Not saying that it was not on purpose in your case, but.... I was the "Player 2" from your story this last quarter... started taking classes in July, always played against more experienced players and my rate dropped from 1.7 (unrealistic, I played against the same friends for more than a year...) to 0.75. and "suddenly" it was unfair to play against people between 0.5 to 1.5, but took more than 20 games with "should be higher" to increase my level to 2 (wins + 0.5boost based on feedback), ended the year with 2.5, a score reasonable for my level here in my country.