Question about the rating system.

[Robarkson]

In the Arena there are players with ratings over 1800, Viv- is the highest at 1899, and yet if you toggle to the "All-Time" list the highest is Nallerheim at 848. What is the difference and which is the "real" rating?

[Kaa-]

The arena rating refers to a game modality in BGA that is season-based. Each arena season lasts 3 months and there is a ranking for players who choose to play in this modality, with a rating specific to the Arena. In parallel to this, there is the BGA ELO, which is independent of arena mode and is valid for both games within the arena system and outside. This BGA ELO, unlike the arena rating, is not reset every 3-month season (it is continuous).

[Meeplelowda]

In the Arena there are players with ratings over 1800, Viv- is the highest at 1899, and yet if you toggle to the "All-Time" list the highest is Nallerheim at 848. What is the difference and which is the "real" rating?

Also, to answer the question you might have after Kaa's post: how can someone can get to 1899 within a single season if the all time high is in the 800s?

Unlike the general BGA ELO which starts at 0, Arena ratings get reset to 1500 at the beginning of each season. Although it fluctuates with each win and loss while you're in bronze, gold, etc., you can't see it changing until you reach elite again.

[Robarkson]

Two very excellent and helpful answers! Thank you both.

A follow on question: Is the BGA ELO generally accepted by Carc players worldwide as a semi-official rating? Much like say FIDE's chess ratings?

[Meeplelowda]

Two very excellent and helpful answers! Thank you both.

A follow on question: Is the BGA ELO generally accepted by Carc players worldwide as a semi-official rating? Much like say FIDE's chess ratings?

Not being a pro Carcassonne tournament player, I don't know for sure. I think there are some games on BGA that do have official tournaments (i.e., recognized by the publisher as opposed to being merely user hosted), but I don't know that ELO has recognition. For one thing, there is the issue of cheating by ELO boosting. This is not an accusation of any specific person in Carcassonne. It's just a recognition that ELO boosting is a thing in many games, and although sometimes the person gets caught, I imagine many instances go undetected.

[Kaa-]

In the Arena there are players with ratings over 1800, Viv- is the highest at 1899, and yet if you toggle to the "All-Time" list the highest is Nallerheim at 848. What is the difference and which is the "real" rating?

Also, to answer the question you might have after Kaa's post: how can someone can get to 1899 within a single season if the all time high is in the 800s?

Unlike the general BGA ELO which starts at 0, Arena ratings get reset to 1500 at the beginning of each season. Although it fluctuates with each win and loss while you're in bronze, gold, etc., you can't see it changing until you reach elite again.

This happens because the two systems count scores in completely different ways. The arena rating varies much more than the BGA ELO, in addition to being based on a model perhaps more similar to the Chess ELO. In the past, ELO BGA was more similar to rating arena, but around 2018 it changed to become what it is today.

[Kaa-]

Two very excellent and helpful answers! Thank you both.

A follow on question: Is the BGA ELO generally accepted by Carc players worldwide as a semi-official rating? Much like say FIDE's chess ratings?

We consider ELO BGA as a reference for some championships and tryouts, but this varies from country to country. I'll try to summarize here a little about how ELO can influence one thing or another in the game's competitions.

Carcassonne currently has two official world championships from the German publisher: an offline, individual one, the final of which takes place annually in Germany, and an online one, for teams, which takes place directly here at the BGA.

For offline, some countries hold selections through the BGA, but without a minimum ELO restriction to participate. However, for the online team tournament, ELO plays a more important role in some tryouts, as some countries require a minimum ELO from players who want to participate in the tryouts. The winning countries (top 4) of the online championship can send one of their players to Germany, to participate in the offline world finals, and once again ELO can be important, as some teams use it as a criterion to select the player who will travel to Germany.

Unfortunately, there are ways to circumvent the ELO BGA, but the Carcassonne communities are quite integrated and cheating players end up being left out of these communities, since it is necessary to prove their high ELO in competitions and cheaters never show up on these occasions...

[Robarkson]

Very good information. Thank you for the detailed response.