So today I reached 2200 bullet for the first time... and it was actually pretty easy. I set the search preferences to only find players rated under 1700, and by going on a 105 (and counting) winning streak, I beat my previous rating record by 70 points. Honestly, with this method I could probably keep going to 2300 and beyond if I wanted to.
Maybe to prevent this there should be a limit to how low rated the opponent can be to still gain rating (for example, more than 800 points lower = 0 rating gain per game). Even when I played 1100s, I was still gaining about a tenth of a rating point each game.
AFAIK Glicko2 handles this by classifying your rating as provisional at some point again. After a quick search presumably after RD grows >110.
If you compare your RD to similar rated players, you will recognize that your RD is already quite high.
I doubt you could do this till 2300+ without earning an additional question-mark. ;-)
But I am no expert at all on rating systems.
It kinda always evens out. Sooner or later you'll lose to a much lower rated player (for whatever reason) and you'll lose a bunch of points and have to start all over again.
Your 105 game winning streak is pretty impressive, especially in bullet... from my experience even a much stronger player would drop at least one game way before that.
I think that gaining rating points is a shallow reason for playing chess. IMO it's just a peripheral issue. For me it's the pleasure of engaging in mental combat and improving or maintaining my mental faculties. OTB chess is also a social occasion where human interaction is mostly a pleasant and where good friends can be made.
jorjo - it looks like you're right, my rating deviation is up to 105, almost above the provisional cutoff of 110.
You will usually get more rating points if you grind on lower rated players. However there becomes a point that this becomes a bad tactic.
That's why rating means very little.
A 2000 player who has made it there by grinding on 1400-1600 players is nothing compared to a 2000 player that has made it there by playing 1900-2100 players. In fact such players are the real "easy rating points" when they come out of hiding amongst the lower rated players.
droceretik - I agree completely. Obviously this isn't really a big issue, I was just wondering if the lichess developers had ever considered this.
Also this tactic can back fire when you come across an opponent whose rating does not reflect their skill levels.
yes that's what I was saying, it always evens out.
There's no trick to boost rating or else everybody would be doing it and have 3000.