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How are points awarded in winning and losing?
Posted: 16 September 2026, 12:36
by gallant-hedgehog848
Why do sometimes when I get third place, I only lose 3 points and other times I lose 30 points?
Re: How are points awarded in winning and losing?
Posted: 16 September 2026, 18:21
by Meeplelowda
gallant-hedgehog848 wrote: ↑16 September 2026, 12:36
Why do sometimes when I get third place, I only lose 3 points and other times I lose 30 points?
tl;dr: Your Elo isn't adjusted by a fixed amount. 3rd out of 3 is different from 3rd out of 5, and the ratings of the other players matters.
There could be three things at play: 1) the rating of the people you're losing to, 2) how many times you've played the game, and 3) how many people you're playing against.
In case you haven't read the related FAQs, here are the links:
How does the ELO change calculation work?
How is my ELO updated?
Unfortunately, in a revision to the FAQ they removed the explanation of how the K-factor works on BGA. The FAQ used to explain that:
K, the 'elasticity factor,' has a value that depends on the number of games you have played: 60 for your first 10 games, 40 between your 11th and 20th games, 20 for your 21st onwards.
The K-factor is a linear scaling factor in the Elo calculation, so a person with a K-factor of 60 will gain (or lose)
three times as many points as someone with the same rating who is playing a game for the 21st+ time, all other things being equal. There is also some question of whether friendly games count in the number of times played, which I don't recall off the top of my head.
And see this thread for a discussion for how Elo in multi-player games is awarded, which not a simple as adding up all the Elo adjustments that would have been made in a 1 v 1 match against all the other players:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46254
Re: How are points awarded in winning and losing?
Posted: 16 September 2026, 20:46
by Ceaseless
Meeplelowda wrote: ↑16 September 2026, 18:21
gallant-hedgehog848 wrote: ↑16 September 2026, 12:36
Why do sometimes when I get third place, I only lose 3 points and other times I lose 30 points?
tl;dr: Your Elo isn't adjusted by a fixed amount. 3rd out of 3 is different from 3rd out of 5, and the ratings of the other players matters.
There could be three things at play: 1) the rating of the people you're losing to, 2) how many times you've played the game, and 3) how many people you're playing against.
In case you haven't read the related FAQs, here are the links:
How does the ELO change calculation work?
How is my ELO updated?
Unfortunately, in a revision to the FAQ they removed the explanation of how the K-factor works on BGA. The FAQ used to explain that:
K, the 'elasticity factor,' has a value that depends on the number of games you have played: 60 for your first 10 games, 40 between your 11th and 20th games, 20 for your 21st onwards.
The K-factor is a linear scaling factor in the Elo calculation, so a person with a K-factor of 60 will gain (or lose)
three times as many points as someone with the same rating who is playing a game for the 21st+ time, all other things being equal. There is also some question of whether friendly games count in the number of times played, which I don't recall off the top of my head.
And see this thread for a discussion for how Elo in multi-player games is awarded, which not a simple as adding up all the Elo adjustments that would have been made in a 1 v 1 match against all the other players:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46254
4) The rating floor, like the 100 minimum for regular rating.
Re: How are points awarded in winning and losing?
Posted: 17 September 2026, 05:40
by FSKFSK
Example #1: You finish 3rd out of 4 in a game where everyone is rated way higher than you. You can gain points even though you were 3rd.
Example #2: Same thing, but you finish 2nd out of 4 in a game where you're rated way higher than everyone else. You probably will lose elo or have a small gain.
The game gives you a 1-on-1 matchup against each other player, +elo if you beat them, -elo if they beat you. Then there's a scaling factor based on number of players, to dampen the effect of large player counts. Then there's K factor, which only matters if you're new to a game. Then there's the minimum elo of 100 and the fact that you can't lose elo if you're below 100.
If you hover over your elo on the game summary screen, it'll show you how much you gained or lost vs. each opponent based on the result.