Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. I thought the blue category was the easiest group of the four, but maybe that’s because I’m a movie buff. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: You need strength for this.

Green group hint: Lone Star State.

Blue group hint: Gonna fly now.

Purple group hint: Apparel hidden in the words.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Weighlifting needs.

Green group: Follows «Texas.»

Blue group: Characters in the Rocky franchise, familiarly.

Purple group: Starts with a piece of clothing.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is weightlifting needs. The four answers are barbell, bench, plates and spotter.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is follows «Texas.» The four answers are A&M, Longhorns, Rangers and Tech.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is characters in the Rocky franchise, familiarly. The four answers are Adrian, Apollo, Clubber and Rocky.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is starts with a piece of clothing. The four answers are Beltré, Capitals, shoestring catch and shortstop.

Grand Theft Auto 6 received another delay on Thursday, according to a post from publisher Rockstar Games. The highly anticipated open-world game will now launch Nov. 19, 2026. 

In the post, Rockstar Games apologized for the wait and said the game needs more time for polishing. 

«These extra months will allow us to finish the game with the level of polish you have come to expect and deserve,» the company said. «While the wait is a little longer, we are incredibly excited for players to experience the sprawling state of Leonida and a return to modern-day Vice City.»

GTA 6’s previous release date was May 26, 2026, after getting bumped from a 2025 release earlier this year. The game has reportedly been in development since 2018, following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 that year. 

Why is GTA 6 taking so long to develop?

Gamers have been waiting patiently for a new GTA game since GTA 5 came out in 2013. The development team for the game, Rockstar North, has yet to provide much information on the development process. 

One issue that surfaced last month was the firing of dozens of employees at the studio. Between 30 to 40 staff members were laid off abruptly, as reported by Bloomberg. The terminated employees were reportedly attempting to organize a union within the company, according to a representative of a trade union. Rockstar told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the employees were fired for allegedly discussing confidential information on a public forum. 

On Thursday, fired employees protested outside the offices of Rockstar North and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive. The protesters say that Rockstar is conducting union-busting tactics against those attempting to organize a union within the company. 

It is unclear if the layoffs are responsible for the delay. The news of the GTA 6 release date came shortly before Take-Two Interactive announced its quarterly earnings report. 

What is new in GTA 6?

After the announcement of a 2026 release, Rockstar released a sizeable amount of content about GTA 6, which included a new trailer. 

In this entry, players will take on the roles of the two leads of the game, Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos. The couple will be playable throughout the game, with Lucia being the first female protagonist for a GTA game. 

While the game’s focus is Vice City, a parody of Miami, GTA 6 takes place in the state of Leonida, the game’s version of Florida. Players will explore different parts of the state based on notable Florida locales such as Key West, the Everglades, and other cities. As in previous games, characters will assign the protagonists missions to complete, which typically involve committing major crimes. 

Aside from those details released back in May, Rockstar is still keeping quiet about the rest of the game, including its cost. 

There’s been speculation that GTA 6 could be the first game to be priced at $100. The standard price of a new AAA game is $70, but Nintendo hiked up the price of a new game to $80 with the release of Mario Kart World for the Switch 2. Other companies attempted to copy that strategy, such as Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2 and Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 4, but both companies ultimately backed off the idea and reverted prices to $70. 

GTA 6 is expected to be released for the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S consoles. 

When the OnePlus 15 launches in the US, it’ll have one of the biggest batteries available on a flagship Android phone. OnePlus has confirmed in a Thursday announcement that its upcoming phone will include a 7,300-mAh battery along with a number of other high-powered specs.

Many of these specs are shared with the recently launched Chinese model of the OnePlus 15, and are being teased ahead of the phone’s Nov. 13 global launch. The 7,300-mAh battery will recharge at 80-watt wired speeds over the SuperVooc standard or at 50-watt wireless charging speeds over AirVooc. Those speeds will likely require power adapters sold by OnePlus and, as expected, are a tad slower than the 120-watt speed touted by the Chinese edition of the OnePlus 15.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

The OnePlus 15’s 6.78-inch display will feature a 1.5K resolution and support a 165Hz refresh rate, with OnePlus claiming that games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Brawl Stars will run on the phone at 165 frames per second. 

We’ve seen other gaming phones, such as the Asus ROG Phone 9 Pro, include this refresh rate, but the OnePlus 15 will do so at a higher display resolution. Ideally, this means that games capable of supporting the resolution and the higher frame rate could look quite detailed while animating as smooth as ever. 

The screen will also support a 3,200Hz touch sampling rate, which should ensure that its display is highly responsive during such games. By comparison, the recently released RedMagic 11 Pro gaming phone has a 2,592Hz touch sampling rate, which is also quite sensitive.

As expected, the OnePlus 15 will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, the fastest currently available. The company said that the OnePlus 15 will also include a cooling system that is said to include a vapor chamber along with an «aerospace-derived aerogel insulation layer» to minimize surface heat transfer.

While we’re still waiting for OnePlus to fully reveal camera specs for the global edition of the OnePlus 15, my colleague David Lumb got an early look at the phone’s cameras, taking photos around the Los Angeles area. Should the cameras also follow suit with the Chinese model, they would include a 50-megapixel wide, a 50-megapixel ultrawide and a 50-megapixel telephoto with a 3.5x optical zoom. The selfie shooter on the Chinese model is a 32-megapixel camera.

The OnePlus 15 will also come in a Sand Storm model, made from a material that OnePlus describes as being tougher than titanium. Recent promotional photos show it alongside a black and purple model. We’ll find out more about the global edition of the OnePlus 15 next week during its Nov. 13 launch.