Talk:Elo rating system/@comment-68.147.240.85-20111219030523/@comment-4087140-20111219073402

That means that most of your opponents have been a lower ELO than you. When you win against someone weaker than you, your ELO only goes up a little, because you were expected to win; when you lose against someone weaker than you, your ELO goes down a lot, because you were expected to win. As a result, even if you were 50–50, if you mainly fought weaker opponents then your ELO would be low instead of average.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the ELO you start out at (1200, I believe?) is not the average ELO at all. There are many, many bad players; far more bad players than good players. As a result, having a 50–50 score would actually put you below average, because a majority of players are bad players, so the fact that you lost to half of them isn't a great display of your own skill.

I hope that this makes some degree of sense.