ELO calculation doesn't take in consideration how close you was to win.
Per example, if you finish second on a 4 player game:
- you will lost elo from the player who goes first
- you will won elo from the player who goes third
- you will won elo from the player who goes forth
This gain will increase if you have less elo than the other person.
This loss will be more big if you have more elo than the other person.
[At that, you have a multiplicator depending of the number of players (more there is players, more this multiplcator is high).]=> edit: not sure about that.
And you got a second one (K-factor) which depend of the number of games you played. Once you played 20 games, this K-factor stay at 20.
.
It ask so much work to make the system gave or remove elo depending of how close you was to win.
Some game are atrocious for knowing which player should be second.
Some game finish at 30/27 and aren't close at all.
Some game ('snowbally') can easily be close while 70% of the game, and finish not close at all.