Impossible to gain arena points in some arena games

[rawrb]

I am currently in platinum. I keep getting matched with bronze level players (that's fine). But when I win, I don't gain anything (not fine). And obviously, a loss is devastating.

In these games, either there's absolutely no change or I lose arena points. Why is it designed like this? It just seems like a flaw in the system to me.

[LesserJester]

You can set your preferences to "never play >+/-2 level". This will mean you won't get placed in non-scoring games. Since you're platinum it will limit you to silver (-2) gold (-1), platinum (0), diamond (+1) and elite (+2) players. If you want to narrow the range further limit it to <= (+/-1) but the narrower you limit it the longer it can take to get games going.

[thoun]

I think when you win a game against a weak opponent, you gain something like 0.3 shield. There is probably a hidden number behind it, it's not visible, but it's not useless anyway.

[Majki1988]

You can set your preferences to "never play >+/-2 level". This will mean you won't get placed in non-scoring games. Since you're platinum it will limit you to silver (-2) gold (-1), platinum (0), diamond (+1) and elite (+2) players. If you want to narrow the range further limit it to <= (+/-1) but the narrower you limit it the longer it can take to get games going.

How can I set this?

[LesserJester]

use the wheel icon in the game lobby when it's set to arena. https://boardgamearena.com/lobby

[Majki1988]

use the wheel icon in the game lobby when it's set to arena. https://boardgamearena.com/lobby

Thank. I did not know about this

[Shenison]

I'm having the same problem. I'm platinum. I win two or three and gain nothing. I lose one game - even to someone who is ranked a lot higher than me (my rating is in mid the 100s and I lose to someone in the 4 or 5 hundreds) and I lose three points. If I manage to beat someone higher than me, I might gain two points - once I even gained three. But it seems so random and I can't gain any ground at all. I have gotten up to four points and then lost it all in one or two games.

[Ceaseless]

I'm having the same problem. I'm platinum. I win two or three and gain nothing. I lose one game - even to someone who is ranked a lot higher than me (my rating is in mid the 100s and I lose to someone in the 4 or 5 hundreds) and I lose three points. If I manage to beat someone higher than me, I might gain two points - once I even gained three. But it seems so random and I can't gain any ground at all. I have gotten up to four points and then lost it all in one or two games.

You say you're Platinum, but I don't see any mention of your opponent's Arena rating despite you saying they were rated higher than you? You talk about 100s vs 4-500s, but that's reading like a different BGA rating and shouldn't have any impact on the Arena points exchanged.

[ErikLevin]

I'm having the same problem. I'm platinum. I win two or three and gain nothing. I lose one game - even to someone who is ranked a lot higher than me (my rating is in mid the 100s and I lose to someone in the 4 or 5 hundreds) and I lose three points. If I manage to beat someone higher than me, I might gain two points - once I even gained three. But it seems so random and I can't gain any ground at all. I have gotten up to four points and then lost it all in one or two games.

The Arena rating is separate from the normal-game Elo. You can face an opponent with 300 higher Elo than you, but 300 less Arena rating. When you defeat that opponent you'll get lots of Elo but very little Arena points - perhaps not even enough for one full shield.

[sprockitz]

Shields and arena points are also different. For shields all that matters is the arena levels (bronze silver gold platinum diamond elite) and if you are more than 2 levels above your opponent you will gain 0 shields. No hidden partial shields.