Board Game Arena

Can someone explain how the arena ratings work to me please?

I’ve noticed so far:
- losing ratings when I’ve won games and my ELO has gone up
- lost 4 rating points for losing a game to a player with a higher ELO,
- often gain 1 or even 0 ranking points for winning games, even against higher levels.

It feels inconsistent, and I’d like to understand the system a little better, it didn’t feel this inconsistent on the last tournament.

Thanks.

Until a player reaches the Elite tier, the ladder does not follow ELO rules. Simply put, your tier is a fixed value (e.g. you are currently Diamond) that you must obtain at least 10 points to climb to the next tier.

Regardless of overall ELO nor how many points you have in your current tier, each games points are calculated as such and must be no less than 0 and no more than 5:

Victory = 3 + tier differential
Defeat = -3 + tier differential

Thus, matching with the same tier will be worth 3 points to each player.

You may not be seeing growth because many of your games as Diamond could be against Bronze or Silver (3 to 4 tiers below = 0 for win, -5 for loss.) Similarly, if you defeat an Elite player (1 tier above) you will only lose 2 points in a defeat or gain 4 points in a victory.

Surplus points over 10 do not roll over to the next tier.

The difficulty with all of this, especially at the start of a new Arena season, is that many players are still climbing and the Platinum / Diamond players are slowed to a crawl, as many of the players at your tier are limited / offline.

Thanks for the explanation, this totally explains why I’ve been stuck on diamond, it’s getting frustrating crawling up then losing everything on a single game.

Appreciate your time.