Most of the time, the player that falls on it first starts out with a huge advantage. That is judging by how the meter starts out anyways, its almost always off to one side or the other. So in essence, when it starts the ball has already been recovered by someone, and the other has to try and pull it from them, which I have yet to be seen done in any online game.
My turbo controller is in the mail, so it won't be a problem here in a few days