The key to playing someone closer to you in rating is to cancel searching for a battle around the 45 second mark. I think after 1min it widens the gap to 1000 rating, and then after 2min it will take almost anything.
Not 100% sure, but I think it works something like this.
Didn't know about this, thanks!
This theory may be valid.
It's actually annoying to go through this.