Shuffle players before game starts, that way red always starts

That would be double-edged, keeping people from playing their favorite colors, and keeping colorblind people from playing a color they can distinguish well. I like purple for matching my avatar, for instance.

Though you point about consistancy of picking out whose first is good. First turn is sharp on reaction / analysis time currently.

let the players pick the colour they want at the begining of a match maybe a better idea