AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -Derrick Canteen is preparing for a trip home after his first round of OTA’s with the San Francisco 49ers.

Later this month, Canteen will bring back his kids camp to the CSRA.

On June 28, the former Cincinnati football captain will hosts ages 8-17 from 8a.m. to 2p.m. at Greenbrier High School.

This past May, the undrafted free agent signed a 3-year deal with San Fran. To make room for the rookie on the roster, the 49ers waived safety Quindell Johnson.

This is the fifth camp that Canteen has hosted in the area. He previously hosted camps at Evans High School and Richmond Academy.

To sign up for Canteen’s kids camp, click here. Kids are asked to bring cleats and tennis shoes.

Copyright 2025 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

Minecraft is teaming up with Adidas for the craziest FREE add-on that players are already losing it over. The Adventurers Add-On brings in utility companions that actually will find ore, auto-farm, and record your death point. Those little guys are the perfect little helpers for any Minecraft player wanting to boost their gameplay.

The announcement tweet was all about the visuals, with fancy and elaborate balls thrown in to tease the funky things these companions would be able to do. The replies, of course, oscillated between hype, confusion, and pleas for other updates. Gotta love the Minecraft community.

Some were down for the collab, with one user reminiscing of how the kickball was their “favorite childhood game,” whereas others… were definitely not pleased. One just said, “Corporate sponsorship in Minecraft? Gross ,” whereas another called for Minecraft to cease all brand partnerships and return to working with JINX and 4JStudios. Ouch.

Others even forgot the mention of the add-on and hopped straight on their wish update, including ray tracing for consoles, the Aether update, and even Switch 2 (which, let’s be real, aren’t even announced, officially). Another joked, “Meanwhile, I’m just here waiting for Minecraft 1.21.6 to drop,” so relatable.

The actual crazy question lingering in people’s minds: Can they do what Iron Golems cannot? Really attack Creepers? Because honestly, watching a Creeper blow up all your hard work while the Iron Golem just chills and does not would rustle some serious jimmies.

The add-on sounds like a legit game-changer though: Auto-farming, saving death points, and ore finding so you don’t have to spend hours digging? Sign all of us up. Some even think “it doesn’t fit Minecraft,” but hey, it’s free so, why not?

Now, determine whether ball kick is just an emote or an actual weapon in the game is another question. We haven’t heard anything officially about that, but fingers crossed for the latter. The thought of kicking a creeper out of existence with a soccer ball is just too funny. Maybe chaos is what we actually need.

Depending on who you ask, you either love this or you hate it. What is certain, however, is that Minecraft players do always have opinions, and this is certainly no exception. Go ahead and grab a free copy of The Adventurers Add-On and decide if these sidekicks are an ultimate must-have for you.

And for the record—no, this ain’t a football update. Sorry KillerB.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Washington-Wilkes will now begin a Flag Football program.

The Atlanta Falcons, along with the support of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has awarded 45 Georgia high schools grants to launch a flag football program, Washington-Wilkes was one of the recipients.

It’s part of a larger scale project, the Foundation has supported more than 300 schools in the Peach State to either start or support an existing program.

Georgia was the fourth state to sanction girls Flag as an official sport in 2020. This past fall, more than 7,000 girls participated in the sport across 270 schools.

Washington-Wilkes joins teams across the CSRA: Richmond County and Columbia County schools have already-established programs.

Copyright 2025 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

By Ethan Holtzinger | Cronkite News

PHOENIX — The year 2020 was unlike any other.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and suddenly nothing was the same.

Masks became mandatory, social distancing was enforced and stepping outside felt like a last resort. While most aspects of daily life suffered, a select few thrived.

Of these rare quarantine successes, one of the most prominent was esports. As the worlds of business, education and even traditional sports struggled to stay afloat, the esports industry found itself in the midst of its own perfect storm. The lockdown forced people to turn toward technology and the internet more than ever, which put esports in a prime position for growth.

Consumer spending on video games, gaming hardware, software and accessories reached a record high of $10 billion in March, according to SuperData, a Nielsen company that has analyzed the gaming industry since 2009.

“Digital spending has been gradually going up year-over-year, but this is the biggest month we’ve ever seen,” SuperData principal analyst Carter Rogers told TheWrap in April 2020.

Estimates from Newzoo, a gaming industry analytics firm, put the esports industry at just over $950 million in global revenue by the end of 2020. Newzoo approximated that about 61% of earned revenue came from sponsorships, 17% from media rights, 11% from publisher fees, 6% from ticket and merchandise sales, and the remaining 5% from digital content and streaming.

However, spin the wheel forward five years and a lot has changed.

The world has gradually returned to normal, technology has evolved, and several new esports titles have emerged. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the main question.

Participation growth

The global esports market is projected to be valued at $3.4 billion by the end of 2025, which is approximately a 21% increase from the previous year and a whopping 258% increase from 2020, according to Statista, a German online platform that specializes in data gathering and visualization. Statista projects revenue from the esports betting market alone to hit the $2.8 billion dollar mark at the end of the year, nearly three times the $1 billion amount totaled five years ago.

Obviously, this type of growth is largely thanks to a significant increase in audience size. Statista estimates 2025 will see an increase to 318 million esports enthusiasts (regular viewers) compared to 215 million in 2020.

Jason Lake, the founder and CEO of Complexity Gaming – the sister esports team of the Dallas Cowboys – predicted this explosion years ago when the pandemic was still in its early stages.

“We’re going to continue to see this growth in player base and viewership that (has) been growing exponentially over the past decade,” Lake told TheWrap in April 2020. “Ironically, this crazy quarantine we’ve been stuck in has exposed games to entire demographics that might not have picked them up — they run out of Netflix or Hulu shows and want to know what else they can do.”

Beyond the numbers

The numbers are nice to look at, but they’re not the only aspect of the industry that has evolved over the past few years. Newer titles like Valorant, which ranks in the top five most viewed esports games this year along with League of Legends and Counter-Strike, have skyrocketed in the esports world in recent years.

Mobile gaming has also seen a huge surge in popularity as of late, as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang sits at the top of that same list. The mobile esports scene is much more accessible and affordable than the alternatives, which means competitive players are no longer confined to traditional gaming platforms.

This year also has a strong chance of being the right time for college esports programs to take the next step forward. The industry is noticing increased investment at the collegiate level, and some of the bigger esports brands are even offering college scholarships to top players.

Connor Rawls, a research specialist from ASU’s School of Arts Media and Engineering who runs the Esports Lounge at Arizona State, has high hopes for ASU’s esports program in 2025.

“During COVID, we saw the in-person side of things really go down,” Rawls said. “Now we’re getting good participation again, and in the years since, it feels like there’s really been more attention and more of an audience around the program. Esports at ASU is looking good this year, and so is the whole industry.”

The increased support that the industry has received at the college level doesn’t surprise senior Phaelen Bride, the event coordinator at ASU’s Esports Lounge. She thinks investing in esports would be a smart move for any university.

“It’s only going to get more popular, and it brings in a lot of money,” Bride said. “Investing would be beneficial to any college that’s interested, and this would definitely be the best time to do it.”

Pandemic predicaments

The pandemic benefited esports in numerous ways, but there were still plenty of obstacles the industry had to endure. The transition to quarantine in the competitive gaming world wasn’t as easy as it would seem. There were still several issues that needed to be solved, especially for high school programs with an unforgiving budget.

“We learned that from-home play is not really reliable,” said Kenya Corrigan, coach of Gilbert High School’s esports program which started in 2019. “We were creating systems out of nothing. Our schools weren’t ready, our networks weren’t ready and we had to educate a lot of our community that not all computers can run esports games.”

Corrigan was aware of the industry’s potential for growth during the pandemic. For her, it was just a matter of getting through the early roadblocks. Five years later, high school esports programs are stronger than ever, but they are facing new problems that emerged during the switch back to in-person schooling.

“It did feel a little bit more like a club once we came back, compared to the other programs that started up again, and I think that some schools still kind of struggle with that,” Corrigan said. “It’s about treating your program like a sport, but a lot of students and parents are used to video games being more of a casual thing, which makes it a lot more difficult.”

In-person esports tournaments might have taken the biggest hit in 2020 as far as the industry is concerned. Live events were called off, lockdowns forced fans to tune in from home and although in-person tournaments have been brought back, they still haven’t fully recovered.

Players had to continue playing at high levels while adapting to different online formats and having their usual training routines altered. Sponsorship deals were more unstable than ever amid economic uncertainty. The only aspect that improved was online viewership, surging from the occasional entertainment drought during quarantine.

Bride is just grateful the esports in-person tournament scene came back at all.

“Oh, it’s so nice to be able to watch in person again,” Bride said. “The pandemic was a rough time because you could really only tune in online, but now it’s back and I’m so happy. Now players can hear the fans cheering in the background again, and that just makes the tournaments so much better and more fun for everyone involved.”

Technology five years later

By this point, it’s clear that the entire landscape of the esports industry has changed within the past five years, and technology has been no exception.

Gamers are now offered high-powered hardware and peripherals that allow for faster response times than ever before and seamless game play. Available software and game development continue to improve each year, and now 5G technology boasts a more reliable connection along with lower latency.

Blockchain technology is also rising in relevance, introducing alternative models for competitive gaming that focus more on economic participation and player ownership. When incorporated into the world of gaming, Web3 technology has shifted more attention toward play-to-earn tournament structures that include cryptocurrency rewards, as well as NFT-based character ownership and trading systems.

Virtual reality also seems to have its own future in esports. VR headsets and sensors allow the player to move, engage and think tactically in the third dimension. This introduces a new type of immersion that was previously thought unattainable.

Special Olympics Arizona has its own esports program currently testing a virtual cycling prototype that translates real world movement into a virtual character that can compete in races with others around the world. Jameson Gorman, Special Olympics Arizona’s unified esports consultant, believes that VR is the future of the industry.

“I think that VR in the world of esports will become the norm as technology advances and at-home VR becomes more affordable to the average consumer,” Gorman said. “I have already dabbled with VR, and it was breathtaking having that form of technology.

“In my ideal world, VR would look a lot like it does in the movie ‘Ready Player One.’ People can use their VR headsets for any type of game, with the inclusion of a passthrough mode that allows for seamless viewing between the game and what’s in front of you.”

Leaving quarantine behind

As the world moves on from the COVID-19 pandemic, the esports scene does the same. Five years ago, the industry was just beginning its rise to mainstream success. Now, it’s right in the thick of it, and competitive gaming has immersed itself in high school and college campuses around the world as it continues to grow.

The industry has seen a dramatic uptick in overall participation since quarantine, and it has secured a much more prominent role in betting markets as well. Advancements in technology and a constantly evolving audience base ensure that esports will only improve from here. The industry’s future is getting brighter each day.

“I think esports will continue to advance into mainstream media as more and more people recognize the skill, creativity, dedication and teamwork it requires,” Gorman said. “I think the possibilities are really endless with where esports can go and what the next big idea will be.”

CRESSON, Pa. – Mount Aloysius College’s Cosgrave Student Center was brimming with high school students from across Pennsylvania Sunday as the teenagers used their finely honed skills to take home esports championships for their districts.

“They’re having a blast, and so am I,” Mount esports coach and organizer Sean Steffy said.

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He added that it was exciting to see Cosgrave come alive with the students and families there to support them.

This was the first time the college has hosted the two-day Pennsylvania Interscholastic Esports Association finals. There were 215 players from 36 schools on campus to play Rocket League, Valorant, Overwatch and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Locally, Central Cambria, Forest Hills and Westmont Hilltop high schools sent teams to compete against peers from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Altoona, Scranton, Lancaster and beyond.

Although the Division 2 and Division 3 championships were decided Saturday with winners from outside the area, Forest Hills’ Rocket League team made it to the final round against Biglerville High School.

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The matchup was a rematch of last year’s semifinal round, which Forest Hills lost.

Rangers esports coach Ben Grove said history unfortunately repeated itself Sunday.

Grove’s team lost to to their rivals in a 4-2 final, and Biglerville successfully defended its state title in the game.

“Still a good outing,” Grove said.

The matches were close with the final two going into overtime.,

Grove said it was a rough loss but a hard-fought battle for his students.

“This is the furthest we’ve ever made it,” he added. “It’s a big moment for our club and our school.”

Two of Grove’s top players – senior Jadon Staines and freshman Blake Shilcosky – competed against the visiting team.

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Staines’ high school career ended after the finals, but Grove said he was excited for Shilcosky to step up in the fall and become captain of the team.

Shilcosky said he started playing Rocket League during the COVID-19 pandemic and never expected to get to the state finals as a freshman.

He admitted he was somewhat nervous but ready to play.

“I don’t really get psyched out over stuff like this,” Shilcosky said. “I just go with the flow.”

He also was settled by the support of his family, who were in the viewing area watching his games.

Shilcosky’s parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends showed up to cheer him on.

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“Super-proud of all the hard work,” the player’s father, Derek Shilcosky, said.

Luke Williams,an esportscaster who broadcasts as Llama77, said the competition on display was awesome.

He said there were a lot of talented players facing off in the contest and commentating on it has “been a lot of fun.”

The matches were played at the Mountie Esports Arena on the ground floor of Cosgrave, with a viewing area in one of the conference rooms and all-star players facing off in Super Smash Bros. in the cafeteria.

Between games, students played rounds of ping-pong, ate, chatted, took tours of campus and watched others compete.

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Steffy said hosting the two-day event was a special moment for everyone involved and a great showing for esports throughout the region.

Division 1 winners were Biglerville for Rocket League; Lower Moreland High School for Valorant; and South Fayette High School for Overwatch.

Division 2 champions were Elizabethtown Area High School for Overwatch; Bayard Rustin High School for Valorant; and Pine Grove High School for Rocket League.

Division 3 winners were Montgomery Area High School for Rocket League; Wyoming Valley West High School for Valorant; and Pine Grove Area High School for Overwatch.

Garnet Valley High School was the Super Smash Bros. team winner for Division 2. The Division 3 champion for the game was Mountain View High School.

The Division 1 winner for Super Smash Bros. teams was Nazareth Area High School, with players from Penns Manor and Holy Ghost high schools taking the Super Smash Bros. individual titles.

How do brands “show up” in meaningful ways in the lives of Gen Z consumers? Get yourself to gaming platforms.

That’s the key focus of a burgeoning unit within advertising giant Havas that aims to take audience targeting to new levels by tapping into gaming communities and social networks built around fandom and esports.

Angelique Hernandez, VP and portfolio lead for Havas Play, and Jarell Thompson, VP of gaming for Havas Play, explained in detail how their teams hunt for good opportunities to connect brands with gamer culture. This episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast is a good warmup for the Cannes Lions festival, set to unfold June 16-20 in Cannes, France. That event is all about the connection of brands, marketers, advertisers and — increasingly — the influencers and social media creators who can reach elusive young consumers. Variety will be there in force.

Listen to the full podcast:

Hernandez said that in the world of online gaming communities, creators have options now, and that’s another telling sign about the evolution of the marketplace.

“They don’t necessarily have to have a brand partnership, right? They can make money on their own. There are all these platforms now that allow them to do that,” Hernandez said in a conversation held as part of the annual Variety Entertainment Marketing Summit in April. “You also have companies, whether they’re brands or even social platforms, that turn to them because now, not only are they experts in what their audience likes to see and hear and talk about, they’re also experts on the platform themselves, like creators know how to use TikTok and Instagram.”

Of course, where digital advertising is concerned, brand safety is always a concern. Thompson detailed the filters and process that Havas Play employs to find the best matches and avoid the landmines of something going viral for the wrong reasons.

“We have a really in-depth process where we vet creators. We have a lot of systems in place where we like do a lot of digging. We make sure that we’re connecting the right brands to the right creators, and we’re doing our due diligence to ensure that like their brand, safe, or if they’re relevant for the brand,” Thompson said. “Because honestly, some brands might make sense for certain creators who may be a little bit edgy, might be a little bit risque, but for some like the financial brands that we work with, we need to make sure that we honestly match with everyone who is the most brand safe and makes sense for the right audience.”

In a separate conversation, Shab Azma, CEO of founder of talent management firm ARC Collective, offered the perspective of creators and expert influencers who are being heavily courted for brand partnerships. What social media platforms offer is unfettered ownership and control of the content, and that’s very appealing.

“We really are focused a lot right now on ownership. There’s a time and a place for traditional television, but that is breaking,” Azma said. “It’s gridlocked, and digital natives are creating content that is just as well produced as what as we’ve seen on television. They can take bigger swings.”

Azma continued, “That’s why not every influencer is really looking to be in traditional entertainment — because they understand the power that they hold within their creator community. For us, we’re really nurturing that in many ways. We really have found that there’s a flywheel and our talent becomes the nucleus for doing podcasts, live streaming, events, publishing, consumer products — all the things that they get to retain ownership in.”

“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.

(Pictured: Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton and Havas Play’s Angelique Hernandez and Jarell Thompson)