Possible Proposal: Arena Should Only Be For 500+ ELO

[illy831]

And remember that luck plays a role. Here is a game where I had a fish crow early, messed up big in the last round, should have lost but scraped by one point.

https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=858333604

Never mind the early game stuff, the last five turns is where I had a big decision to make as I was running out of egg slots. I decided the way to go was to tuck and draw the Brant, then hope to turn up another playable bird on the way. I accidentally drew from the deck instead and lost my chance at the Brant, and decided to draw instead — losing a couple points versus playing the Brant for which I already had the food. Then I turned up two very playable bonus birds, one of which secured the final EOR goal. Then the bonuses were zero. Finally, it turned out my opponent had only 10 points from three bonuses and I just scraped by.

My opponent (definitely a strong player at well over 500 ELO) also activated hummingbird a couple times in the final round when they maybe shouldn’t have, as they were capable of 8-point meadow activations. Lots of little takeaways from every game finish, especially when it’s close but also when it’s not. The decision space becomes much narrower and so it’s clearer to see where you missed out on points.

I’d also note that the game ended 84-83, with a fish crow on one side and a hummingbird on the other. Despite our respective best efforts we both played a game that was very beatable by other setups.

[Ceaseless]

Just apply skill-based filters to Arena instead. Probably something like X00s filters for arena points. Probably a decent idea to delete Leagues out of Arena entirely or at least eliminate the inability to fall out of them. There's no point in League filters when Elite is as absurdly encompassing as it is right now.

[Jontia]

Just apply skill-based filters to Arena instead. Probably something like X00s filters for arena points. Probably a decent idea to delete Leagues out of Arena entirely or at least eliminate the inability to fall out of them. There's no point in League filters when Elite is as absurdly encompassing as it is right now.

Wouldn't this just turn Arena into regular ELO that resets every few months?

[Ceaseless]

10-15% is extremely insignificant in my view.

Rating applies weights to the game to counterbalance the odds. The more insignificant your chances, the greater the gains per win and the lower the reduction per loss. Overall, rating is set so that you aren't expected to change rating vs an opponent in the long run. Rating gaps says you have a 10% chance of winning? Then your 1 win will be worth 9 of theirs to balance the scales. The ratings shift as the game uses results to evaluate how much weight (rating) to put on each player to keep it even.

[Ceaseless]

Just apply skill-based filters to Arena instead. Probably something like X00s filters for arena points. Probably a decent idea to delete Leagues out of Arena entirely or at least eliminate the inability to fall out of them. There's no point in League filters when Elite is as absurdly encompassing as it is right now.

Wouldn't this just turn Arena into regular ELO that resets every few months?

What do you consider it to be right now?

[Jontia]

Wouldn't this just turn Arena into regular ELO that resets every few months?

What do you consider it to be right now?
[/quote]
It's a gated league event that rewards streaks and high amounts of play.

[Ceaseless]

Wouldn't this just turn Arena into regular ELO that resets every few months?

What do you consider it to be right now?

It's a gated league event that rewards streaks and high amounts of play.

I'm not sure what the significance is of gated league event is to you. What does my suggestion take away from this definition of yours? Do you refer to the streaks of a player trying to luck their way into a league and no longer fall out? Sure, that would be gone. Sounds like a good thing. I still think your answer is a bit lacking in details on what you're saying the emphasis of Arena is. I'll give an example by describing the main features of the current Arena as I see it.

Arena's primary features are the restriction of the setting to the voted upon one, preventing multiple variations from being rated in the season, and in eliminating the ability for a player to avoid playing a known player, weakening attempts at rating manipulation or intentionally bullying down. Since it's rotational there is a bit of a kick at the end where the last few results, or lack of, can squeak the ratings a bit, unable to be changed by the overall flow of time now that the season is over.

[Jontia]

The fixed settings are a good feature. But I think the gated leagues that mean you don't fall back and can progress by being lucky occasionally are also a good feature.

It gives people who aren't as consistent at games a chance to succeed occasionally and that's a feature of competition, not just always sorting out into the same sets.

[Ceaseless]

The fixed settings are a good feature. But I think the gated leagues that mean you don't fall back and can progress by being lucky occasionally are also a good feature.

It gives people who aren't as consistent at games a chance to succeed occasionally and that's a feature of competition, not just always sorting out into the same sets.

I'd be thrilled to delete that aspect from Arena. Because of things like that, elite league is basically the starting line and the other leagues are little more than participation trophies, which messes up the pairing system in Arena. The #1 Arena player should not get paired with a literal 100 (the lowest rating a player can fall to) when setting the maximum filters available trying to find a reasonable game, and the 100 setting the filters so they only face people in their league. Yet it happens because the 100 has gotten into elite league. When elite league encompasses the entire playerbase it stops making sense as a filter.

If a player wants to occasionally succeed, they can play people at their level, where they will win as often as they lose. There's no need to overdecorate them and mess up the system as a result, such as with the problems I described above.

[JohannesTheGreatest]

The Matchmaking can be improved. I think it is not good for both sides if someone with 500+ elo gets matched against someone with under 200 elo.

Thinking back to my last 10 to 20 games i play around 80% of them against people under 200 elo. Some matches can still be hard if the game gives you crap. So there is still a challenge but i would rather play against people that are good. I rarely play against any other Top 10 player in arena. Maybe 1 out of 100 games and therefore also most of the time only get like 1-3 rank points/elo points if i win a game.

But i still love the game and i arena just gives you quick games with nice settings 1vs.1. I would rather wait 5min longer and get a better matchups though.