Arena: Consistently playing against much lower ranked opponents

[Mr_Hyd3]

It is my understanding that arena tries to match you into games based on skill level. However, I keep getting matched against opponents who have significantly lower arena rank and elo than me.

For reference, in Azul I am currently Elite with 1793 points with 574 elo. I constantly get matched against bronze, silver and gold players, many who have elo in the 100s. This leads to majority wins that give me barely any points/elo and the occasional loss that loses me a bunch of elo.

More importantly tho, it leads to uninteresting games that likely aren't great for either party to play. From my perspective, I don't get as much experience playing against better players so I don't improve as much, and frankly, it isn't much fun easily beating new/inexperienced players.

Is there any specific reason for this? Is it just because of who is available at the time? Do I just have a misunderstanding of how arena matchmaking works?

[redeemedmonkeycma]

I do not have your same understanding regarding matching at the same skill level. Do you have a link to something that states that?

[Toma122]

It is my understanding that arena tries to match you into games based on skill level. However, I keep getting matched against opponents who have significantly lower arena rank and elo than me.

For reference, in Azul I am currently Elite with 1793 points with 574 elo. I constantly get matched against bronze, silver and gold players, many who have elo in the 100s. This leads to majority wins that give me barely any points/elo and the occasional loss that loses me a bunch of elo.

More importantly tho, it leads to uninteresting games that likely aren't great for either party to play. From my perspective, I don't get as much experience playing against better players so I don't improve as much, and frankly, it isn't much fun easily beating new/inexperienced players.

Is there any specific reason for this? Is it just because of who is available at the time? Do I just have a misunderstanding of how arena matchmaking works?

You can set your matchmaking only to match yourself with experts, are you doing that?

[Gulchen]

Have you checked ​ Latest results ​ to see whether there are people playing in Arena who aren't much lower ranked?

[Mr_Hyd3]

I do not have your same understanding regarding matching at the same skill level. Do you have a link to something that states that?

I guess I just assumed arena would do that, I suppose maybe that isn't how it works though.

You can set your matchmaking only to match yourself with experts, are you doing that?

I did not know this was an option, thanks for the info!

Have you checked ​ Latest results ​ to see whether there are people playing in Arena who aren't much lower ranked?

There are plenty of people on the ladder above me, and plenty below me in Elite. When the season reset I seemed to be playing against a lot of people in my same bracket as I moved up, including in Elite. Maybe people play less once they hit it. I haven't checked Latest Results, did not realize that was a thing either lol.

Anyway, thanks for the responses everyone.

[nik592]

Standard matching is based on who is available I believe (and your opponents preferences).

If you want something different, you can adjust this by the settings in the Play Now screen (old lobby) - each game has a little cog next to it where you can set (among other things) the level of the players you want to play. I think there is still a degree of availability in there, as some people have complained that they still get matches that don't line up with settings. The other point is there are a number of options for player level - these correspond to the Arena level you are currently in, not your ELO as some people think. In games where there is only Bronze -> Elite, then playing +1/-1 from your level when you're Elite will still have you matching with Bronze level players.