Determining Simultaneous Charge Winner

Last night, playing as a Tank, I noticed that several times I was charging at an assault (using the Charge skill) and then he would use his charge skill and I would take the damage and get knocked off the map. I'm wondering how the winner is determined between two classes with the charge skill if they both charge each other.

Is it whoever has the higher skill level?
Who charges first?
Who counters with a charge?

Halo went through this with the big 'simultaneous melee' issues. I would just like some reasoning behind how the game determines the winner of this scenario so I can adjust my play style if needed. There is nothing more frustrating than doing a level 3 charge at an Assault only to be yanked out of your charge animation and be flying off the map.

I feel like the assault always wins with his grapple

I've found tank beats assault if tank is also level 3, though. The assault seems to be knocked down before he can 'grab' the tank.

It's a combination of latency and who charged second, I believe. Naturally if their charge hits you on their screen, but not on yours due too latency, it's going to look fishy to them when suddenly your counter charge rocks them. Hell, maybe you only thought you charged first because it lagged and delayed their charge?

Anything can happen over the internet.

Any way we can get a dev to weigh-in and shed some light on this? It happened again last night a few times and I'm at a loss for a consistent reason.

The way it's supposed to work is by chassis. Lights get beat by mediums which get beat by Heavies.

So, if a Tank and Assault charge, the Tank wins. If an Assassin lunges at an Assault, the assault wins. If two Tanks, Assaults or Assassins lunge at each other they bounce off without doing damage.

Now, there are a lot of instances where due to internet lag it might not seem like it works this way. The host may not get the message soon enough that you're charging and you may lose because according to the host, you are not charging.

Not that really any more confirmation is needed on the point but yeah, I've noticed more and more often that I can't beat Tank, Assaults cancel out and Assassins drop dead.

???

It seems tank ALWAYS losses with his B, I had Snipers, and Assassins Grap me out of it. Maybe it is a latency thing, but I always though it was by priority...
Assault
Assassin
Sniper
Tank
Support
WHO THE F USES THE GUNNER GRAP?

Thanks for the clarification but I have to say I've rarely, if ever, seen it work this way. When I was playing Assault there was never an instance of 'bouncing off another Assault' and same with Tanks. Last night on LazorRazer I was having a Tank war with the other team and after more than half a dozen simultaneous charges there was never a bounce. I won some and he won some. Is there any way of addressing this in the net or game code? It gets pretty frustrating and your clarification only makes it worse since I see that I should win a majority of the charge battles as a Tank.

Close range causes the most issues with charging, you can go to charge and be grappled at the same time. It looks quite amusing when an assassin front grapples you with a sword and you're a flaming meteorite for the duration of the grapple. What Scathis said would cover the grapple issue with charging, also.

'The host may not get the message soon enough that you're charging and you may lose because according to the host, you are not charging.'

I understand the reason it happens but it seems like a big flaw for a core component. I understand that there will always be lag/latency issues, especially with P2P games, but when Halo encountered a similar situation with simultaneous melee attacks they addressed it. It still isn't perfect and it never will be but it is still better.