First things first, I need to edit the formula in the post and explain this a bit more, I think. I should also stress, I don't see something like this being used until... maybe February/March, if it all?
I guess the chatting and Piezoni's aren't as important as the idea that each player is confident throughout the even that he understands how the scoring works and how well he is doing, how much he needs to score in the next round to make up ground, etc. More transparency (and therefore less complexity) is better.
I think the word you're looking for is comprehension, maybe even accessibility. Transparency implies something may be hidden, where I'm actually trying to figure this all out in the open.
I agree, it's more complicated to figure out exactly where one is during the tournament, in that there's another step in the calculation. No more instant gratification. To that end, I have an observation, and I have a solution or at least a pacifier.
The observation is that the net effect doesn't change. Players are still trying to score as many points as possible every round. How well you are doing (especially after the first round while you're in Piezoni's) is still based on whether you have scored more or less points than your opponents. And it's really only after the second round where things get layered. Points in later matches simply matter more.
A solution / pacifier is to include the scores on the match-up sheets at the beginning of every round. (Everyone's scores aren't known until then anyhow, because once they're calculated, the match-ups are made.) Since they're done up on a spreadsheet, again this is pretty much done automatically for the scorekeeper with formulas and stuff and things.
