Sai does look really happy here. (wonders if the scantilation will still be there for long)
The Sai-Kadowaki game seems harmless enough and Hikaru thinks it doesn’t matter - though of course it does to Kadowaki.
The long and short of it is that Hikaru ends up with one less strong competitor for the prelims and pro exam this year, so perhaps its not so unimportant. Sai was helping him pass an just an incy-wincy bit there!