Waste of time games due to poor matching algorithm

[wrldtrvllr]

On Splendor, I currently have an Elo rating that hovers in the low 100s. Clearly, I am not very good at it. I have set it up so that supposedly I'm only OK with playing opponents at my level. And yet, I just got given an opponent with Elo 584, who is 42nd overall. It does not take a genius to imagine that it was a waste of time for both of us. And this is not an isolated experience - I am regularly being given opponents with whom I cannot possibly have a good game. Something seems seriously amiss with the matching algorithm. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Silene]

Arena is not the right place for you then. It doesn't (and shouldn't) take ELO / strength of the player into account. You should play simple game instead - then you can restrict by ELO (rather than arena-rank). Of course that doesn't completely eliminate the possibility of a strong but underrated player ends up in your game - but it should happen less often than in arena.

[RicardoRix]

I believe in you wrldtrvllr, take down the experts.
Every game you lose there is an opportunity to learn something, so you'll always gain more than them in the game.

[Ze Monstah]

[qwertasdfg]

To add to what everyone else has said:

The option to only play opponents in your own arena-league doesn't work. It's been broken from the start. I don't know why the button is still there pretending it can be chosen

[wrldtrvllr]

Yes, I could play simple games, but surely the whole point of a league system is to match players of roughly similar ability. This could in fact be a Splendor-specific problem, as I rarely if ever seem to get matched against players of radically different ability in other games I play. But if the "opponent's level" setting has no effect at all on arena games, it would be nice for that to be made clear in the UI.

[Yasten]

Opponents' level settings is actually different, it won't prevent high ELOs. In Arena opponents' level setting is related to the comparison to your league, it can be restricted by just setting non "my league" options to "I never want to play with"... If THAT doesn't work then that's perhaps a BGA bug. If there is already a bug report about that, upvoting it might be the only way to fix that.

[qwertasdfg]

Lol, no. Upvotes don't fix bugs.

Seeing how many bug reports there are four the main page, it would be very hard to even gain visibility with upvotes

[steve5332]

To add to what everyone else has said:

The option to only play opponents in your own arena-league doesn't work. It's been broken from the start. I don't know why the button is still there pretending it can be chosen

I've never had a problem with restricting opponent levels. If you go into advanced options on any given game you can restrict to playing opponents in your league only. Granted, if you are playing turn based there is a chance that your opponent could get promoted before the game completes but you will be in the same league when it starts. As others have said, Elo is irrelevant when it comes to Arena. Elo is a measure of your success over a long period of time, while arena is a measure of your success that season. Under the covers there is a separate Elo tracked for the arena season and everyone starts at 1500 each season regardless of the league they start in. This rating is only shown once you reach elite.

[qwertasdfg]

To add to what everyone else has said:

The option to only play opponents in your own arena-league doesn't work. It's been broken from the start. I don't know why the button is still there pretending it can be chosen

I've never had a problem with restricting opponent levels. If you go into advanced options on any given game you can restrict to playing opponents in your league only. Granted, if you are playing turn based there is a chance that your opponent could get promoted before the game completes but you will be in the same league when it starts. As others have said, Elo is irrelevant when it comes to Arena. Elo is a measure of your success over a long period of time, while arena is a measure of your success that season. Under the covers there is a separate Elo tracked for the arena season and everyone starts at 1500 each season regardless of the league they start in. This rating is only shown once you reach elite.

No you can't. That was my whole point. You can toggle some buttons to suggest to only play opponents of your league, but it doesn't work.
And no, it's not a turn based issue, either. Happens in real time all the time, exactly how op described it. You're just starting, try to get other beginners or the occasional pro who just joined arena. But even with those settings, as a bronze league member, you're constantly pitted against elite leaguers.

Actually, I think it's really funny that you never saw that if you do restrict the leagues like you say you do.
It doesn't work and (as far as I know) it never did.
Try it out for yourself, in a game that isn't as highly frequented as can't stop or whatever