User blog comment:Ranger-X/Re: New Shadow Ops Prizes/@comment-6969786-20140903071641

You only get medals when you finish a tier in a Phase and you already have all the prizes in that tier.

For instance I have all 4 Tier 1 prizes already so every Phase when I finish Tier one I get the 10 medals instead. But if you still don't have all the 4 prizes for that tier  ( or 3 like tier 4 last Cycle ) then you will aways get the prize.