pure luck... and a little strategy

[petite boulette]

My ELO is 499 right now and i feel like i got there by 70% luck, 30% playing a lot. I don't think i'm that good a player and have major imposter syndrome. I feel like I'll be back in the mid 300s pretty soon!

[Andrei3009]

Congratulations on the almost 500 rating! Sadly a little short of an achievement

In this game, the rating often jumps, especially with 5+ players, so everyone can catch their moment of luck or bad luck ,but the are o lot of skill in maintaining your position. For a more accurate assessment of your strength, there is an arena format where the rating is reduced in proportion to the number of participants, however, there are win\lose streaks too.

[jjgllg]

I play with any player counts, and my current ELO is 505, I have been hanging close to 500 for 30 games now (i briefly reached over 500 on a few occasions before) "normally" i would be hanging in the top100. I think especially 7 players is very luck based because some players will always have free wins on either green or red, which makes it impossible to beat it even in a good game and no mistakes. But other than that, surprising how many crappy starts can end up winning the game! There is always some luck involved in this game but i would say timing your strategic moves is the most important. Especially switching the main strategy in the mid-game. When to make sure, when to play risk, is still to be learned for me.

It is common to see people swinging between sub300 and past400 elo here. and sub 400 and past 500 aswell. It is a streaky game.

[Lukov]

There is quite a lot of luck involved. It is actually more luck of the draw than it is skill if you really think about it.

The most important point is to play with like minded people - people trying to do well in game. If you are next to two wild cards chances are you will be screwed out of your elo due to them specifically discarding/hate drafting or stacking insane reds against you. Or a combination of those. While those are normally okay strategies you should only employ them in order to better your situation, not as means to screw other people over.

If you get past that and have competitive opponents you then have rng in placements. Gizah next to Rhodos is a recipe for a bad game for example.

Pass that filter and you can still find yourself with no double resource and no caravancery. Those are usually the deciders if your opponents are on a similar level.

Of course you have some strategic plays to make, but unfortunately there are more than enough hurdles that predetermine how well you will do in game.