Bry: Because getting farther along should count for something, after all, you did beat some of the players, just not all of them. Essentailly, for scoring purposes, if there are N entrants in a pond game, it's N*(N-1)/2 smaller games, rather than one big game, so each 'game' needs to be scored. Plus winning or finishing high in a pond with 100 players is a bigger accomplishment than winning a pond with ten players.