How to make fair teams for a quiz night

Last updated 9 October 2026

Spread the know-alls, keep friends together where it helps, and get everyone sitting down quickly.

Why quiz teams go wrong

Left alone, the regulars sit together and win every week, and newcomers sit together and lose. It’s fun for one table. Mixing the teams makes a closer quiz, and it’s friendlier for people who came on their own.

What to spread

  • Quiz experience. Ask people how often they quiz, or rate themselves from 1 to 5, and balance it.
  • Specialists. Spread the sports fan, the music buff and the film expert, so every team has a chance on every round.
  • Age, if your crowd is mixed. Questions about the 1980s and about this year’s charts favour different people.

When to keep people together

Not everyone wants to be split up. Couples who came for a night out, or a friend who only came because someone else did, should usually stay together. Keep those pairs together and balance the rest around them. Everyone else can be mixed.

Get everyone sitting down quickly

  • Have people join on their phones as they arrive.
  • Make the teams a few minutes before you start, and put them on the screen with a colour and a name, so each table can be found.
  • Late arrivals? Add them to the team with the fewest people.

Doing it with Draftastic

  1. Start a draft for an event, and set the number of tables.
  2. Add a number question for quiz experience and a choice question for “What’s your strongest round?”.
  3. Put the join code on the screen. People join as they arrive.
  4. Choose Deal: Draftastic balances experience and spreads the specialists. Add “Keep together” for any pairs, or say so in words.
  5. Show the tables on the big screen. Everyone’s phone tells them where to sit.

Try it

Draftastic is free. You can start a draft without an account, and people join on their phones with a code.

Start a draft