Board Game Arena

Does anyone know exactly what triggers the 'This is my first game...' message that appears next to a player. I've encountered opponents with ELO ratings over 100 who get the message, so obviously it is not their first game. I am assuming the system uses it if they have not played a particular variant but am unclear which options trigger it and which ones do not. Any ideas?

in my experience it is only when they started the game having never completed a game. So basically had 0 Elo when they started the game. In turn-based mode players can often still have the first game wording after having completed other games real time or turn based during the duration of the aforementioned game.

Also games in alpha (and now beta I believe) do not count towards your games played. So probably a beta game where you get Elo but don't get credit for games played.