Career Tribute



A Career Tribute, commonly known simply as a Career, is a tribute who train throughout their lives to compete in the Hunger Games and then volunteers to participate. Typically, Careers come from the wealthier districts, 1, 2, and 4, where being a tribute is seen as a great honor. The Careers in the 74th Hunger Games are led by Cato. In the 75th Hunger Games, there is no known leader of the Careers (Brutus, Enobaria, Gloss, and Cashmere).

Career Tributes
Career Tributes tend to be the strongest, most agile players in the Hunger Games, having been prepared and trained since birth. Even though training tributes before the Games begin is technically illegal, the Career districts generally get away with this because of their wealth and closer ties to the Capitol. The willingness to kill their opponents before the Games even start, cultivated from years of preparation and the support of their families and fellow district citizens, also gives Careers a tremendous mental and psychological advantage over other tributes.

These tributes volunteer to participate in the Games, causing much more commotion during the Reaping than necessary. In the other districts and especially in the poorer ones such as 11 and 12, becoming a volunteer tribute is viewed as sheer suicide. But in Career districts, volunteering is very common. Everyone wants to win the Games, even if it means volunteering. In wealthy districts, victors are regarded as heroes and amass great fame after winning the Games. In the movie, the Careers are very "chatty". Glimmer and Clove run around mocking tributes they are going to kill or have killed. This is in contrast to the novels, where the Career Tributes are generally more stealthy and menacing.

Prior to the start of each Hunger Games, Careers generally begin to form an alliance among themselves which will cooperate when the Games get underway to secure weapons and supplies and take out common opponents. This generally gives the Careers an edge during the bloodbath as they already have a strategy in place to carry out and do not need to worry about being killed by each other. However once all the other tributes are out of the way, they turn on each other.

In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss killed the Career Tribute Glimmer, who was killed when Katniss dropped the nest of Tracker Jackers on the Career alliance, and Marvel who was shot in the neck (heart in the movie) by her arrow. Cato was also technically killed by Katniss with an arrow to the head to put him out of his misery when being mauled by wolf-like muttations, and Clove was killed by Thresh when she was about to kill Katniss, Thresh doing so to avenge Rue's death.

Despite their edge in preparation for the Games, Careers have some severe disadvantages. Being well fed their entire lives, they are not as used to going hungry as tributes who have spent their lives in poverty and are very reliant on securing the supplies from the Cornucopia. Another disadvantage to them from being well fed their entire lives is their presumed heavier weight, making it difficult to climb trees or chase a particularly light and speedy person. They usually are very arrogant and tend to underestimate their opponents, therefore they may not think before acting.

Career Districts
District 1, District 2, and District 4 tend to be the Career districts, although other tributes are allowed to join if they show exceptional skill. These districts are richer and have more supplies than other districts, giving a huge advantage to their tributes and allowing them to prepare and train. Katniss once pointed out a common weakness of the Careers: the Careers couldn't handle lack of food, which is understandable since they've been properly fed all their lives.

These districts normally have an elaborate way of choosing volunteers, as they have no lack of them.

In the film adaption, District 4 is not a a Career district, so the only Careers are Glimmer, Marvel, Clove, Cato, District 3 male and Peeta.

74th Hunger Games Career Pack


In the 74th Hunger Games, the Career Pack consisted of seven members. The female tribute from District 4, the boy from District 3, Cato, Clove, Marvel, Glimmer, Peeta except for the male tribute from District 4 had died at the Cornucopia. The group teamed up with Peeta to find Katniss. The pack didn't fare too well, however, as the boy from District 4 died in the bloodbath on the first day. Not long after, Glimmer and the District 4 girl were killed by tracker jacker stings, the result of a tracker jacker nest dropped on them by Katniss. As Katniss went to retrieve Glimmer's bow, Cato saw Peeta aid Katniss in escape. This led Cato to cut a severe wound in Peeta's leg and abandon him, lowering the pack's number to four. The group included the boy from District 3 because he could reactivate the land mines.

When Katniss blew up the Careers supplies, Cato killed the boy from District 3 out of anger. Shortly after, Marvel spears Rue, and Katniss kills him in vengeance by shooting an arrow into his neck. At the feast, Thresh bashes Clove's head in with a rock (hits her head on the wall of the Cornucopia in the movie); Cato is the lone Career, left in a flurry of bloodlust. He makes it to the final three until Katniss kills him out of mercy while he is being torn apart by muttations.

75th Hunger Games Career pack
In the 75th Hunger Games, or the third Quarter Quell, the Career Pack originated with Enobaria and Brutus from District 2, and Gloss and Cashmere from District 1. There were no careers from District 4 (which is usually a part of the career pack), as Finnick and Mags teamed up with Katniss and Peeta. Once Cashmere and Gloss were killed by Katniss and Johanna, Brutus and Enobaria hid until the end. Then, Peeta killed Brutus after watching him kill Chaff, and Enobaria was taken by the Capitol.

Known Careers

 * Cato; Leader of the 74th Hunger Games Career Pack (killed by Katniss using her final arrow out of mercy during The 74th Hunger Games.)
 * Clove (killed by Thresh at The Feast in The 74th Hunger Games)
 * Marvel (killed by Katniss after he threw a spear into Rue,who died several minutes later. in The 74th Hunger Games)
 * Glimmer (killed by Tracker Jackers, thrown by Katniss in The 74th Hunger Games)
 * Cashmere (killed by Johanna after her brother, Gloss, killed Wiress in The 75th Hunger Games)
 * Gloss (killed by Katniss after he slit Wiress's throat in The 75th Hunger Games)
 * Brutus (killed by Peeta after Brutus killed Chaff in The 75th Hunger Games)
 * Enobaria (captured by Capitol after The 75th Hunger Games, yet still living)
 * District 3 Male (74th HG) (killed by Cato. He was not from the Career District but This tribute earns his place in the Career Pack by reactivating the mines around the Cornucopia.)
 * District 4 female (74th HG) (killed by tracker jackers, thrown by Katniss in The 74th Hunger Games. In the film, she wasn't a part of the Careers and was killed by Cato.)
 * District 1 Female (50th HG) (killed by her own axe when Haymitch ducked and the axe ricocheted off the forcefield and buried itself in her head)
 * Finnick Odair (killed by lizard mutts in the Battle of the Capitol)
 * Annie Cresta (living)
 * Mags (died in the 75th Hunger Games when she sacrificed herself by walking into poisonous fumes so Katniss's group could continue)
 * District 4 male (74th HG) (killed in the initial bloodbath; in the film he wasn't a part of the Careers and was killed by Cato.)
 * Lyme (killed in battle after Katniss was shot)