Re: Can a miner please process my transaction, reward will be given
Something seems to have work, or maybe the block has been picked up, i reget that i put 0.10$ transaction fee for a 44$ transaction.
Looks like AntPool picked it up... whether or not this was because of the "acceleration" or the mempool just emptied out and they just happened to be the ones who mined the block your transaction was in we'll never know. 
as for the increases in transaction numbers... maybe its sports betting on the World Cup?
AntPool's been still picking up a handful of <1 satoshi/byte txs I've pushed through this year, one in June, so yeah I think they still work. That tx would have definitely gone through in a day I'm sure., especially when all of my 1 sat/byte txs have been working out quickly enough (under 12 hours) for months, but I suppose even 2 hours of no blocks would be enough to create that backlog. Blocks have generally been full.
World Cup cashing out from South Koreans who bet against Germany? Who knows?
