I meet my @Splinterland doppelgänger earlier today on while battling in the @SteemMonsters arena.

Mirror Match

My opponent mirrored all of monster selections precisely (both in placement and level)

• Summoner: Lyanna Natura - Level 4
• Position #1: Flesh Golem - Level 5
• Position #2 - Earth Elemental - Level 4
• Position #3 - Wood Nymph - Level 5
• Position #4 - Magi of the Forest - Level 3

My guess is that I was battling a bot. Hey @glitterbanjo, feel free to confirm or deny.

The Wait to Reveal Team Setting

On a side note, if you go to your Settings (which is located under your Splinterlands avatar), you can toggle on/off the following: "Wait to reveal team until opponent as submitted theirs"

Pros of enabling the setting:

• this will prevent your opponent from seeing your chosen team before selecting their own
• this will prevent bots from selecting the same team that you selected

Cons of enabling the setting:

• each battle cost more resource credits
• you will not receive credit towards for your daily reward if your opponent flees the battlefield

Who Decides Which Team Starts First?

If I had not started the game I do not think I would have won. But as I watched the battle (multiple times), I realized that my monsters did not always strike first.

This is a recap of the First Round:

• My Nymph
• His Nypmh
• His Flesh Golem
• My Flesh Golem
• My Magi
• His Magi
• His Earth Elemental
• My Earth Elemental

This is a recap of the First Round:

• My Nymph
• His Nymph
• My Flesh Golem
• His Flesh Golem
• My Magi
• His Magi
• His Earth Elemental
• My Earth Element

At this point, my opponent's Flesh Golem was defeated.

This mirroring dilemma brings me to my final thought (which is actually a question).

How does Splinterlands decide which monster goes first?

If you know, please leave a comment below. Also, let me know if you have ever battled a doppelgänger SteemMonster team

Thanks for stopping by!