SquadBalance — Team Balancer

About

SquadBalance - Team Balancer

  Check your squad's attendance and generate balanced teams right from your browser toolbar. No need to open the full site just to see who's playing this week.

  What the extension does

  Click the icon, see your squads. Each one shows the current attendance poll: who said yes, who said no, who hasn't bothered to respond yet. When you're ready to make teams, hit the Generate Teams button and it takes you straight to the team generation page on SquadBalance.

  That's it. Quick glance, quick action, back to whatever you were doing.

  What is SquadBalance?

  If you organize pickup games, you know the drill. Somebody has to split people into teams, and it's always awkward. You either end up with lopsided games or hurt feelings. SquadBalance fixes that.

  Here's how it works:

  1. Add your players. Just names.
  2. Share a rating link with your group. Everyone rates each other 1-10, anonymously. Nobody can see who gave which rating, not even you.
  3. Before game day, send an attendance poll. Players tap yes or no.
  4. Hit generate. The app splits whoever's coming into balanced teams based on their actual skill ratings.

  The whole point is that the app picks teams, not you. No more standing around arguing about who goes where. No more someone getting picked last in front of everyone. The teams show up on screen, and you forward them to the group chat.

  Why organizers actually use this

  Nobody wants to be the person picking teams. It's a thankless job. Pick wrong and you get blamed for a blowout. Pick right and nobody notices. SquadBalance takes that off your plate entirely.

  Players rate each other honestly because it's anonymous. You share a link, they open it on their phone, rate everyone, done. They don't need to download an app or create an account. Just click and rate.

  The algorithm averages out everyone's ratings and splits players so each team's total skill is as close as possible. If you're on a paid plan, it can also balance by position, so both teams get a goalkeeper, both teams get a center, and so on.

  After teams are generated, you can share them with one link or copy the lineup to your clipboard and paste it into WhatsApp, Telegram, or wherever your group coordinates.

  Works for any sport

  Football, basketball, volleyball, hockey, ultimate frisbee, handball. If you're splitting people into two teams, it works. You pick your sport type when you create a squad, and the position options adjust accordingly.

  Attendance polls

  Before you generate teams, you need to know who's actually showing up. The attendance poll lets you send a link where players mark themselves as playing or not. You can see the responses in real time on the website, or at a glance through this extension.

  Polls are optional. Some organizers collect attendance through their group chat and just use SquadBalance for the team generation part. That works too.

  Co-admin support

  Going on vacation? Hand the keys to someone else. Co-admins can run polls, generate teams, and manage the roster while you're away. Permissions are granular, so you can give someone access to polls without letting them mess with player ratings.

  Rating links

  The rating system is the core of what makes teams fair. You generate a shareable link, send it to your group, and each player rates everyone on a scale of 1 to 10. Ratings are completely anonymous. SquadBalance uses browser fingerprinting to prevent duplicate submissions, but never links a rating back to the person who gave it.

  Links expire after 7 days and can optionally be password-protected. You can invalidate a link early if needed and generate a new one anytime.

  If not everyone submits ratings, the app still works. Players without ratings get assigned the squad's average skill level. More ratings means better balancing, but partial data is fine.

  Team generation

  One click and you get two balanced teams. The algorithm considers each player's average rating and distributes them so the skill gap between teams is minimized.

  On paid plans, you can also turn on position balancing. This makes sure each team has the right mix of positions for your sport. And if the result isn't quite right, drag and drop lets you swap players between teams manually while showing you how each swap affects the balance.

  Every generation is saved, so you can look back at past team splits if you want.

  Sharing teams

  Once teams are generated, you have a few ways to share them:
  - Copy to clipboard (formatted text, ready to paste)
  - Share via a public link (no login required to view)

  The shared link shows both teams with player names. Recipients don't need a SquadBalance account.

  Pricing

  Free: 1 squad, 30 players, 10 team generations. No credit card, no trial period.

  Pro (from 4.99/month): 1 squad, unlimited players, unlimited generations, position balancing, drag-and-drop team adjustments, view individual rating submissions, 1 co-admin.

  Unlimited (from 16.99/month): Everything in Pro with unlimited squads and unlimited co-admins.

  Annual billing saves roughly two months on both paid plans. You can cancel anytime from your account settings and keep access through the end of your billing period.

  Privacy and data

  Ratings are anonymous. All data is encrypted. We don't sell your data or share it with third parties. Player accounts aren't required. Only the organizer needs to sign up.

  About this extension

  This extension requires a SquadBalance account at squadbalance.com. It reads your existing login session to fetch squad data. No additional login is needed. If you're logged in on the website, the extension works.

  Permissions explained:
  - Cookies: Used to read your SquadBalance session for authentication
  - Host access to squadbalance.com: Required to fetch your squad and poll data

  The extension doesn't collect any data beyond what's needed to display your squads. It doesn't track browsing activity or access any other websites.

  Getting started

  1. Create a free account at squadbalance.com
  2. Set up a squad and add your players
  3. Install this extension
  4. Click the icon to see your squads and poll status

  Questions or feedback: [email protected]