The New York Times’ The Athletic released its latest daily puzzle, Connections: Sports Edition, on January 20th. This version presents a mix of familiar and obscure sports terms, making it moderately challenging. Here’s a breakdown of the categories and answers for those seeking assistance.
Understanding the Puzzle
Connections challenges players to group 16 words into four categories of four, based on shared themes. The categories range from straightforward to deeply niche. This edition leans towards baseball, basketball, and general sports terminology.
Hints and Solutions
The puzzle is divided into color-coded categories: Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. Difficulty increases as you move through the colors.
- Yellow Group: The theme revolves around opponents or rivals in sports.
- Green Group: This category focuses on errors or mistakes made during gameplay.
- Blue Group: This one tests knowledge of Major League Baseball teams.
- Purple Group: The most obscure group centers around nicknames used for WNBA players.
Detailed Answers
Here are the complete solutions for each category:
- Yellow: Challenger, Foe, Opponent, Rival. All words directly relate to adversaries in competition.
- Green: Botch, Err, Flub, Fumble. These terms describe common errors made by athletes.
- Blue: ATL, MIA, NYM, PHI. These are abbreviations for teams in the National League East (Braves, Marlins, Mets, Phillies).
- Purple: KFC (Kahleah Cooper), Phee (Chennedy Carter), Point Gawd (Jewell Loyd), Stewie (Breanna Stewart). These are nicknames used to identify popular WNBA players.
The Hardest Categories
Some Connections puzzles can be brutally difficult, depending on how well you know the niche topics. The most challenging categories in the Sports Edition include:
- Series A Clubs: Atalanta, Juventus, Lazio, Roma (Italian football clubs).
- WNBA MVPs: Catchings, Delle Donne, Fowles, Stewart (past award winners).
- Premier League Team Nicknames: Bees, Cherries, Foxes, Hammers (nicknames for Brentford, Bournemouth, Leicester City, and West Ham United).
The puzzle’s difficulty is subjective. Experts in certain sports will breeze through categories that others might struggle with. That said, the Sports Edition remains a fun way to test your sports knowledge daily.
