Although Samsara's performance was as strong as ever, on the points rankings after this round, they slipped down two places. Tiny Herb, who had originally only lagged behind by one point, won 9 to 1 against Miracle and surpassed Samsara by one point. Wind Howl, who was originally behind Samsara by two points, had swept Bright Green 10 to 0 and were also now one point ahead of Samsara. Because of their alphabetical advantage, Wind Howl (Huxiao) was currently in the lead. Tiny Herb (Weicao) was in second with the same number of points, 36, and third place was Samsara with 35.
After losing in their away game to Samsara, 3 to 7, there was a bit of distance between their 30 points and the first three places. Misty Rain had 30 points as well, but lost alphabetically (Yanyu) to Blue Rain (Lanyu) and were currently in fifth.
*"Tian Ji's Horse Race" is a famous (real, historical) Chinese story of strategy. Despite having weaker horses than his opponent, Tian Ji was able to win 2 to 1. He raced his weakest horse against his opponent's strongest (loss), his strongest against his opponent's second strongest (win), and his second strongest against his opponent's weakest (win) - Syncogon