spy30/app/Http/Controllers/TeamController.php

<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use DB, Twitter;
use \App\Player, \App\Team;

class TeamController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * Create a new controller instance.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->middleware('auth');
    }

    private static function colors() {
        return [
            'e6194b' => 'Red',
            '3cb44b' => 'Green',
            'ffe119' => 'Yellow',
            '0082c8' => 'Blue',
            'f58231' => 'Orange',
            '911eb4' => 'Purple',
            '46f0f0' => 'Cyan',
            'f032e6' => 'Magenta',
            'd2f53c' => 'Lime',
            'fabebe' => 'Pink',
            '008080' => 'Teal',
            'e6beff' => 'Lavender',
            'aa6e28' => 'Brown',
            'fffac8' => 'Beige',
            '800000' => 'Maroon',
            'aaffc3' => 'Mint',
            '808000' => 'Olive',
            'ffd8b1' => 'Coral',
            '000080' => 'Navy',
            '808080' => 'Grey',
        ];
    }

    /**
     * Show the application dashboard.
     *
     * @return \Illuminate\Http\Response
     */
    public function index()
    {
        $teams = Team::all();

        $unassigned = Player::where('team_id', 0)->get();

        return view('teams', [
            'teams' => $teams,
            'unassigned' => $unassigned,
        ]);
    }

    public function create_team()
    {
        // Get list of current used colors
        $teams = DB::table('teams')->pluck('name')->toArray();
        $color_names = array_values(self::colors());
        $available = array_diff($color_names, $teams);

        if(count($available)) {
            $next = array_shift($available);

            $colors = array_flip(self::colors());

            $team = new \App\Team;
            $team->name = $next;
            $team->color = $colors[$next];
            $team->save();

            return $next;
        } else {
            return "";
        }
    }

    public function add_player(Request $request) 
    {
        try {
            // Look up the user ID
            $profile = Twitter::getUsers(['screen_name' => trim($request->input('twitter'), '@')]);

            // Follow the specified user
            Twitter::postFollow(['user_id' => $profile->id_str]);

            $player = Player::where('twitter_user_id', $profile->id_str)->first();
            if(!$player) {
                $player = new Player;
                $player->twitter_user_id = $profile->id;
            }
            $player->team_id = $request->input('team');
            $player->name = $profile->name;
            $player->twitter = $profile->screen_name;
            $player->photo = $profile->profile_image_url_https;
            $player->save();

            return response()->json(['player'=>$player]);
        } catch(\Exception $e) {
            return response()->json(['error'=>$e->getMessage()]);
        }
    }

    public function remove_player()
    {

    }
}