Chess Arena Pairings - How do they even work?

Seriously.

I am kind of used to get a pairing against a late joining 2000+ player on position 58 while I am fighting for a podium (well afterwards I usually don't anymore). But these pairings getting ridiculous. The guy in first place played not a single match against anyone in the top 10, he played only one player above 1200 (1350 and that game he lost!) and had an average oponent rating of well under 1000. How is anyone else supposed to catch him if he can beat up 1000- players in 10 moves one after the other?

At this point we should rather play in different arena 1200+, 1600+, 2000+ or whatever, but this is just frustraiting.

You get paired against players close to your rating.

https://support.chess.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2862512-what-are-arena-tournaments-

I totally agree with you. This is just the last stupid way to encourage people of a lower rating to play arenas in general but the result is insanely unfair to all the other players. I had the same thing happening to me multiple times and I'm not sure how I am supposed to fight against such a disparity in arenas. I'll probably make a new fake account to take advantage of it as many players already do.

Take advantage of what? Getting electronic trophies?

why else would you play an arena? Like of course I play to have fun but I play also to try to win it. Otherwise I could just play normal games no? My main goal is to have fun but the 2nd is to win and competing, if I don't have a chance to win I don't see the reason of playing an arena.

Arenas are designed in a way that rating doesn't really matter; you get paired basically in your rating ranges, with some spread, so it's possible for anyone to win. You have just as much chance as any other player in the event, unless someone is really underrated.

how is it the same chance.

1) games with people around 900 are way faster,chaotic and easier to win. games at 2000 are not as easy and quick most of the time.

2)person who got 1st in the arena was rated 900 blitz(1150 rapid) and the highest opponent he had was 1100 while I (1750) had to play with a variety of players from 1450 to 2200.

3)person who got 1st played every game with people midboard even tho he was 1st.

everybody else at the top of the leaderboard had to play against players from the top of leaderboard as it should be.

4) it is really easy to use a smurf account(which happens often unfortunately) or to lower your ranking which of course highlight the issue even more.

Arena should encourage people with lower rating to participate but not to the point of becoming a joke and go against simple matchmaking rules. 

Most players on the site are lower rated, so it doesn't make financial sense to drive them away to protect the ego of higher rated players.