The rules say: When both players have the same points, then you determine randomly (e.g. coin toss), who has the initiative. You DON'T determine randomly, who CHOOSES to have or not have the initiative.

By the way: The storecampionship coin is great as a coin toss coin and as an initiative token.

Except when you do, because really, it makes zero difference equalling out to a 50% chance to either have or not have initiative.

I guess I just have a hard time caring, and prefer winning a coin toss to be a benefit rather than "Oh **** I won the toss".

That said, the championship coin is awesome for both initiative and the coin toss.

We've also started using it in campaign. When the coin is on the Rebel side they make decisions and do their turn, when it flips, no changes can be made and the Imperial turn has started, rinse and repeat.

It takes care of those "Wait wait, you haven't activated yet, can I just..." scenarios.

We play: You win the toss, you don't get the initiative. Then it's not "Oh **** I won the toss".

We play: You win the toss, you don't get the initiative. Then it's not "Oh **** I won the toss".

What I'm saying is that the end result is functionally identical, so the particulars fall under "Don't care" for the most part.

I can't think of many scenarios where I want initiative on the first turn.

I really doesn't matter how you determine this, as long as it is a 50/50 shot at one player gaining initiative at the start of the game.

Note: There is no CHOICE in the random determination. You're not [randoming] to determine who makes a decision about initiative.

And functionally, if you add a choice into the mix, it absolutely makes the difference. You cannot assume that everyone doesnt want initiative the first turn. Remember that the person who wins the initiative also gets choice of which deployment zone to take, and that makes a huge difference.

You're not [randoming] to determine who makes a decision about initiative.

Watch me.

In all seriousness though, it's just a quirk in my local area left over from most of our players coming from Armada.

Going to switch to non-choosing to see how that affects our Skirmishes.

Randomly giving one player initiative is functionally the same as randomly letting one player choose not to have initiative. It just feels bad because one has a feeling of agency and the other a feeling of helplessness.

The inelegance comes for people like me who switch from x-wing, it can be confusing.