Board Game Arena

I just assume every player i play with an elo of less than 200 is an expert. It's gotten ridiculous. ELO means nothing now in splendor dual.

It's just you.

I doubt anyone is intentionally underrating themselves with new accounts. Plus it would be unsatisfying to intentionally create such a lopsided match.

What may be happening: Splendor was a very popular game IRL long before it came to BGA so many folks are well experienced, but only recently discovered it on BGA and so have a low rating for now. Simple as that.

Edit: I see you are referring to Spelndor Duel. My point still stands, although there was less time to learn this one IRL before BGA, but it was still a couple years. And some of the Splendor experience might transfer over even though the games are unique in many ways.

If there even are any smurfs, I suspect they are rare and thus it is unlikely you'd run into multiple of them. Plus how would you prove it? There are a lot of good players out there and they might not have played enough to elevate their BGA ELO to reality.