Thanks Edge! Yes, to me, randomness is what I'm looking for to keep things as fair as possible. Using the league randomizer or shuffler also helps take ME out of the equation, somewhat.
Looking ahead, because we only have a 5-7 day window to enter a team, I might try just going with a "first come, first served" sign-up for Event 2. Because you only have the choice of playing on one or two start dates, you can't afford to wait
too long to join a league. And the league randomizer will give any 12 managers a fair shuffle besides.
We'll see...at this point I've actually already heard from several no-shows who have every intention of getting in as soon as they can...let's see how things sit come Thursday.