Board Game Arena

Hi everyone, this is a somewhat random comment but can someone explain to me the ELO logic. That is, you win a game you get 4-8 ELO, if you lose a game, you lose 15-25 ELO. How is that logically valid ? Altogether, can we just remove this ELO nonsense!

Grumpauzaurus wrote: ↑02 September 2026, 15:31 Hi everyone, this is a somewhat random comment but can someone explain to me the ELO logic. That is, you win a game you get 4-8 ELO, if you lose a game, you lose 15-25 ELO. How is that logically valid ? Altogether, can we just remove this ELO nonsense!

It's what happens when you play with someone with a lower ELO than you. If you play with someone having a higher ELO than you - it is actually the other way around. To make up for this difference - you usually can beat the lower ELO player more easily than the higher ELO player. Hope this makes it make sense. But if not you can just ignore those ELO numbers.

Hi Silene, I guess that makes sense. Personally not a fan of any "scoring/award" system, makes you feel attached to it and it removes the "play for the fun and the game" part. Deep down, you still think about getting those ELOs at the end. Thanks for the reply =).

Grumpauzaurus wrote: ↑02 September 2026, 16:01 Hi Silene, I guess that makes sense. Personally not a fan of any "scoring/award" system, makes you feel attached to it and it removes the "play for the fun and the game" part. Deep down, you still think about getting those ELOs at the end. Thanks for the reply =).

You can just ignore ELO. I think it does get used if you change the advanced settings to only play with people 'close to your level', but otherwise it is just a number you can ignore. You don't have to be attached to it if you don't want to be.

The power is in your hands.

And as a reminder to all: Elo is the name of the chap that invented the "Elo System", it's not an abbreviation. ELO is a band from England.

In addition to the fact that Elo handicaps the results based on the players' ratings beforehand, there's also a 'new player' adjustment that increases the size of movements for the first few games you play on BGA to try and get people to somewhere near their actual rating more quickly. I think this fades out over about 30 games.

Other than this new-player adjustment, the system is balanced, in the sense that the net points of the table are the same before and after the game: the losers "pay points" to the players that beat them.