random 4 team generator4 teams

Four teams: the classic tournament size

Four is the number that makes a small tournament work: enough teams for a real competition, few enough that everyone plays everyone in one afternoon. This page opens on Make 4 teams. Paste the list, press the button, and the names are dealt round the four teams like cards. Twenty players give four teams of five; twenty-two give two teams of six and two of five.

Running a four-team tournament

The round-robin schedule below fits on a whiteboard: six games over three rounds, with two games at once if you have two courts or tables. After the round robin, either crown the team with the most points, or play a final between the top two and a third-place game between the others. A quicker option is straight knockout: two semifinals, then a final, three games in total.

Other uses for four groups

• Sports day houses. Many schools split pupils into four houses that collect points all day. Shuffle the list once and keep the result for the year.
• Quiz night. Four tables are easy for one host to score and to hear.
• Four corners. Each team starts in a corner of the room with its own task, then rotates clockwise.
• Workshop breakouts. Four groups report back in a reasonable time; more than that and the debrief drags.

Copy the teams before the next shuffle

Each press of Make teams forgets the previous result. Press Copy first if you want to keep the teams, then paste them in an email or onto a slide. Team numbers are random too, so they can double as the tournament draw: Team 1 plays Team 4 in the first round, just as the schedule shows.

A bigger event? 8 teams covers a full knockout bracket. For small table groups of four people, use groups of 4.