Career Tribute

Career Tributes, called Careers, are tributes from the wealthy districts who have trained for the Hunger Games since childhood at academies their districts run quietly against Capitol rules. In The Hunger Games they come from Districts 1, 2, and 4, where volunteering is treated as an honor and reapings can run for hours because so many step forward. Most wait until they are eighteen so as to train as long as possible, though younger ones do volunteer. Years of instruction leave them well fed, muscular, and practiced with weapons most tributes have never held, which earns them high training scores and the sponsors that follow. On the first day of training they form an alliance, the Career pack, and claim the supplies at the Cornucopia. Their advantages carry costs: they are unused to hunger, thin on survival skills outside combat, and dependent on the stockpile they hold.