Looking at normalizing scores for all-in tournaments

I've been working with Pete (dataguru) over in the message board discussing the possibility of normalizing scores for tournaments. This would mean a tournament would not have a set skill level. A player could play a song at any difficulty and through the magic of math, all the scores would be normalized so they would all be comparable. So a score on Medium would be made to a fair comparison to an Expert score.

Others have discovered that each GH3 song has at each difficulty has a multiplier number. This multiplier is used to make any Easy/Med/Hard score into an Expert score. It's all based on possible song scores and is, frankly, way over my head, but I've run some tests on scores and it seems reliable. You can read our discussion thus far in the forum.

But why bother with all this? In short, it means anyone could join any tournament and have a fair chance at winning. You're a master Medium player but you can't do squat in Hard yet? No problem. Your Medium score is run through the magic math machine and out comes an Expert score. So all those tournaments that only get 2 players and end up being canceled could be a thing of past. More winners, more tournaments, more good competition.

There are flaws with this system, but there are flaws with the current system as well. Right now the restrictions are based on career percentages. Some people join tournaments with profiles that have zero percent for all career levels, which means they can enter any level tournament - an Expert could enter a Medium and, in theory, blow away the real Medium players. Yes, it's a very cheap way to win, but it happens. This new theory doesn't change that workaround, per se. Experts could still play at Medium, but then their score would get normalized to an Expert score too...so they wouldn't always win.

I'm just wondering if this "all-in" style of tournament would result in more playing, more often. My concern is that the mathmagic behind-the-scenes would be confusing and unsettle players. I know if I was new and excited about playing in a tournament only to find out my scores gets hit with some seemingly arbitrary math I'd be skeptical. But if I was a player stuck in Medium world, it would be nice to see how I'd fair against Experts.

If you have any thoughts, please drop a comment or post in the forum.