It says Winter Soldier will be featured in the first round on Caps side and War Machine will be featured on IMs side on the second run through. Since most people won’t have either of them covered as well as older characters wouldn’t it make sense to avoid having to use them?
Even if WS is still featured on Caps side in the second run, at least you’re avoiding needing War Machine when fighting Cap.
Does anyone know if the rewards will be the same for the sides between the first and second run?
Since you’ll have use of your entire roster, I’d be surprised if you would need to have Winter Soldier be that strong at all for his required node. Unless you have a very shallow roster, I’d have to think the other two characters you choose should be strong enough to handle whatever that node throws at you.
The devs also said that WS won’t be a required character until the late rounds of the CW event so you can still likely finish it without him.
everyone will be on iron man team just for hulkbuster covers who wants falcon covers… hears the sad weeps of falcon that noone loves him 
Here is the question for high end alliances do you go after the 1 winter soldier cover or do you take the 3 champion level HB covers which will be ISO and CP? If you sell the falcon covers you get 3k ISO is 2-4 CP that big of a deal in the long run compared to a 1-80 chance at the new 4*?
for me, buffed hulkbuster alone is the best sole reason to go team im, even though all my hb covers would go to champ levels. also my preference is to get 5* im over 5* cap.
winter soldier in the cap vault and the fact i “need” two crapfalc is the only reason to go team cap, but i still think i am inclined to do team im both runs.
Does featured mean the same as essential?
The wording of the statement says winter soldier and war machine will be featured characters. It does not say essential.
In dev speak, featured typically equals essential. Notice there are separate lists of “featured” and “powered up.”
They should have done the Civil War event only for only 1 team at a time.
So first a Cap event and the 2nd the IM event or vice versa.
Are there players who will play for team IM in both events?
For me the reward/goal are not those HB covers(of course I want and need them) but the 5* Cap and IM.
Yeah if you think you won’t get that 5* cover it’s smart to only play team IM 
Being forced to pick a side is kinda the point of Civil War. If there’s only one side for each run then the thematic value drops significantly.
And providing player choice should never be discouraged. The trick is balancing rewards to make both sides attractive.
I think a lot of the truly high end alliances will start on Team Cap - aim to complete that ASAP and then try to climb as high as they can on Team IM side because having boosted HB to call on when you are stuck in R8 hitting Cap to try to claim as many of the Team IM rewards as possible will be a godsend