Yep ... you probably mad a mistake, ill explain:
In a strat fight one does not simply level up... you probably got the XP for lvl32, but to level up you have to go to another server and get an XP-Tick...
Then you can come back to that strat fight
Then you retire and farm the new XP for the freshly retired guy...
Thats how it normally works if you want to retire MID-Stratfight.