Advanced Team Selection Scenarios
This page collects Team Shake’s most common team-selection scenarios and exactly which options to set for each. Most of these options can be combined, but a few combinations don’t make sense together (for example, “even numbers of males and females” and “males-only / females-only” are mutually exclusive) — see the notes under each scenario.
Options overview
| Scenario | Balance Team Strengths | Balance Male/Female | Separate Male/Female | Balance alternates | Equal Ability Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams balanced by player strength | On (default) | Off (default) | Off (default) | Off (default) | Off (default) |
| Keeping players together / apart | On or Off | On or Off | On or Off | On or Off | On or Off |
| Even males and females per team | Off | On | Off (default) | On or Off | Off (default) |
| Male-only and female-only teams | On or Off | Off (default) | On | On or Off | On or Off |
| Equal-ability groups | Off | Off (default) | On or Off | Off (default) | On |
| Balanced teams with alternates | On (default) | Off (default) | Off (default) | On | Off (default) |
Bold marks the option that must differ from the default for that scenario; everything else can stay at its default unless you’re deliberately combining scenarios.
Teams balanced by player strength (“Fair Teams”)
Enable Balance Team Strengths (on by default) and leave the other team-selection options at their defaults. Then set each member’s strength — see Getting Started. Combining this with other scenarios is possible, but you’ll no longer have strictly “fair” teams.
Keeping players together or apart (“Buddies” and “Enemies”)
Give players the same subteam number to force them onto the same team — useful for golf foursomes where someone brings a friend, for example — or the same oppose team number to keep them apart, useful for separating students who don’t work well together. Each player can have one subteam number and one oppose-team number at once. If the numbers can’t all be satisfied, Team Shake warns you and does its best.
Even numbers of males and females per team (“Fair boy/girl teams”)
Enable Balance Male / Female and leave other team-selection options off. This can’t be combined with balanced strength. Set each member’s gender, then generate teams as usual.
Male-only and female-only teams
Enable Separate Male / Female. This can’t be combined with “Balance Male / Female,” but can be combined with any other option. Males and females are split first, then every other enabled option is applied separately within each group — e.g. two males and two females sharing a subteam number end up as two same-gender pairs, not one mixed team of four.
Equal-ability groups (members playing amongst themselves)
Enable Equal Ability Teams, with all other team-selection options off except optionally “Separate Male / Female.” This creates groups of similar-strength players who compete or cooperate among themselves — for example, splitting a gym class into a “strong” group, a “normal” group, and a “weak” group, rather than mixing strengths across opposing teams. Set each member’s strength as with balanced teams.
Balanced teams with alternates
When a team has an extra player who substitutes in rather than playing continuously, that extra player isn’t really an “advantage” the way it is in the default balancing model. Enable Balance Alternates together with Balance Team Strengths, and teams are balanced by average member strength instead of total team strength.