Tired of playing against elite players

[cavefarmer]

Why would any new player want to come to this site to try Arena mode? Every game I'm matched with an Elite player that has hundreds of hours of game time and 400+ ELO. If I try to use the settings to limit matches to "Average" players, nothing changes. I don't mind waiting half an hour to get matched to another bronze player. Instead, I'm instantly matched against an Elite player and crushed repeatedly. Absolute joke of a matchmaking system.

EDIT: First reply below was the solution I was not aware of.

[Meeplelowda]

Why would any new player want to come to this site to try Arena mode? Every game I'm matched with an Elite player that has hundreds of hours of game time and 400+ ELO. If I try to use the settings to limit matches to "Average" players, nothing changes. I don't mind waiting half an hour to get matched to another bronze player. Instead, I'm instantly matched against an Elite player and crushed repeatedly. Absolute joke of a matchmaking system.

The filters based on "average," "strong," etc. don't work in Arena. I'm assuming you are trying to use filters that look like this:
https://imgur.com/a/vifq19t

Instead you have to use the filters that look like this:
https://imgur.com/a/Kvpbm5D

The "level" in that filter is not your ELO level, but your Arena level. So if you're bronze, you won't be paired with Elite if you set it to "My level." However, remember that everyone who first plays in an Arena for a game starts out in bronze. So you could still be paired with someone with 750 ELO who hasn't climbed out of bronze yet. I'm not aware of any way to get around that.

As far as I can tell, this Arena filter is only available from the Play Now lobby (see my signature) by setting the lobby to Arena mode, https://imgur.com/a/noCdxt7, then clicking the gear icon on the game, then clicking "Show advanced options," then under "Player's level" click "Change." Yeah, this is so convoluted it's almost as if they don't want you to find it.

By the way, if anyone knows how you can do this in the single-game lobby, please post. I think this is an example of something you simply can't do in the single-game lobby that you can in the Play Now lobby.

[lefalaf]

This is why I don't play arena. I tried it for 1 or 2 seasons or so. The relegation system makes no sense, IMO.

A sensible system would keep similarly ranked players in their respective leagues for the whole season and promote the best players to a higher league and demote the worst players to a lower league in between seasons. Those who are average in their leagues stay put for another season.

This is how I read sports leagues are, and geoguessr (not a competitor, so hopefully ok to mention), and I suspect more.

This way everyone is playing opponents close to their actual skillset and has a fair chance of winning and gradually leveling up as they get better, instead of being hammered by experts who were relegated and have to grind back up from bronze, etc. which would be discouraging and bothersome for both parties.

And before anyone comments, no, you cannot effectively filter using the league filter, as there are experts in lower leagues until they grind back to elite, so that doesn't help. As noted in the prior post(s).

The need to grind every quarter just to get back to the league you were in before wound up turning me off to games I otherwise loved.

[RobertBr]

Why would any new player want to come to this site to try Arena mode?

I'm not sure, perhaps you should ask them? Seriously, since the site offers a multitude of different modes, of which Arena is just one, and one a large number of players do not use, it is hard to understand what it is you are complaining about.

[wdspider]

If you never play against better players, how do you increase your game skill?

While I've apparently been on the site for 6 months now, I tried Arena almost immediately and tend to mostly play Arena games. For me, getting to 100 ELO is the "learning the game phase" which is followed by "playing the game phase" i.e. Arena.

[JohnnyCyclops]

To even play in Arena requires 100 ELO. That’s at least 2-3 wins in most games and therefore anywhere from 2-10+ games played to help learn and progress. I was rubbish in my first 20-30 Azul games and then turned a corner, got to grips with strategy, and did a better job.

I agree with the other posts. It IS possible to restrict ‘levels’ preferences in Arena BUT that doesn’t help in the early days of a new season when everyone got pushed down two or three rungs from the prior season. Nor does it help later in the season when otherwise average players have earned an Elite badge by dint of hard work rather than acquired skill or innate ability.

Games requiring high skill/experience and low luck will favour more experienced players. With 900+ games on BGA it’s hard to generalise.

[Hervor]

If you never play against better players, how do you increase your game skill?

While I've apparently been on the site for 6 months now, I tried Arena almost immediately and tend to mostly play Arena games. For me, getting to 100 ELO is the "learning the game phase" which is followed by "playing the game phase" i.e. Arena.

You can still get better by playing against evenly matched opponents or ones that are only slightly better than you.
I find it easier to develop my own strategies against opponents of roughly the same skill, since that gives me time to make mistakes and recover. I have never been the kind of person, who learns well by observing others or reading up on strategies. I need to do trial and error myself and I can't do that if the game is basically over in a couple of moves.
I would say that I have finished the "learning the game phase" for chess more than 25 years ago and have since then been in the "playing the game" phase. Nonetheless, I should not be matched against actually good chess players. They would probably be incredibly bored and I would have to resign myself to loosing during the opening. Noone is having any fun in that situation.

[ProfesorKlump]

There is a way not to play arena and play with friends. It is normal thing on tournaments that you meet master - it is hard to generate same elo tournaments, because they r changing diametrally after winning few games. Take it as a good option to learn from masters if they like to chalange u. That's a great honour for me to play against masters and I'm willing to try all the time if they wish to play much with me.

[Jellby]

Why would any new player want to come to this site to try Arena mode?

Why do you think a new player should try Arena?

Play a game a few times until you realize you like it and you're good enough to win sometimes and learn something when you lose. Then you can consider playing Arena if you want, but you can continue playing in simple mode where you can choose your opponents and the game settings.

[cavefarmer]

Why would any new player want to come to this site to try Arena mode?

I'm not sure, perhaps you should ask them? Seriously, since the site offers a multitude of different modes, of which Arena is just one, and one a large number of players do not use, it is hard to understand what it is you are complaining about.

Arena is the competitive matchmaking mode, no? Is it hard to understand that many players of various skill levels enjoy that concept? See sport leagues, video games, etc. for well implemented examples outside of board games where players are matched against similarly skilled opponents.