At the Michigan GT 2 years ago I did Highly Classified and at the start of the mission announced the 4 primary classifieds. Worked quite well.
We've always played it as written locally but have played at events where they were preselected. At this point you can have an ITS where a mission is "Custom" so why not, not like the ITS is some iron clad test of skill.
We had Highly Classified at our recent tournament - Extreme Mode and Hard Mode. Two Players drew the 4 Cards and those 4 missions were played on every table. I think the outcome (in Obj. Points) is more comparable than the outcome of individual draws. There were no complains about the two-draw-for-everyone-procedure...
Exactly, and about the Hard Mode... -.- Jokes aside, picking them right before the mission seems to be the way, we all expected it to be. They gave it a thumbs up. Two players didn't like all the unnecessary complications, two liked them and two were indifferent between the two modes.
Picking ahead of the event allows list tailoring that is against the spirit if the mission - take a fucking MI, a visor, an elite trooper and one of each specialist - literally every faction can do this (To one degree of optimization or another, but that's the point of divergent factions). There is literally no difference statistically between picking one set of classifieds for X tables or each table selecting their own objectives - either you can accomplish the objectives drawn or you can't, it doesn't matter who draws them. Highly classified is a great mission.
We have done this at large events for a few reasons, and it was approved by @HellLois at the time as a legal solution to some problems that come along with bigger tournaments. This was Gencon I think 2016 or 2017, so we were using the old decks, which had a much wider variance in faction favor than the current deck does. Since bullet 3 below was the major driver, I don't think I would do this again, unless our play space and time were very very tight (bullet 2) It's sometimes tricky to have 4 cards per table laid out without people getting their cards mixed up. Minor, but does cause irritating problems when someone discovers in the next round that their deck was had an extra copy of Telemetry in it and someone else discovers they were missing Sabotage, etc etc. Time is always a factor and taking even a few minutes of card drawing and analysis paralysis out of the mix is a boon for any tournament. The large amount of unopposed points in HC can make fairness tricky to manage. Having a standard set of 4 objectives that every table will play ensures that you don't have a top table playing 4 difficult objectives and a second table racking up a high OP score with 4 easy objectives. 1 very important note: As the TO I drew the cards in secret before the event, and they were kept secret until the round was paired.
In France, there is some kind of respect of the sanctity about ITS and we follow it as religiously as we can. Yes, this mission can be easier for some armies but if you choose a second one that is easy for those that have difficulties with HC, only luck and skill will make the real difference. What I love in HC is that it tests you about how you can manage to win even when things can be hard for you. A lot of classified rely on Veteran/Elite troops or CoC so having a Engineer/Paramedic/Doctor/FO/Hacker with this classification already cover you more than the half of the classified. And what I love with the new classified is that it forces you to play with your opponent while the old ones where giving so much credit to lists that just refused to play with their opponent during the active turn and could be sometimes frustrating.
The only problem I personally have with highly classified is two cards: test run and experimental drug. The issue I have with them is that it wants your own people to get hurt. This means that jumping up to break your own ankle is something that this scenario leads you to want to do, which is a bad thing imho.
