Board Game Arena

I just played a game. I was ranked approx.106, and the other two players were ranked approx. 201 and 150. I came in tied for 2nd and lost 6 points. I lost to a player who was ranked twice as high as me. In this scenario, it would make way more sense if I had won 10 points instead of losing 6 points. What is the point of taking on much higher rated opponents if we are just going to lose points if/when we most likely lose?

The point of taking on much higher rated opponents is to have a challenging game, maybe to learn something. If it really has to be all about stupid Elo points, then yeah, you can gain a lot - but only if you beat them. High risk, high reward.

Bruce Idaho wrote: ↑17 February 2026, 18:24 I just played a game. I was ranked approx.106, and the other two players were ranked approx. 201 and 150. I came in tied for 2nd and lost 6 points. I lost to a player who was ranked twice as high as me. In this scenario, it would make way more sense if I had won 10 points instead of losing 6 points. What is the point of taking on much higher rated opponents if we are just going to lose points if/when we most likely lose?

See this thread for a discussion of the calculation of Elo in 3+ player games.

Bruce Idaho wrote: ↑17 February 2026, 18:24 I just played a game. I was ranked approx.106, and the other two players were ranked approx. 201 and 150. I came in tied for 2nd and lost 6 points. I lost to a player who was ranked twice as high as me. In this scenario, it would make way more sense if I had won 10 points instead of losing 6 points. What is the point of taking on much higher rated opponents if we are just going to lose points if/when we most likely lose?

If a player has 100 ELO points more than you, the difference is not very high. You should win approx. 35% of all games against such a player. If you don't achieve that goal in the long run your ELO will eventually drop (but it is capped at 100).

In the game you mentioned you had an expected win % of 37% and 38%, respectively. In total you should have won 0.37+0.38 = 0.75 points from these two encounters (you are matched up against both opponents seperately). Since you only won 0.5 points (0 for the loss against the winner, 0.5 for the draw with the 2nd player) you did worse than was expected by your relative ELO rating. Thus you lost ELO points (but only very few of them).