How does Arena pairing work?

[RudeJude]

I have the settings limited so that I'm playing with my level opponents. I just got paired with someone who has an ELO 586, while I have a score of ELO 157. This isn't the first time, it's frequent. Why do I keep getting paired with players who are much stronger despite the advanced settings? I feel very discouraged as the likelihood of my progression in the season is low if I only go up against strong and expert players.

[Jellby]

1. Arena doesn't care about elo. At all. It's separate thing.
2. As far as I know, Arena pairings work in a first-come first-served basis, i.e. there's not matching attempt.
3. You can, however, set restrictions in your Arena settings, regarding the game speed or the opponents' level. But again, Arena doesn't care about elo, so "level" here means the Arena league (bronze, silver, etc.)
4. Given how Arena works (https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... renaworks2), I think it's mostly useless to set such level filter once you reach the elite league.

[RudeJude]

Thanks for your reply and the arena faq link!

The restrictions I set don't seem to impact league level either so I suppose I'll just be playing against gold and elite players until the beginning next season when there's an influx of players. At least now I go in knowing this, lol. Goal to learn instead of win ...facepalm, shrug,