21st Hunger Games
Winner: Hydro District 5
As the Hunger Games still hadn't been going for that long, the Gamemakers could still get things wrong when trying to make the Games more exciting for the Capitol. Sometimes they killed too many tributes at once and sometimes the deaths of the tributes weren't gory or exciting, leaving the Capitol feeling bored. The 21st Hunger Games was one of those Games where the Gamemakers messed it up. This was good news for the victor though because this year's arena played to his strengths.
After District 4's win last year, it was no surprise to anyone when the Career Districts joined together in an alliance as soon as they met after the reaping. This left the other tributes to try and find someone to partner up with, unless they didn't want and ally. The District 5 boy tribute, Hydro, desperately wanted an ally because he was awful with weapons. He was 15 and extremely weak and skinny for his age, even though he was reasonably well fed, being an only child. Back at home, he was very shy and didn't really have any friends. The girl tribute from District 5 had ignored him and most of the other tributes did as well. Some were friendly but none wanted him as an ally in the arena. Hydro didn't blame them, the only weapon he was any good with was the bow and arrow and even then he'd only scored a 5 in the Gamemaker evaluation. Hopes weren't high for Hydro as he wasn't very good at the survival stations either so if he wasn't killed by another tribute, he would probably die of thirst or hunger or would be poisoned by unknown food growing in the arena. No one expected him to survive for more than a few days.
The arena this year was an endless forest where it was constantly snowing. Good news in that there'd be lots of food and water. Bad news in that half the tributes would freeze to death. Before the Games had even started, the snow already reached above the tributes ankles. When the gong went off, it took a while for the bloodbath to start because the tributes had to trek through the snow to get to the weapons. There were barely any swords and knives but there were a lot of bows and arrows as with this amount of snow, the tributes wouldn't be moving very fast so there wouldn't be much hand to hand combat. Hydro didn't bother to try and get to the Cornucopia. Instead he digged around in the snow near his podium, found some food supplies and a bundle of wood and set off into the forest.
Once the bloodbath was over, the tributes began to realise that they would desperately need to keep warm as it was nearing night and it was still snowing. The Gamemakers had wanted it to be cold and maybe kill a few tributes off but they had made it too cold and now there was a real danger of all the tributes dying in one night. Fortunately for the Gamemakers around half the tributes that were left survived the night because they could all light fires. The Career tributes, who would normally go hunt the other tributes, were too busy trying to light a fire to go out hunting so the other tributes were safe to light their fires…if they could get it going. There had been lots of wood in the Cornucopia so nearly all the tributes had the means to light a fire but a lot of them didn't know how which is why many died that night. The Career tributes got a fire going but it was so small that they all began to argue about who should stand around it and they ended up fighting and the two District 2 tributes were both killed. This was bad for the other Career tributes as District 2 were the only ones in the alliance that had actually got the fire going.
Meanwhile Hydro was doing well. He had got a huge fire going easily and it showed no signs of dying out. Being from District 5, he had experience with creating heat and as the girl from District 5 had died in the bloodbath, Hydro was now one of the favourites to win.
Over the next few days, the snow got heavier and heavier and tributes dropped like flies. The problem was that even if they could get a fire going, it would either be too small and get put out by the snow or another tribute would try to steal it. The remains of the Career tributes died within two days as they just couldn't light a fire and the ones they tried to steal weren't strong enough. Hydro had a roaring fire but no one came to steal it because as he was able to light fires easily, Hydro just put it out every time another tribute came past. He was now the only tributes that wasn't on the verge of freezing to death.
The Capitol was really disappointed with these Games. There had barely been any fighting and the fighting that had occurred was over fires! The Gamemakers hadn't thought the arena through at all but they couldn't change it once it had been revealed to the tributes. If the tributes had been given better clothing perhaps, then it might've lasted longer but they had been given the same tribute uniform that they always used. So to make the Games a bit more exciting if an arena like this was ever created again, the clothes that the tributes wore became different every year to accommodate to the arena whether it was a desert or a snow storm.
This new clothing was a good idea but it wouldn't help the tributes that were out there at the moment. It was only six days into the Games and there were now only two tributes left, one of which was Hydro. Hydro was reasonably warm as he had his fire but the other remaining tribute, the boy tribute from District 7, had been stealing other peoples fires. As Hydro kept putting out his fire, the boy from District 7 was unable to find any warmth and died. Hydro was the victor but barely got any recognition for it.
The Capitol was much more interested in the sacking of the Head Gamemaker and the appointment of a new one. The new Head Gamemaker would avoid freezing temperatures for now but like every other Head Gamemaker to come, he would eventually try it in the hope that he could do a better job. No Head Gamemaker ever made a snowy arena hugely successful even though there were many attempts.