def _first_largest(scores):
    """ Similar to max, but returns the first element achieving the high score
    If max receives a tuple, it will break a tie for the highest value
    of entry[i] with entry[i+1]. We don't want that here - to better match
    with the results of other tools, we want to be able to define which
    entry is returned in the case of a tie.
    
    """
    result = scores[0]
    for score, direction in scores[1:]:
        if score > result[0]:
            result = (score, direction)
    return result