---
title: "Balanced Team Picker: Random or by Skill | Local Mingle"
description: "Split players into fair teams: at random, by snake draft or balanced by skill rating, keeping chosen pairs apart. Shuffle again, copy or print the teams."
url: https://localmingle.sbs/team-picker/
---

# Balanced team picker

Paste the names, add a rating if you want the teams even, and split them into two to twelve teams at random, by snake draft or balanced by skill. Keep rivals, siblings or the two best players apart.

## Three ways to pick

- **Random:** the list is shuffled and dealt round the teams like cards, so team sizes differ by at most one.
- **Snake draft:** players are ranked by rating and picked 1, 2, 3, then 3, 2, 1, the way captains take turns, so the first team does not get all the best players.
- **Balanced:** starts from the snake draft, then swaps players between teams for as long as that narrows the gap between the strongest and weakest team.

## Ratings and pairs to keep apart

Use any rating scale where higher means stronger: 1 to 10, a club grade or a fair guess. Players without one count as the average. Teams are balanced on their rating totals, so a team with an extra player tends to get slightly weaker players. Pairs to keep apart go on different teams whenever the numbers allow, and the tool tells you when they cannot. Shuffle again for a different split under the same rules.

## Questions

**Is the random pick fair?**

Yes: the names are shuffled with the Fisher–Yates method, which makes every order equally likely, and then dealt out in turn.

**Can I keep two people together?**

Not automatically: the picker only keeps people apart. Pick the teams, then swap one of the pair across by hand.

**Are the names saved?**

Only in this browser's local storage, so next week's list is ready. Clear removes it, and nothing is uploaded.