How to use
- 1List each pot’s teams one per line, with an empty line between pots.
- 2Add a country or tag in brackets, e.g. “Arsenal (ENG)”.
- 3Set the number of groups and the max teams with the same tag per group.
- 4Click “Make the draw”; tick “Reveal the draw one by one” for a live-style draw, then copy the result.
How the draw works
Pots are emptied in order: Pot 1’s teams are drawn in random order, then Pot 2, and so on. Each team drawn goes into the first group (A, B, C…) that satisfies the restrictions and still leaves a valid way to place every remaining team. That look-ahead is the same idea behind the computer-assisted draws used in big European competitions, and it means you never get stuck with a team that has nowhere to go in the last pot.
Keeping same-country teams apart
The tag in brackets can be a country, a city, a school or a company. With the rule switched on, no group can hold more teams with the same tag than the limit you set. The tool backtracks through the possibilities and warns you if no valid draw exists – for example, three English teams and only two groups make a limit of 1 impossible, so you would need to raise it to 2.
For club, school and office tournaments
The number of pots usually equals the number of teams per group: 16 teams in 4 groups means four pots of four. Use tags to keep two teams from the same club, year group or department out of the same group. The draw runs entirely in your browser and is freshly randomised every time you click.
Frequently asked questions
What is a pot draw?
Teams are split into pots by strength and each group gets one team from each pot, so the strongest sides don’t end up in the same group.
Do all pots need the same number of teams?
No. If a pot has fewer teams than there are groups, some groups simply get nobody from that pot; if it has more, its teams are spread as evenly as possible across the groups.
Is the draw random and fair?
Yes. The order within each pot is shuffled with your browser’s random number generator, so the same settings give a different result each time.
Can I show the draw live on a stream or projector?
Tick “Reveal the draw one by one” and teams drop into their groups pot by pot, roughly every half second – handy for screen sharing at a team meeting or awards night.
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