Board Game Arena

By the way, ELO is not something you win and lose (well, it is, but it shouldn't be considered in that way. It is a measure (good or bad) of a player's skill. Avoiding games because they could affect the measure in an undesired way goes against its intent. If you don't want to play against low-skilled players, that's fine, but it should be because you don't enjoy the lack of challenge, not because you don't want your ELO to go down. If your ELO is right, you'll most likely win and if you don't, you'll recover soon. If your ELO is overestimated, it will benefit everyone (including yourself) if it goes down a bit.

ChiefPointThief wrote: ↑04 May 2023, 10:45 On the flip side what does this mean for a 200 elo player who has reached elite and they are matched w/ an expert who has no arena status? Are they heavily penalized for losing to a opponent several leagues below them even though that player is technically the better player?

It's always the Elite Arena Score (EAS) that counts. When it's your first game in a season, you start with an EAS of 1500 (no matter your Elo or anything). Then it gets continuously updated roughly in the same way like Elo, but it is hidden until you reach Elite league. So yes, whenever a high-Elo player (say 600+) just starts their Arena season, particularly late in the season, whoever is matched against them is at a disadvantage for EAS points.