He's an old player who used to play on 4pc server (pre-merge), mainly fiesta. I think when the merge happened some people retained ratings but not game count
Ig a lot of players don't enjoy playing for 2nd place. How about solo mode in chaturaji? Some less popular variants such as War for Throne or Grasshopper arena have it.
As for the plot you mentioned, it is rare to see. More often position becomes complicated and someone blunders or someone plays passively, then both that player and his opposite are punished