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Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. It helps if you’re familiar with the athletes of the Pacific Northwest. 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: When you get hurt.

Green group hint: Beaver State.

Blue group hint: Not surnames, but…

Purple group hint: Think oxygen.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Worn after an injury.

Green group: An Oregon athlete.

Blue group: First names of USWNT players.

Purple group: Air ____.

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 worn after an injury. The four answers are brace, cast, sling and splint.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is an Oregon athlete. The four answers are Beaver, Duck Thorn and Timber.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is first names of USWNT players. The four answers are Lily, Rose, Sam and Trinity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is air ____. The four answers are ball, bud, force and hockey.

Xbox Game Pass will have a new, higher price for the game subscription service starting Nov. 4. 

With the news that Microsoft’s popular franchise Halo will make the jump to the PlayStation platform for the first time with next year’s Halo: Campaign Evolved, the company confirmed it is testing a free ad-supported version of its Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is included in the Game Pass service. 

A Microsoft official confirmed to The New York Times on Friday that it is conducting internal tests of this ad-supported service. This service would allow access to some games via Xbox Cloud Gaming, though it’s not clear how many would be supported. 

This confirms a report from The Verge earlier this month, which revealed rumored details about the offering. Microsoft employees have been testing the service, which allows the streaming of some games in a user’s library, as well as Xbox Retro Classic games and Free Play Days titles. During the test, about 2 minutes of ads play before a person can stream a game. 

According to the report, it’s available on PCs, Xbox consoles, handheld devices and web browsers. 

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

Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for more details about this ad-supported service. 

It’s unclear if Microsoft will officially include this free service as a free tier in Xbox Game Pass or if it will roll out when subscription prices jump on Nov. 4. Other streaming video services, such as Netflix, Disney Plus and Hulu, have added a lower-priced, ad-supported tier to their membership options in recent years. As of May, almost half of streaming service subscriptions were ad-supported plans. 

Microsoft’s Xbox business has been a bit rough for the company this year. Its Xbox Series X|S console sales have dropped by 22% from last year, which is likely due to increasing the price of its hardware twice, ostensibly due to tariffs, making the Xbox Series X console $150 more expensive than when it launched almost five years ago. Xbox Game Pass, usually a bright light among the Xbox woes, had so many cancellations after the news of the price increase that it crashed the service’s cancellation page. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft has also had multiple rounds of layoffs in the Xbox division and canceled game projects, such as a reboot of Perfect Dark, in an attempt to increase its profit margin above the industry average.