See, the thing is, I don't think a coin toss is an "equal" chance, because if in the shuffle of things a Gym Leader went up against a player with a severe level or type disadvantage, or vice versa, short of an amazingly good strategy and a lot of luck, you'd have a clear winner, all things being, well, equal. I personally don't think there's likely to be too much of an issue of powerplaying from the mods--I mean, it's sure not a problem with gym battles, obviously--and giving players a chance to give their feedback DOES give them a fair shot at things.

That, and when it comes to playing out or even handwaving battles, it's a whole lot easier to do if there HAS been some discussion (even if said discussion ends in a coinflip to determine who lucks out at the very last turn in the end!) to get a general idea of how the battle goes down. So if it could even be an opt-in thing, like having a these_guys comment in this post for people with matchups against gym leaders to reply to or something that would probably work best, in my opinion.