational sports events where players arrive without pre-formed teams, use the Team Picker to create instant balanced teams. The visual animation makes the process transparent and fun.

Youth league team formation

When forming teams for a season, enter all registered players and divide them evenly. The random assignment avoids accusations of stacking teams and gives every child an equal experience.

10. Use Case: Corporate Training and Workshops

Workshop facilitators and corporate trainers use the Team Picker to create breakout groups that mix departments, experience levels, and perspectives.

Breakout sessions

During workshops, quickly form groups for activities like brainstorming, case study analysis, or skill practice. Random assignment ensures cross-departmental mixing that might not happen organically.

Team-building exercises

For team-building events with games or challenges, use the Team Picker to form teams that break up existing cliques and encourage new connections.

Networking events

At conferences or networking sessions, divide attendees into small discussion groups. Enable Representatives to designate conversation facilitators for each group.

11. Tips for Fair Team Division

Get the most out of the Team Picker with these practical tips:

• Run it live with your group. Screen-share or project the Team Picker during team formation so everyone sees the random process happen. This builds trust in the fairness of assignments.
• Use Representatives for accountability. When teams need a point person, enable the Representative feature rather than asking for volunteers (which favors extroverts) or assigning manually (which can feel arbitrary).
• Accept the results. The whole point of random assignment is removing human bias. If you regenerate teams until you get a "better" result, you undermine the fairness.
• Account for constraints externally. If certain people must be together or apart, adjust your participant list before generating, or make manual swaps after. The tool is designed for simple, unbiased division.
• Save configurations for recurring needs. If you form teams regularly (weekly class activities, recurring training sessions), bookmark generated URLs for reference.

12. Related Tools

PickerKit offers other randomization tools for different use cases:

• Name Picker — Spin a wheel to select one random name from a list. Useful when you need to pick a single person rather than divide into teams.
• Number Picker — Generate a random number within a range. Great for games, lotteries, or numbered item selection.
• Yes/No Picker — A simple decision wheel for binary choices. Quick way to settle yes-or-no questions.

All tools share the same principles: instant access, no sign-up, cryptographically secure randomness, and shareable URLs.