Team Dating: The Latest Craze
By Lisa Daily

We've got the secret for more fun online dates, with less lying and better safety. Is it Red Bull spiked with truth serum?  No, it's team dating, the latest and greatest in online dating.

Instead of the usual online hookup for two, team daters date in teams. Two or three of my closest pals set up a group date with two or three of yours. Here's why we think team dating is a fabulous idea:

Safety in Numbers

Instead of meeting a complete stranger for drink all alone, you'll meet a throng of complete strangers, accompanied by your closest friends. Plus, there are no worries about driving home alone -- you know your pals will make certain you get home safely.

No Faux-tos (a.k.a Fake Photos)

Your date's friends will keep him honest. He's far less likely to post a photo of himself when he was 20 pounds lighter with significantly more hair and fewer wrinkles if he knows that his friends (and yours!) will call him on it at the moment of truth, when you all meet up for the first time. The threat of public humiliation is a fine tool to keep us all walking the straight line.

To Tell the Truth

In the same vein, the great thing about dating someone in front of their friends is that it keeps them honest. No remaking his two-year stint as a ball boy in the seventh grade for the Hickory Crawdads into a near-miss career as a major league pitcher. No glossing over that seven-year employment gap as a period of reflection to write a novel/live with Buddhist monks/join the Peace Corps if it was really just chronic laziness in the form of one bad pizza-flipping gig after another.

Testimonial

"Team dating takes the anxiety out of dating. If you're a listener rather than a talker, it's really helpful to have other people there," explains Elizabeth, a team dating practitioner and fan.

"It takes a lot of the pressure off a regular dating situation.  There's never a lull in conversation, because you have five other people there to pick up the slack. Plus you won't get stuck with a guy who might be a psycho. On the downside," she laughs, "you might end up with three."

Why Is This Catching On So Quickly?

Frankly, its way more fun than regular online dating. If your date turns out to be a dud, you can still have a fabulous time hanging out with your friends. Plus, you won't have to worry about dishing the details of your date-gone-wrong the next day over margaritas; your closest pals will be there to witness the crash-and-burn firsthand. Plus, team dating eliminates most of the concerns that crop up in regular online dating: safety and honesty.

While some sites are suggesting daters register as teams, I think this is where the concept falls apart. Say you pick out a cutie online, then, you have to talk your team into dating the rest of his or her team. The chances of six or eight of you matching up like sweater sets from Talbots is pretty damned slim.

So how do you partake in team dating without forcing your dearest friends into a triple-wingman formation? You and three of your buddies pick out your own dates online, and meet up at a single location, say the bowling alley or a local watering hole for your date for eight.

At worst, your date will be a social experiment gone wrong.  At best, you and your teammates may find you've all hit a home run.

Now, that's major league dating.