Board Game Arena

Can someone please explain to me how scoring in Arena works? So basically, if I win, I get mainly +10, +11 or maybe a +12 if I'm lucky... but if I lose, I lose -31, -32 or -33.... for a game that depends so much on luck, that seems super unfair to me...?!

Any thoughts?

https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... hatiselite
https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=faq_account_elo

Both these links do not answer my question...

Those links explain Elo scoring, which is what Arena uses. The change depends on your and your opponent's ratings. If you win against someone much higher rated, you go up by a lot; if you win against someone much lower rated you only go up a little. Similar in reverse for losses.

rvnes wrote: ↑01 January 2026, 18:58 Both these links do not answer my question...

Which question?

I see two:
1. "that seems super unfair to me...?!" I guess it seems unfair to you. But since it's the same for everyone, I wouldn't call it unfair.
2. "Any thoughts?" Well... those links are my thoughts. They explain how Arena score works. It may be a reasonable scoring system or not, but again, I wouldn't call it unfair.

Emerson_Matt wrote: ↑01 January 2026, 19:33 Those links explain Elo scoring, which is what Arena uses. The change depends on your and your opponent's ratings. If you win against someone much higher rated, you go up by a lot; if you win against someone much lower rated you only go up a little. Similar in reverse for losses.

Ah okay, so does that mean that 'normal ELO' and 'Arena ELO' are 2 different things?

There's no "Arena ELO". There's Elite Arena score (EAS), which uses the same formula as ELO,.