East Helena esports qualifies for national tournament after winning state title
EAST HELENA — Several members of East Helena High School’s esports team — and their mascot Caesar — are all hyped and ready to go to St. Louis in June for the LOS Scholastic Nationals tournament. But there’s a roughly $3,000 hurdle standing between those Vigilantes and their downright awesome opportunity. “It’s very awesome, because […]
EAST HELENA — Several members of East Helena High School’s esports team — and their mascot Caesar — are all hyped and ready to go to St. Louis in June for the LOS Scholastic Nationals tournament.
But there’s a roughly $3,000 hurdle standing between those Vigilantes and their downright awesome opportunity.
“It’s very awesome, because I barely ever leave Montana in general,” said East Helena esports team member Kayleigh Peterson. “But also to be leaving Montana for something that’s for my school, and that I’m actually doing, is kind of meaningful for me because I usually don’t do any school activities.”
The Montana High School Association, which governs the state’s high school sports, labels esports as an emerging sport. That label means esports aren’t yet fully sanctioned, something that could soon change as participation rates continue to rise.
“My vision for East Helena Vigilante esports is to just get to that level where we are just a normal high school sport,” said Mason Skains, one of East Helena’s varsity esports coaches. “Like any other sport, like football, basketball, and such.”
But in order for East Helena esports to take its next step and compete at the national level, the Vigilantes will need their community to step up and support them.
“Oh, that would be awesome, dude,” said East Helena’s Ben Paige. “I’d love to go to state and prove that Montana state is the best. Y’know, just to show off East Helena Vigilantes. It’ll be great.”
Peterson said the community stepping up and donating the needed $3,000 in order for her and her teammates to travel to St. Louis would be very meaningful.
“It would be very meaningful because that means they actually care about it like a real sport, I suppose,” said Peterson. “And it’d be cool to see the community come together to donate money for it, even if they don’t know what it’s about because it’s not as popular.
“I think people are confused about it. But it would be cool for people to still do it even if they don’t know what it’s about.”
Those interested in donating should contact Shaun Murgel, East Helena activities director, via email at smurgel@ehps.k12.mt.us or by phone at 406-227-7730.
FLOKI And New To The Street Announce Media Partnership To Reach 219M+ Households
Miami, Florida, May 29th, 2025/GamingWire/–In a major visibility push, FLOKI has signed a sweeping media partnership with New to The Street, a leading multi-platform financial media brand. The three-month campaign will spotlight FLOKI’s fast-growing ecosystem, including its flagship MMORPG game Valhalla, and its broader mission to bring real-world utility to crypto. The media rollout includes […]
Miami, Florida, May 29th, 2025/GamingWire/–In a major visibility push, FLOKI has signed a sweeping media partnership with New to The Street, a leading multi-platform financial media brand.
The three-month campaign will spotlight FLOKI’s fast-growing ecosystem, including its flagship MMORPG game Valhalla, and its broader mission to bring real-world utility to crypto.
The media rollout includes biographical interview segments airing nationwide on Fox Business and Bloomberg TV, commercial placements during business hours, high-frequency digital billboard displays in Times Square, and live investor events.
“FLOKI is one of the most innovative and community-driven platforms in crypto today,” said New to The Street Founder Vince Caruso. “This campaign ensures they get the national stage and financial audience they deserve.”
From Times Square to Bloomberg: What’s in the Campaign
FLOKI leadership will appear in two in-depth TV interviews each month, airing as sponsored content across Fox Business and Bloomberg TV, reaching over 219 million U.S. households.
FLOKI ads will light up the iconic Reuters 42nd Street Billboard 20 times per hour, four weeks a month. The initial ad campaign will spotlight Valhalla, FLOKI’s much-anticipated blockchain game, launching on mainnet June 30, 2025.
Over 100+ thirty-second commercials will run monthly across major financial networks like CNBC, FOX Business, and Bloomberg, with another 50 ads on Bloomberg kicking off in month two. Three press releases per month, NYSE interview recaps, and targeted pitches to ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates will amplify FLOKI’s reach beyond crypto circles.
All content will be posted across New to The Street’s 2.47 million YouTube subscribers and social platforms. FLOKI will join meet-and-greet events with brokers, host intimate retail investor gatherings in New York City, and take part in virtual sessions with family offices and accredited investors.
“I’m very excited about this partnership and sharing how FLOKI is making blockchain better than they found it,” said Pedro Vidal, the Community Relations Officer for FLOKI spokesperson. “This campaign will expand our efforts in revealing the levels of enhanced utility that is witnessed within our ecosystem. I’m dually proud and excited!”
About Floki
Floki is the people’s cryptocurrency and utility token of the Floki Ecosystem. Floki aims to become the world’s most known and most used cryptocurrency and intends to achieve this ambitious goal through a focus on utility, philanthropy, community, and marketing.
Floki currently has 550,000+ holders and a strong brand recognized by billions of people worldwide due to its strategic marketing partnerships.
Website: https://floki.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealFlokiInu
About TokenFi
TokenFi is an innovative platform for crypto and asset tokenization, enabling users to launch or tokenize assets effortlessly. TokenFi is committed to revolutionizing the trillion-dollar tokenization industry by offering a user-friendly interface that requires no coding expertise.
Website: https://tokenfi.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tokenfi
About Valhalla
Valhalla is a blockchain-based MMORPG inspired by Norse mythology, offering players the chance to discover, tame, and battle with creatures called Veras. The game features a player-driven economy and a hexagonal battlefield designed for dynamic combat. Learn more at https://valhalla.game/
Users can play the game now, and it will be officially launched on Mainnet on June 30, 2025. Valhalla was developed by FLOKI.
Collaborative Toy Video Games : Hot Wheels Victory Lap
The Hot Wheels Victory Lap video game is arriving as a Dave & Buster’s exclusive thanks to the brand’s partnership with Mattel and Hot Wheels to offer guests an immersive gaming experience. The game consists of putting players behind the wheel of their favorite toy car where they’ll need to race against their opponents on […]
The Hot Wheels Victory Lap video game is arriving as a Dave & Buster’s exclusive thanks to the brand’s partnership with Mattel and Hot Wheels to offer guests an immersive gaming experience.
The game consists of putting players behind the wheel of their favorite toy car where they’ll need to race against their opponents on a toy-like course. The brand-new game is expected to be a hit amongst kids and adults alike, and is arriving June 2, 2025 alongside the Dave & Buster’s Hot Wheels menu. This includes the Turbocharged Chicken Sliders, Turbo Bites, Spotlight Punch Flight and the Hot Wheels Refresher.
The Hot Wheels Victory Lap video game is great for pairs, but suited for individual players as well to maximize fun for all participants.
ARC esports team advances to 2025 National PlayVS Cup Championship
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Three of the country’s best high school Street Fighter 6 players are heading to compete on the biggest stage. Thursday night, the Academy of Richmond County’s esports team, Musketeer Strike, comprised of William Banks, Isaiah Jackson, and Caleb Walls, advanced to the 2025 National PlayVS Cup Championship. Musketeer Strike took down […]
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Three of the country’s best high school Street Fighter 6 players are heading to compete on the biggest stage.
Thursday night, the Academy of Richmond County’s esports team, Musketeer Strike, comprised of William Banks, Isaiah Jackson, and Caleb Walls, advanced to the 2025 National PlayVS Cup Championship.
Musketeer Strike took down San Marcos High School out of California (3-2) in a best-of-five semifinal match.
The thrilling victory places ARC among the top two high school Street Fighter 6 teams in the nation.
On June 4th, the team will compete in the National PlayVS Cup Championship against the Science Academy of South Texas.
Not only are bragging rights at stake, but major scholarship money is on the table.
First place will receive $4,500, and second place will receive $3,000 in scholarship funds.
Musketeer Strike previously won the 2025 PlayVS Eastern Region Championship for Street Fighter 6, and Thursday’s victory cements the program’s position as one of the country’s premier high school esports programs.
AWS expands AI Spring Singapore efforts with new partnerships and AI innovation hub
At AWS Summit Singapore 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled new partnerships, programmes, and investments under its AI Spring Singapore initiative, reinforcing its commitment to supporting the country’s Smart Nation and National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS). Launched in 2024, the flagship AI programme spans six pillars—Public Sector, Workforce, Enterprise, Startups, Communities, and Research and Development. […]
At AWS Summit Singapore 2025, Amazon Web Services (AWS) unveiled new partnerships, programmes, and investments under its AI Spring Singapore initiative, reinforcing its commitment to supporting the country’s Smart Nation and National AI Strategy 2.0 (NAIS).
Launched in 2024, the flagship AI programme spans six pillars—Public Sector, Workforce, Enterprise, Startups, Communities, and Research and Development. This year’s summit also marked AWS’s 15th anniversary in Singapore, with new developments aimed at accelerating AI adoption and digital transformation nationwide.
“Singapore’s bold AI vision demands collaboration across sectors to succeed,” said Elsie Tan, Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore at AWS. “By bridging public and private innovation, strengthening digital infrastructure, and investing in future talent, we’re helping transform Singapore into a global AI hub where technology drives positive societal impact.”
New collaborations in education and talent development
Image credit: AWS
AWS continues to scale its education and workforce efforts with new initiatives aimed at nurturing local AI talent. The most notable is its partnership with the National Institute of Education (NIE), where AWS will help establish the Technology for Education Centre (TEC). Based at NIE’s campus within Nanyang Technological University, TEC will offer cloud and AI training for faculty, facilitate joint research in analytics and AI, and provide hands-on workshops for students.
As part of this collaboration, AWS is also offering digital learning resources like AWS Skill Builder, designed to enhance NIE’s curriculum and upskill educators in cloud technology.
Temasek Polytechnic’s FutureX innovation centre is another key partner, offering practical AI resources for students and SMEs. AWS is targeting 5,000 learners annually in AI skills through its partnerships with polytechnics and institutes of higher learning.
The collaboration with Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on its Company-Led Training (CLT) programme is also seeing traction. Through CLT, AWS supports graduates and mid-career professionals in structured roles that build digital skills on the job.
Transforming the public sector and enterprise landscape
At the Summit, AWS also highlighted collaborations with government agencies. Through a partnership with Synapxe, AWS powers HealthX Innovation Sandbox 2.0, a cloud platform that provides over 2,300 synthetic healthcare APIs, datasets, and simulation environments for safe development of digital health solutions.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) worked with AWS Partner NCS to upgrade its contact centre using generative AI. The result is a halving of inquiry handling times and seamless multilingual support across all four national languages.
In the enterprise space, AWS is working closely with IMDA’s GenAI x Digital Leaders initiative to help businesses deploy AI efficiently. This includes direct access to AWS technical experts, model developers, and implementation partners.
One success story is SaladStop!, which developed a generative AI assistant using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker to provide personalised meal suggestions. The tool is expected to improve efficiency and double online orders.
bolttech, a Singapore-headquartered insurtech, is using Amazon Bedrock to build agentic AI bots that can process claims, answer policy queries, and generate customer responses autonomously. Employees are also empowered to develop internal AI applications using the same platform.
Image credit: AWS
Gaming brand Razer is preparing to launch its AI Game Assistant and QA Companion on AWS Marketplace. Built on Amazon Bedrock, these tools provide real-time guidance and automated testing for game developers, and are part of the brand’s broader WYVRN AI ecosystem.
AI startup support and community outreach
AWS continues to invest in startups through the 2024 Generative AI Spotlight programme, which includes 40 companies, 12 of them from Singapore. These include Bunker Tech’s AI-enhanced analytics for finance, klikit’s AI-embedded POS tools, Reforged Labs’ AI-powered game marketing, and Level 3 AI’s automation solutions for business process outsourcing.
Image credit: AWS
To drive broader public engagement with AI, AWS partnered with AI Singapore to launch the ASEAN Large Language Model (LLM) League—a gamified challenge that has provided hands-on AI experience to more than 4,000 participants across ASEAN.
Community outreach also extends to grassroots learning through Gen-C, a volunteer-led movement supported by the National Library Board. Gen-C runs workshops covering topics like prompt engineering and model fine-tuning, with AWS providing cloud infrastructure and technical expertise.
In support of linguistic diversity, AWS and AI Singapore launched the Pan-Southeast Asia Generative AI Developer Challenge, encouraging regional developers to build local-language LLM applications using Amazon Bedrock and models like SEA-LION v3.5.
Launching innovation hub and strengthening R&D
A major announcement from the summit was the upcoming launch of the AWS Innovation Hub in Singapore, the first of its kind globally. The hub will showcase AI applications across over 50 industries—including finance, retail, manufacturing, and the public sector—and aims to drive real-world solutions through AWS technology and collaboration.
AWS also expanded its research footprint through partnerships with the National Healthcare Group (NHG) and A*STAR’s Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC). NHG’s Digital Innovation Studio and ARTC’s AI training initiatives are designed to build sector-specific AI capabilities. AWS also supported the launch of the Sectoral AI Centre of Excellence for Manufacturing.
Keynote insights from AWS and partners
In keynote sessions, Priscilla Chong, Country Manager at AWS Singapore, highlighted Singapore’s unique position to become a digital capital for ASEAN. She announced that AWS has now trained more than 5,000 individuals through its education partnerships and confirmed a US$12 billion investment in local infrastructure and talent over the coming years.
AWS VP of Technology, Mylan Thompson Bucha Vale, discussed the evolution of AWS’s infrastructure to support accelerated computing, Graviton chips, and its AI development tools like Amazon Bedrock and SageMaker. She emphasised how AWS is combining scalability, performance, and cost-efficiency to support next-generation AI workloads.
Razer’s Chief Strategy Officer, Lee Meng, showcased how the company is using AWS to scale its AI-powered tools for the gaming industry. QA Companion, for instance, automates testing processes and reduces quality assurance time by up to 50%, helping developers bring titles to market faster.
The Singapore Academy of Law and IMDA also presented their GPT Legal solution, which uses generative AI to summarise legal documents while preserving factual accuracy. Built on AWS, the platform supports Singapore’s legal professionals by reducing time spent on research and improving productivity.
Through these combined efforts—education, partnerships, community building, and technical innovation—AWS continues to deepen its investment in Singapore’s digital future.
T&L Extra: Catching Up With Mississippi State’s National Champion ESports Team
ESports is a huge part of college life these days, so it should come as no surprise that there are competitions at every level for university students. Mississippi State’s ESports team recently brought home a national title, so as is tradition here on Thunder & Lightning, we’re talking about it on the podcast. Brian Hadad […]
ESports is a huge part of college life these days, so it should come as no surprise that there are competitions at every level for university students. Mississippi State’s ESports team recently brought home a national title, so as is tradition here on Thunder & Lightning, we’re talking about it on the podcast. Brian Hadad welcomes Gage Fulwood and Mason Marchionda to the show to learn about how the championship was won, and how the team came together here in Starkville.
A.C. Flora’s esports team wins State Championship for Rocket League
Contributed by Ilyssa Weiner A.C. Flora High School’s esports team won the South Carolina Scholastic Esports state championship for Rocket League May 10 at Midlands Technical College. A.C. Flora High School’s esports team won the South Carolina Scholastic Esports state championship for Rocket League. The championship was held May 10 at Midlands Technical College. A.C. […]
A.C. Flora High School’s esports team won the South Carolina Scholastic Esports state championship for Rocket League May 10 at Midlands Technical College.
A.C. Flora High School’s esports team won the South Carolina Scholastic Esports state championship for Rocket League. The championship was held May 10 at Midlands Technical College.
A.C. Flora’s esports team also won the Rocket League championship in the Lexington One Invitational in March, the first major in-person esports event that Richland One’s esports teams have competed in.
“Winning the invitational was super exciting, and being able to win the state championship as well solidifies how great of a year it was for the team,” said Bobby Gunshefski, the head coach of A.C. Flora’s esports team.
Richland One’s competitive esports program launched in February 2025 at all of the district’s high schools.
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