Talk:Elo rating system/@comment-203.206.24.103-20120507025301/@comment-192.12.88.74-20120507033306

In general you don't lose LESS and GAIN more. Otherwise, the overall rank of all players would increase as a function of time, and your elo rating would have an "inflation" which would result in very upset players (also defeat the point). The reason people tend to begin to have these differences is because of consistency of performance. If you where to win lose win lose, you'd be stuck but win win win win then a lose win lose lose win lose lose win lose lose, will net you win points. Also, premade with higher elo will place you in harder games, giving you more points. (in fact the last two: consistency and going premade with better players gives you more points because in both the system places you into a "faster" track, your opponents tend to be "higher average" elo and actually recieve fewer points (they are probably on a rapid spiral downwards)) Hope that helps explain it a bit.