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.
(hide) If you don't want other users to know what you are doing you can change into cloak mode in Settings (paying members only). (pauloaguia) (show all tips)