Not trying to hijack the thread, but do you guys find opponents play better in the rematch?
I generally think so. I wonder if it's a 'reversion to the mean' type thing?
Having said that, I also find I, more often than not, win the rematch too, just not as easily. If I beat someone badly enough their ego gets hurt (it's that noncompetitive), I'm probably just better.
Having completely demolished OPs argument as a group ... good work team!!! ...
... there is a reasonable question about whether chess.com should offer the option to pair two players that want a two game match. That is, you could both nominate it as the match you want to play and then if you reneg and don't play the second game you lose the second game by default.
Thoughts?
My guess is the main downside is, as I alluded to above, you get stuck with a staller for two games instead of one. Or indeed a cheater. Or indeed a verbally abusive opponent, though those are rare.
An explicit option would also split the matchmaking pool leading to longer search times and/or poorer quality matches. However, there is always more that can be done with matchmaking systems to automatically match players who are alike. It has its limitations though because players don't necessarily want to players who are similar to themselves. It'd cool to match stallers with each other and rude players with other rude players etc.