Board Game Arena

ELO thiefs is there such a thing, or people who do this?

You’re gonna have to define your terminology here because I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. (I’m actually mystified you would make this 12-word post and think anybody would know what you are talking about.)

Lucan 2 wrote: ↑02 March 2026, 06:08 ELO thiefs is there such a thing, or people who do this?

I alsp have no idea what you are talking about.
But you are here since 2023, so if you never met one, it's probably because they don't exist.

BarnardsStar wrote: ↑02 March 2026, 06:43 You’re gonna have to define your terminology here because I honestly have no idea what you are talking about. (I’m actually mystified you would make this 12-word post and think anybody would know what you are talking about.)

Grimwold wrote: ↑02 March 2026, 09:16 I alsp have no idea what you are talking about.
But you are here since 2023, so if you never met one, it's probably because they don't exist.

Don't bother trying to understand. OP simply steals time from people genuinely trying to help by repeatedly posting about Elo despite it being explained to them many times. For example,
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 29#p228829
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 05#p242405

Sure. People who play better and win steal your elo.

Yes, when you beat someone, you steal some elo from them.

An ELO thief can use multiple accounts in the same game to cheat and win a game they would otherwise lose.

Believe it or not, the above scenario does happen from time to time…

That's not an elo thief, that's a cheater and breaker of BGA's terms of use:

"BGA will not tolerate any cheating and/or lack of fair play, whether through the use of cheating software, analysis of communication protocols or code, use of multiple Accounts, collusion with other Users, [...]"

It's better to not stress about your elo. Elo is a bad system for luck-based games. Just play the games and enjoy them. Use elo as a rough measure of your opponents' ability, which is all it's really good for.

FSKFSK wrote: ↑02 March 2026, 17:04 It's better to not stress about your elo. Elo is a bad system for luck-based games. Just play the games and enjoy them. Use elo as a rough measure of your opponents' ability, which is all it's really good for.

A lot of players were up in arms when they hid the exact Elo numbers on coöperative games, but I’m increasingly of the opinion that they should hide Elo everywhere. Use it (or something similar, like Glicko) for matchmaking, sure, but seeing the value just leads it to being treated like some kind of points when it’s simply supposed to be for “rough measure(s) of your opponents’ ability”.