History Main / FirstPlayerAdvantageMitigation

* ''TabletopGame/CardfightVanguard'': The first player typically reaches Grade 3 before their opponent (gaining access to their ace card and the ability to drive check two cards instead of one), and despite the rule that the first player cannot attack on their first turn, the game has struggled to effectively balance this. For example, later editions of the game allowed the second player to draw twice, and limited the use of certain abilities if your opponent's Vanguard was not Grade 3. However, this means there are some decks which ''prefer'' to go second: most notably, Stride decks want to go second because they cannot Stride to Grade 4 if their opponent's Vanguard is not Grade 3, so going second allows them to ''immediately'' pull out the big guns by going straight from Grade 2 to 3 to 4 in one turn. Eventually, the game changed the rules so that instead of determining the first player randomly, the player who wins a rock-paper-scissors match can choose whether to go first or second.

* ''TabletopGame/CardfightVanguard'': The first player cannot attack on the first turn. This is important as this means that the second player gets to attack with their Vanguard, who gets to do a Driver Trigger Check by flipping over the top card of their deck which then goes to their hand. This gets balanced out a bit as the first turn player (assuming all goes well) gets to Grade 3 first, and thus gets to Twin Drive and thus evens out their potential hand by the time the Grade 3 battles begin. The designers attempted to mitigate it further by enforcing that Legion and Stride can only be done if both players were at Grade 3, though this caused different problems. They also attempted to limit abilities of Grade 3 units by either limiting abilities if your unit does not have another copy of itself or if your opponent hasn't reached Grade 3 themselves. ''[=OverDress=]'' addressed this by allowing you to draw another card if you went second.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Azul}}'', the player who takes the first player tile starts the round, but the tile gives them -1 point, in addition to filling one space of broken tiles, meaning they are more likely to lose additional points if not careful.

* In ''TabletopGame/YuGiOhRushDuel'', in addition to lacking a turn 1 Battle Phase like the original ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'', the player going first starts with 4 cards in their hand while the player going second starts with 5.

* ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'': The first player can't conduct their Battle Phase on their first turn, as they would otherwise get a nigh-unavoidable shot at their opponent's LP. It turned out that the game still had a considerable first-player advantage, so as of the Master Rules 3, the first player's first turn also lacks the draw step. In practice however, the player going second can gain a tremendous advantage since they're able to respond to the first player's setup - especially since that monster removal traps have largely fallen out of favor in the meta, and "hand traps" (Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring most notable among them) can be played during either player's turn and disrupt a first turn player's setup. Worse, if the Speed Duel format is being followed, starting hands begin at 4 cards per player, which can handicap the first turn player that has to start with said paltry hand and doesn't even get to decide whether to go first or second [[UnluckilyLucky if they win the coin toss]] and they run a deck that benefits more from going second.

* ''TabletopGame/TwilightStruggle'': USSR moves first in the setup. USA therefore can form a response opening to the USSR. In addition, the computer version supports bidding to chose a side, thus someone wanting to play USSR can take a handicap as well.

* Parodied in Creator/ProZD's "learning all the steps in a card game". The first player is learning the game, so the other player is telling him about all the phases... only to then tell him he has to skip most of them because he's the first player.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Tokaido}}'' episode of ''WebVideo/TableTop'', the players [[HouseRule modify the existing rule on 1st player advantage]] so that the player going first has to give the player going last one coin. This result's in [[Creator/WilWheaton Wil's]] character, the StarvingArtist Hiroshige (who normally starts with 3 coins) having to pay [[Creator/JAugustRichards J's]] character, the wealthy samurai Kinko (who normally starts with 7), leading to quips about Kinko being the 1%.

* In American Football, the team that wins the toss gets the choice of whether to get first possession. Assuming they choose to go first (most do) the other team picks which goal to defend. Depending on the direction and strength of the wind this can be significant. Sometimes teams defer choosing whether to receive or kick to the second half as well, in which case the other team chooses whether to kick or receive in the first half to even the odds.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Tokaido}}'' episode of ''WebVideo/TableTop'', the players have a HouseRule that the player going first has to give the player going last one coin, as a way to balance the advantage and disadvantage of their respective positions. This result's in [[Creator/WilWheaton Wil's]] character, the StarvingArtist Hiroshige (who normally starts with 3 coins) having to pay [[Creator/JAugustRichards J's]] character, the wealthy samurai Kinko (who normally starts with 7), leading to quips about Kinko being the 1%.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shadowverse}}'': The player going second gets to use an additional Evolve (which enhances a follower card and gives them bonus stats and the ability to attack a follower on the turn it's summoned) and it's unlocked one turn earlier than for the other player.

[[folder:Sports]]
* In American Football, the team that wins the toss gets the choice of whether to get first possession. Assuming they choose to go first (most do) the other team picks which goal to defend. Depending on the direction and strength of the wind this can be significant. Sometimes teams defer choosing whether to receive or kick to the second half as well, in which case the other team chooses whether to kick or receive in the first half to even the odds.
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[[folder:Trading Card Games]]