What map is it?

Go on your newspaper and click rewards (under the point counts), check the solo victory gold amount and check the coalition victory gold amount (at the very bottom of the rewards)

When you get a solo win you get a lot of gold as reward. If you're in a coalition it's split evenly between you and your allies. I feel like others don't say it often but as a player who got gold from surviving long enough in some games this should be shared with others. You don't need to win all the time to get gold like if you are able to survive at the end of the game you get gold as reward even if you aren't in the top 3. In this case you will get the solo win with a lot of gold and the second player you have talked about will get second place and gold. I hope this helps other players including new players.

Second place pays better than coalition so which is more important, Gold or a coalition win?

Honestly that is a very tricky question to answer i say it depends on the person. Some people consider gold more important than a coalition win or a solo win. Me personally i would consider the coalition win more important than gold. But like i said it depends on the person.

Exactly!