I just got out paced by someone 10 levels under me... and my items are all at lvl 4 or 5 refinement, it seems to me initiative doesnt matter in survival trials
it should matter but it seems that the equipment with initiative stats from a cpu player is positioned exactly as how they placed it in their character but for us players our equipment seems to be randomly placed instead of following our current equipment placement. So your position 1 ninja might be wearing your other ninja's equipment with low refine level.
ye i noticed this as well your equipment is not distrubuted like you want i tried deselecting characters but it makes no difference its not th same what you equipped.