Board Game Arena

Do people with higher elo tend to avoid playing with lower elo players?

I'm at 394 when writing this and I tend to think that I shouldn't play with players below 200 on the grounds that it's too likely that the RNG will go against me and, when I lose, I'll lose a lot more elo than if I had played with players whose elo was similar to mine.

Have I completely misunderstood the elo system?

Nope, that's how it works.

In 4-player (current Arena) rules, I don't think it is beneficial to avoid lower ELO players even if you could. The difference between placing 1st/2nd as opposed to 3rd/4th seems to matter a lot more than who you might lose to. If you place any lower than 2nd as a very high ELO player, your rating will basically plummet and it can take multiple 1st place finishes just to make those points back up. Against higher skilled / more experienced opponents, the odds of a poor finish are much higher, independent of how randomly friendly the dice and cards were.

I'll play whoever the site matches me up against, but I'm much more nervous against elites.

The opposite side of this is being the low ELO player. My choices are wait 10-15 minutes for a game or be absolutely crushed 4 out of 5 games.

LOL, same here Duane. I feel like I've done good if I'm not last!

This game needs a "Concede" feature. It's demoralizing to be at 25% and already know the outcome because someone has the 7,8 and 9 engine cards already promoted.