I don't want to be a party pooper, so let me first thank MMM for all the effort he's gone to in running these tournaments.
Having said that, are you *sure* that you want total score to be a tiebreaker, with the encouragement of running up the score? Not only does that give huge swings solely based on what Kingdom cards you play with, but it also creates the potential for insanely long games. Anyone playing a board with any sort of Village, Goons, and Watchtower is going to have to sit through running out the Copper, Silver, and Gold piles.