Board Game Arena

I’ve noticed that sometimes a table is opened to look for players, but when someone joins, the request is declined.

I’m not criticizing at all — just honestly curious. Could this be due to preferences like ranking, experience level, game settings, or connection issues?

I’d appreciate any insight, as understanding the reasons might help avoid confusion. Thank you!

It can be frustrating when someone does that repeatedly. It seems like a trolling thing.

However, if you find that a player has too low of a rep. rating, or their ELO is lower, and you are worried about dropping a lot of points if you lose, that could also be the case. There are settings where you can change that, but some may not know.

Another reason could be you recognize a player that you didn't have a good experience with but forgot to give the red thumbs down.

I understand those reasons, but from the joining player’s side it can still feel confusing or discouraging when a table is open and requests are declined without context. Using filters or closing the table until ready would probably avoid a lot of that frustration.