So, if you poke around youtube you can find videos that explain how matchmaking algorithms generally work. The specifics are obviously going to change from site to site, but the overarching algorithms are pretty similar. Problem here is that the OP didn't say if they are playing live or turn based. In the Arena games I've played, I've generally found that I get matched appropriately but that for live games I see more variation, and this is where the specifics of the algorithm become important. What basically happens on live matchmaking is that if the game can pair you with an even opponent, it will do so immediately, but if all the available players are mismatched, it will wait 5-10 seconds. If it still kind find a match, it will "widen" the acceptable range of opponents and take a match if one fits. If not, it waits another 5-10 seconds widens the band, and so on, repeating until hits a match. So the problem here is that people want to be fairly matched, but they are also generally impatient and want to get into a game reasonably fast. So you have to find some kind of compromise that balances these factors when equivalently matched players are not available. The difference with turn based games though is that I think the website assumes that if you are going into a turn based game, that you are not in a hurry to get a game started, so instead of waiting 5-10 seconds to match you, it is willing to wait a minute or two before expanding the "matching skill band". I don't know what the specific numbers are for BGA, but you get the point. But the point is, if you are starting a real time game, opponent availability is going to depend on who is available, which in turn depends on the time of day. I would further add to this that, based on personal observation, higher ranked players tend to actually be more active. As somebody who previously held top three spots on two games, I can tell you that you constantly have to keep playing to keep your ELO high, otherwise other players who are more active are going to catch up with you. The games I was top player in were not very active so I rarely had to have more than a half dozen turn based games going at a time. But for a game like Nova or 7 Wonders that have much larger player bases, I can only imagine how many games per week you have to be playing to stay on top. But the point here is that I expect the reason you are running into a lot of elite players is that they simply have to be constantly playing in order to maintain their ELO if they are gunning for a top 10 or a #1 position. The best players aren't just the best players, they are also the most active ones, which means they are waiting in the pool more often than non-elite players.
