Board Game Arena

Today I played my first arena match, my ranking is obviously 0 points, Bronze league. My ELO in that game is 203, nothing spectacular. Yet somehow, the matchmaking system paired me against somebody in the Elite league, with over 1600 points. Not a very fair match. Needless to say, they obliterated me, it was like a toddler playing chess vs a grandmaster

I don't understand why the matchmaking system paired us. Reading the FAQs, it seems that each league is a different group, me being in the bronze should only face other bronze players, not an elite. Are the FAQs wrong? Is it a known bug? Or is it supposed to be like that?

Doesn't make much sense to have "competitive play" with different leagues, and then match somebody in the top 50 versus the newest player.

A 1600 Elite arena player isn’t that strong. That is only 100 AES points above starting rating.

That would be similar to saying a 200 Elo player is too strong. For joining Arena which is leaning more competitive I don’t think that is a big gap.

If it were a 1800 Arena player that’s another story.

The player is currently in the top 40 in the arena's ranking (out of 229 elite, 1300 total players), with 1670 AES points. The #1 player has 1864.

But anyway, that's not my point. What's the purpose of the different leagues if they aren't used to determine who you can play against?

Assuming you are talking about Toy Battle, you should be able to restrict the rating difference between you are opponents by clicking the table settings button and adjust the player level settings.

Worse case you will still get paired within 1 tier at most so if you are Bronze you would pair Silver at highest.

ajperez wrote: ↑05 August 2025, 22:16 What's the purpose of the different leagues if they aren't used to determine who you can play against?

The purpose of different leagues is simply to give the sense of climbing a ladder. It is not like Elite is Premier League and elite players only play against elite players, and gold is EFL Championship and gold players only play against gold players, etc. I get that the whole thing about relegation at the end of season makes it sound like it's the same as football leagues, but it really isn't.

As BananaHarambe said, you can filter for players in your league plus one league above and below, but that's as narrow as the filters allow.

BananaHarambe wrote: ↑05 August 2025, 22:31 Worse case you will still get paired within 1 tier at most so if you are Bronze you would pair Silver at highest.

For Toy Battle, this is true. For other games, where only Bronze and Elite leagues exists, within 1 tier can still result in those pairings.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑05 August 2025, 22:38 As BananaHarambe said, you can filter for players in your league plus one league above and below, but that's as narrow as the filters allow.

You can filter to "at my level" as well. So you can go narrower.