34th Hunger Games

Winner: Alexandrite District 1

The 34th Hunger Games was a typical Career dominated games but it had a twist as every single tribute would rely on sponsors heavily in this Games. Following the disappearance of the Head Gamemaker last year, a new one had to be found and quickly. As the 34th Hunger Games grew closer and closer, the Capitol became desperate and had no choice but to accept a woman as Head Gamemaker, something that had never been done before. The Capitol didn't believe in putting women in important positions of government, so this woman Juillet Marcial, better do a good job.

All in all, she did please some people as she pulled on the heartstrings of the Capitol but unfortunately she didn't please the people that mattered as the 34th Hunger Games was too different.

When the stylists and mentors received their tributes, it had been hinted to them that sponsors would be especially important to the tributes this year so all the stops had to be pulled out to make every tribute look appealing as possible. For once, every tribute did look excellent which was a first as usually at least one pair of tributes had an odd costume on. The mentors also tried particularly hard this year as normally, many wouldnt try in the hope they wouldnt get attatched.

So as a result of all this plus the training they did, certain tributes were shining, one of these was Alexandrite from District 1. He was everything a sponsor wanted to see: handsome, confident and strong. It was no surprise to anyone that he, along with the other Career tributes were getting more than their fair share of attention. It was nothing out of the ordinary but many of the other tributes felt angered by this which would lead up to some exciting action next year.

But what was all the fuss over sponsors about? Both the tributes and the Capitol viewers had realised something was different, maybe even wrong. The mentors and stylists knew a little more as they knew the tributes would need supplies of some sort but no one actually knew what the arena was and the Gamemakers were determined that it would not be revealed until the very last moment so the tributes clothing offered no hints to the stylists.

As a result of this, there was great anticipation to see this mysterious arena that would surely make this the most exciting Games so far…
An island.
A big desert island.

To be honest, the Capitol felt like the Gamemakers had let them down, to only produce an island after so much suspense. The tributes had everything they needed on the island already, they didn't need the sponsors help with anything.

And so the Games started and the slightly disgruntled Capitol soon forgot their anger in the excitement of the bloodbath. As usual the Careers led the way with Alexandrite using his sword to chop and hack at the tributes that had stayed behind in an attempt to fight. But the Careers were confident after receiving so much attention from the Capitol and were therefore unstoppable. After a while the smarter tributes fled the oncoming attack, whether they were good fighters or not.

So far it was turning out to be a pretty ordinary Games and for the first few days that was what the Gamemakers wanted people to think. Although no one realised it yet, the sponsors were still going to be as crucial as the Gamemakers made them out to be earlier; they were just giving the Capitol time to pick their favourites. Of course, the Careers were the most popular as they'd proved to be effective killers and Alexandrite was leading the way with this with his sword and shield. But there were some other tributes that caught the Capitols eyes as well. The two from District 3 had joined up together and looked like they could stay in it for a while as long as they weren't found. The girl from District 6 was also quite popular as she stole food and water from other tributes and then slit their throats for good measure meaning that she would be able to kill when the fights started breaking out. The Capitol were looking for tributes who could kill and survive. The Careers were notorious for being rubbish at surviving if the arena chose to fight back but as long as they stuck together, they would go unchallenged.

But then came the mist.

This was the Gamemakers master plan. The tropical island looked lovely and it had all the resources the tributes wanted but what if they couldn't see?

The Gamemakers wanted the tributes to use their other senses to see how smart they really were. But they knew that some would find this difficult and they didn't want the Games to come to a standstill which is why they put so much emphasis on the sponsors. So there were no mutts, no natural disasters and no food shortages. Just mist.

As soon as the mist appeared, sponsors began queuing up to send the tributes torches. But there was a problem. The torches were extremely expensive so only five tributes would be able to receive one. The sponsors would have to work together to try and figure something out.

Meanwhile, in the arena, the tributes were unsure of what to do about the mist. It was so thick they could barely see their own hands never mind anybody else. Most tributes decided to sit it out and see if it went away. After all, the mist offered an excellent hiding strategy to which many tributes could use to their advantage. In addition to this, the stronger tributes had had to give up hunting the others down for now so overall the mist was actually welcomed by many tributes…until the torches arrived.

The sponsors had decided to send two torches to the Careers, one to the District 3 tributes, one to the girl from District 6 and one to the boy from District 10 who was the next best fighter after the Careers. The Gamemakers hoped that these would be the remaining tributes in the end and therefore the rest of the tributes would be taken out of the competition. But this plan all went a bit pear-shaped as soon as the Careers got their torches.

The torches were the only lifeline to the tributes and they were made in such a way that only the holder could see the light. This meant that the other four Careers would have to follow the two District 1 tributes (the ones who'd grabbed the torches first), blindly into the night and they weren't very happy about this. Squabbles broke out and eventually the boy from District 2 snapped and shoved his sword into the girl from District 1's arm. A bloody battle ensued but Alexandrite ran away with his torch and decided he would rather be alone than with the surviving Careers. Luckily for him, three were only two surviving Careers in the District 2 tributes but their wounds were so severe that neither of them made it through the night due to blood loss.

Alexandrite was now the strongest tribute in the arena so he sought out the next strongest which was the boy from District 10. As they both had a torch it didn't take long for them to find each other and as the boy from District 10 was pretty confident, he didn't run but instead swung his axe towards Alexandrite. Alexandrite dodged it and they began to swing their weapons at each other, each doing damage but neither of them landing the direct hit. The boy from District 10 was stronger but Alexandrite was much quicker and eventually managed to land a direct hit in the heart, instantly killing his biggest opponent

After that it was simple. The tributes without torches were like sitting ducks, unable to offer any defence against something they couldn't even see. The ones with torches had taken to hiding but when Alexandrite did find them, they were useless with the few weapons they had so Alexandrite easily became the victor.

The Gamemakers were pleased but the Capitol officials weren't. The Games had been too dependant on the sponsors and no one without a torch had really stood a chance. The Head Gamemaker, Juillet Marcial promptly resigned and was never spoken of again. This was also a bad Hunger Games for the tributes who weren't Careers as they had seen first hand how the Capitol put the Careers first every single time. They would need to do something about this.